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(Hill) – Sen. Tom Cotton (R-ark.) asked National Intelligence Director Tarsi Gabbard to refrain from sharing intelligence with German national intelligence agencies a few days after Berlin’s Spyarm was labelled as a far-right alternative German (AFD) as a “radical” party.
Cotton demanded that Gabbard direct the US intelligence agency to halt intelligence reports with the Federal Bureau (BFV) to protect the constitution until Germany treated the AFD as a “legitimate opposition party” and a “right-wing extremist organization.”
He also sought Gabbard to reject any potential requests to support AFD surfing and reviewing if the intelligence agency “along with Germany’s demands to investigate the AFD or other opposition parties” during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Instead of trying to undermine the AFD using the tools of an authoritarian state, the next German government can better advise that the AFD continues to gain election status and consider how the German government can address reasonable concerns of its citizens.”
Oka reached into Oduni’s office for comments. Arkansas Republicans asked Gabbard to warn the Senate about what he found in the requested review.
Cotton’s demand comes less than a week after BFV marked AFD, the party that won the second most vote in Germany’s recent election, as the militant entity representing a threat to democracy.
This designation came shortly after a three-year investigation into BFV discovered that AFD violated the “basic principles” of the constitution. Currently, German spy agencies are allowed to increase surveillance and surveillance of political parties.
“The heart of our assessment is the ethnic and ancestor-defined concepts of the people who shape the AFD, devaluing the entire German population and violating human dignity,” the BFV said, adding that “the concept is reflected in the party’s overall anti-immigration and anti-masslim stance.”
The move received a strong pushback from top Trump officials over the weekend.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is now a national security adviser, denounced the spying agency, arguing that development was not equal to “democracy, or tyranny in disguise.”
“Truly extremists aren’t the popular AFD that came in second in the recent election, but rather the fatal open border immigration policy of facilities the AFD opposes,” Rubio said Friday.
Vice President JD Vance, who met with party leader Alice Weidel in February, praised the AFD as “the most representative of Germany’s most popular party, East Germany. Now, bureaucrats are trying to destroy it.”
“The West tore the Berlin Wall together, and it was rebuilt by German facilities, not by the Soviets or Russians,” Vance said on Saturday.
The German Foreign Ministry pushed back Rubio’s statement, claiming that the decision came after “a thorough and independent investigation to protect our constitution and the rule of law.”
“It is an independent court that has the final say. We have learned from history that we need to stop right-wing extremism,” the office added to social media platform X.
