The Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs filed weeks ago the case of the two agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) who were bribed by United States spies to leak secret information. And, according to government sources in La Vanguardia, bilateral relations between Spain and the United States "are not resented" by this "unfortunate" event, which is being investigated by the judiciary, after the CNI itself presented the complaint.
Although the scandal came to light this week, after it was made public that two Spanish spies had been arrested, the Government already showed its displeasure to the Joe Biden Administration in Madrid a couple of months ago . It was in September, when both the head of Defense, Margarita Robles, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, addressed the issue with the ambassador of the United States, Julissa Reynoso. Sources close to the meeting assure that the ambassador, after showing surprise at the complaint, showed her maximum collaboration.
It was not communicated what had happened until the CNI concluded its internal investigation, which dates back to the beginning of last summer. Security checks at the House – as the CNI headquarters are known – detected that an agent had accessed confidential information that, due to his duties at the centre, he was not supposed to know. This is where the alarms went off. Internal investigators managed to trace how this agent – who is in provisional prison – had been captured by spies in the United States to provide them with information in exchange for juicy financial sums.
The investigation, carried out by a court of inquiry in Plaça de Castilla de Madrid, which continues under summary secrecy, is now hastening to find traces of the alleged payments received by the captured agents.
The two meetings with Defense and Foreign Affairs were carried out with the utmost discretion by both parties. As El País published yesterday, in these meetings, Albares and Robles agreed with Reynoso that they would expel the two spies from the United States who had participated in the recruitment. Washington withdrew them urgently, to try to conclude the issue, which no one wanted to become a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Spanish intelligence sources explain that the indications known so far lead to think that the agents of the United States were moving outside the Administration, "doing murky business". And they went to capture two agents who were stunned by the amount offered. "They were too ready", 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 Defence, during a visit yesterday to the Guadarrama XII brigade, at the El Goloso military base (Madrid), verbalized in front of the cameras what sources from her ministry had previously communicated. "In no case", answered Robles when he was asked if relations with the United States had been resented by this matter. "When there are issues that can affect, they are discussed and dealt with", remarked the Minister of Defense, who described the commitment to the American country as "firm": "We are serious, allied and committed countries", she affirm
