The Swedish connection to the story is significant because
though Sweden never joined NATO, it nevertheless played a special role during
the Cold War and the US has long been involved with its defense and
intelligence Establishment. There are still many unanswered questions from the
period including plausible suggestions of CIA involvement in the assassination
of Prime Minister Olof Palme. Only the most credulous accepted the recent
findings of the Swedish government regarding the 1986 assassination.
Sweden's refusal to join NATO and its insistence on official
neutrality even while its culture, economics and political order were oriented
to the West actually afforded it a unique place and role during the Cold War.
It was a de facto US ally and yet could maintain official plausible
deniability. This meant that the relationship was kept secret, highly secret
even within the Swedish military and corridors of power. As a result Sweden
became a place of intrigue, secrets, espionage projects, underground science
and the like. The US aided the Swedish Air Force, parked nuclear subs along its
coast and the Swedes helped Washington develop missile technology, spy on the
USSR and engage in clandestine missions. Even after the Cold War, Sweden
remains (unofficially) a top US ally in terms of cyber-espionage, really on the
level of the Five Eyes nations of the Anglo-American sphere (almost a case of
Five Eyes +1). It has continued to assist the United States with data
collection, spying operations directed against Russia and the larger Baltic
region.
And even today there are intrigues in the region over
submarines connected to pipelines and communications wires. The angst is also
amplified by Cold War stories about Russian submarines in the region – some of
which turned out to be little more than Western sponsored false flag operations
and cases of media propaganda. It's hard to know what is really happening
because no one in the media or the government actually tells the whole truth. In
addition to pipelines, there are key Internet communications cables that run
through Sweden, something Russia would like to change. The cat-and-mouse
intrigues are real but they're also hyped by Western media.
The extensive cooperation in the realm of intelligence has
long been rumoured but its extent was made public in the aftermath of the
Snowden leaks in 2013. Sweden's connection to Crypto AG is just part of this
larger puzzle – a scenario that also reveals just how shabbily Washington
treats its allies, especially the United Kingdom which is often kept out of the
loop when it comes to Sweden. The UK rests heavily on the Special Relationship,
all the more in light of Brexit but it's clear Washington treats its former
colonial master as an underling to be used and manipulated – a piece of the
puzzle but not a true partner that is excluded when it's convenient.
Sweden's official neutrality means that everything the US
does there is secret which in some respects is convenient and since so few know
the details – a lot has been kept quiet over the years. NATO has its secrets
too but given the size and political diversity within the organisation, there
have always been limits on what it could hope to be kept quiet – though the Gladio
revelations (one of the greatest secrets and suppressed scandals of the Cold
War) certainly challenges this notion.
The scandal surrounding Crypto AG is one rooted in America –
in the intelligence agencies of the United States to be specific. However, the
Europeans are limited in what they can accomplish by pursuing those avenues and
demanding accountability. Instead what we're seeing here is a clash between two
ostensibly neutral countries. Sweden's neutrality as discussed is something of
a sham. Switzerland may be politically neutral but given its balance sheet and
position within the larger global financial community– neutrality is also
something of a myth. Switzerland is often used as a platform or staging area
for operations. As a neutral country, this has been its role. Famous above all
for its banks, it's also a prime venue for grand diplomatic summits and for
back-alley intrigues – a place where people can meet under other plausible
auspices. And thus Switzerland is also a place that government sponsored front
companies can set up shop in order to put some distance between themselves and
the country (or countries) they represent. So it was with Crypto AG.
Washington has long played its Europeans satellites against
one another and in this case there's irritation in the face of scandal and an
attempt to shift blame and seek the revenge some wish they could extract from
Washington – but they know will never happen.
The BND is Germany's official intelligence agency but it has
always been manipulated and sometimes outright controlled by Washington. Its
genesis is found in the notorious Gehlen Organisation – itself a creation of the
CIA and the ex-Nazis it employed. And even with all the exposed illegality, and
the recent scandals over US spying on Angela Merkel's phone, the German
government has been unable to wrest control of the organisation away from the
United States. This does not mean Washington controls all of German politics.
There's actual resistance at points to US policy and Berlin like many other
nations plays a double game. It bows to its overlord even while it schemes on
the side. But the BND is a central element of the German Deep State and
Washington retains a pretty forceful grip upon it. The BND has played a
critical role in the post-Cold War milieu as the US has pursued its policies in
the Balkans and over the past decade – its larger agenda in the Middle East.
The German public was hostile to Bush's Iraq policy but despite this the US
continues to exhibit great control over critical sections within the BND and
frequently uses it as a mediating operative within the larger sphere of
European clandestine and intelligence operations.*
US control is never absolute – neither was Moscow's during
the Soviet period. There are procedures to be followed, games that must be
played and there are always factions, angling, dissidents and bureaucratic
resistance. The Soviets dealt with dissent as do the Americans. It has been the
case with all empires.
And so Washington suffers its setbacks. Crusading
prosecutors, reformers, law enforcement, and politicians will throw a spanner
in the works. In other cases it's simply a clash of bureaucracies. Someone is
doing their job and they uncover something. Sometimes their investigation gets
quashed, other times it's allowed to proceed and can generate a scandal or
crisis. The problem with many conspiracists is that their understanding of the
world is far too simplistic and they see things in stark monolithic terms and
tend to think absolutely everything is controlled (even micromanaged) by one
group – which is not the case. Just because there are complexities and a lack
of absolute control doesn't mean that America has no empire, the Deep State is
a false concept, or that there are no conspiracies – the line of the mainstream
media. That notion is also mistaken. The Crypto AG story alone demonstrates
that there are. But again, the nature of how the system works is complicated,
ever-shifting, and the notion that everything is centrally governed by a small
cabal is just inaccurate. The real world is far more complex, interesting and yet
every bit as a sinister.
As far as Swiss denials regarding Bern's knowledge of what
Crypto AG really was – what do you expect? This is the stuff of the Deep State
and with it there's always corruption and potential for prosecution and ruin.
Of course the Swiss government knew about it – or rather elements within the
government knew about it. It's the same as the situation with Sweden. Both
states are officially neutral and thus whether tacitly approved or not, the
operations were illegal and if the political winds are right – people can be called
to account. This is all the more true ten, twenty or thirty years after the
fact. The powerful people who could have served as protectors are dead,
retired, or no longer influential. We've seen this sort of thing many times
before. Old secrets are dug up and people once protected are suddenly in
jeopardy. This may be the case with Crypto AG and Switzerland or after a bit of
buzz – some faction of the Praetorians (whether Swiss, American or both) will
step in and put an end to the investigation. It's too early to tell.
There is a certain rage that appears at times within the
European order – a rage directed at the Americans and the way they have treated
their allies. Europe also has its pride and it's galling to them that the American
upstarts dominate their old and proud civilisations. And yet the more pragmatic
among them realise that it must be so for the present. The Trump era has
definitely widened some of the already existing cracks in the wall. Germany has
grown powerful enough that it is able to assert some autonomy and France even more
so but at the same time the post-war order built by the Atlanticists is not
easily dispensed with or disentangled. The American ruling class has moved on
from this story but in Europe the memories are longer and while the present
dispute is between Switzerland and Sweden – the real malignant shadow in the
background is US imperialism.
----
*The 2014 film adaptation of Le Carre's A Most Wanted Man provides a decent and helpful portrayal of how
this BND-CIA relationship works in practice.
See also:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/01/19/the-swedish-kings-of-cyberwar/
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2017/06/bnd-spying-on-america-missing-point.html
https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-most-wanted-man-myth-of-principled.html
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2016/12/real-world-elements-in-jason-bourne-2016.html
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