CIA ‘Meddling’ Sparks (mini) Firestorm In Argentina

Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana, a man who seems congenitally incapable of smiling, was not happy Thursday. The reason: Obama’s new CIA director, Leon Panetta, gave a press conference Wednesday in which he talked about the agency’s first Economic Intelligence Briefing.

In an article about the presser, the Washington Post reported, among other things, that:

“The addition of economic news to the daily roundup of terrorist attacks and surveillance reports appears to reflect a growing belief among intelligence officials that the economic meltdown is now preeminent among security threats facing the United States.”

The Post then offered this paragraph, attributing it to Panetta:

“The spy agency is following worrisome trends in many corners of the globe, from East Asia to Latin America. In private meetings yesterday, Latin American intelligence officials warned their U.S. counterparts of a crisis spreading throughout the hemisphere, particularly in Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela….”

Local media picked up on all this early Thursday, meaning it was only a matter of time before the government – ever sensitive about perceived Washington snubs – offered a reply. My first thought was, “Oh, the poor U.S. ambassador. The foreign minister is going to drag him in again and make him give an explanation of what has happened. Then they’ll take a photo of the ambassador and the foreign minister, with the obligatory stern look on his face, and send it to the media so it will appear that the ambassador got the appropriate scolding.”

This is exactly what’s going to happen. Taiana said Argentine President Cristina Fernández had instructed him to “convoke” the U.S. ambassador to Taiana’s office Friday to offer an explanation for Panetta’s “irresponsible meddling” in Argentine affairs.

Argentina certainly has every right to be upset with the Central Intelligence Agency. After all, the agency has compiled an awful history of deceitful, destructive, misguided, unethical, costly and often deadly intervention not just in Argentina but throughout Latin American and the world. (A brilliant history of the agency and its undertakings can be found here.)

Meanwhile, the Argentine government has every right and reason to want to stifle any idea that the country is unstable. Such an idea could spook investors and possibly even tourists.

That said, it’s highly unlikely that Panetta’s comments about Argentina, which weren’t reproduced verbatim in the Post article, would alter anybody’s opinion about investing in or visiting Argentina. More likely, the government’s protest is aimed at its domestic audience – an attempt to show Argentines that the government is nobody’s stooge.

Whatever the case, U.S. Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne told television reporters late Thursday that the Post report was “incorrect.” 

“Mr. Panetta was talking about the opinion of a foreigner who had visited him in Washington. The intention was not to show any concern in the U.S. government about the economies of other countries.”

If the CIA has learned anything from its own history, however, it should be concerned about economies in other countries, even if Wayne can’t admit this publicly. But given the interconnected nature of global commerce, there’s no reason for anyone not to be concerned about the economy – here, there or anywhere. After all, we’re now all dependent on each other.

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