Weeks ago, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs closed the case of the two agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) who were bribed by American spies to leak secret information. And, according to government sources telling La Vanguardia, bilateral relations between Spain and the United States “are not resentful” due to this “unfortunate” event, which is being investigated by the justice system after the CNI itself filed the complaint.
Although the scandal has come to light this week, after it became known that two Spanish spies had been detained, the Government already showed – a couple of months ago – its discomfort to the Joe Biden Administration in Madrid. It was in September when both the head of Defense, Margarita Robles, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, addressed the matter with the US ambassador in Madrid, Julissa Reynoso. Sources close to the meeting assure that the ambassador, after appearing surprised by the complaint, showed her maximum collaboration.
What happened was not reported until the CNI concluded its internal investigation, which dates back to the beginning of the summer. The security controls of the House – as the CNI headquarters is known – detected that an agent had accessed confidential information that, due to his work at the center, he should not have known. That’s where all the alarms went off. Internal investigators managed to trace how this agent – ??who remains in provisional prison – had been captured by American spies to provide them with information in exchange for succulent financial amounts.
The investigation in an investigative court in Plaza de Castilla (Madrid), which continues under summary secrecy, is now striving to find traces of the alleged payments received by the captured agents.
Both Defense and Foreign meetings were carried out with the utmost secrecy by both parties. According to what El País published yesterday, in these meetings Albares and Robles agreed with Reynoso to expel two American spies who had participated in the capture. Washington urgently withdrew them, to try to settle the matter that did not want to become a diplomatic crisis between both countries.
Intelligence sources explain that the currently known indications lead to thinking that the US agents were moving outside the administration, “doing shady deals.” And they went to capture two agents who were dazed by the amount offered. “They were too smart,” they criticize. Another factor that reinforces this thesis, the same sources insist, is that the exchange of intelligence information between Spain and the United States is permanent.
The head of Defense, during a visit this morning to the Guadarrama XII Brigade at the El Goloso military base (Madrid), has conveyed before cameras what sources from her ministry had previously conveyed. “In no case,” she replied when asked if relations with the United States had been affected by this matter. “When there are issues that could affect them, they are talked about and dealt with,” she stressed, while describing the commitment to the American country as “firm”: “We are serious, allied and committed countries.”