Spanish intelligence probe ‘financial attacks’

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By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Spain’s primary intelligence agency is actively probing alleged links between speculative moves in world financial markets and a series of editorials in “the Anglo-Saxon media”, which Madrid says have sought to undermine market confidence in Spain’s economy. Spanish newspaper El Pais says the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) has been asked by Spain’s government to investigate whether “there is something more behind the campaign” to destabilize the Spanish economy, which, if successful, would add tremendously to the financial challenges currently facing the Eurozone. The El Pais article hints at suspicions among many in the European Union that countries not currently participating in the Euro common currency zone may be trying to subvert the Euro through a series of well-timed media reports questioning the financial stability of the European Union. While some of these rumors are admittedly far-fetched, the links between intelligence agencies and the journalistic profession are real and centuries-old. However, The Economist magazine, which some government officials in Spain, Greece, Portugal and elsewhere, have directly accused of trying to undermine market confidence in the Eurozone, dismissed the El Pais report as “piffle”, and urged the Spanish government to “grow up”. So far, the CNI and the Spanish government have refused to either confirm or deny the El Pais allegations.