CIA halts spying in Europe

The CIA has curbed spying on friendly governments in Western Europe, in response to the furor over a German caught selling secrets to the United States and Edward Snowden’s revelations of classified information held by the National Security Agency. Current and former U.S. officials say the pause in decades of espionage, which remains partially in effect, was designed to give CIA officers time to examine whether they were being careful enough and to evaluate whether spying on allies is worth running the risk of discovery. Under the stand-down order, case officers in Europe have largely been forbidden from undertaking “unilateral operations” such as meeting with sources they have recruited within allied governments.

[Spying stand-downs are common after an operation is compromised, but] never this long or this deep.

A former CIA official

CIA officers are still allowed to meet with their counterparts in the host country’s intelligence service, conduct joint operations with host country services and conduct operations with the approval of the host government. The spying stand-down comes at an inopportune time, with the U.S. worried about Europeans extremists going to fight in Syria, Europe’s response to Russian aggression and European hostility to American technology companies following revelations the companies turned over data to the NSA. The CIA declined to comment.