MovieChat Forums > Berlin Station (2016) Discussion > Valerie's investigation SPOILERS S1 E3-5

Valerie's investigation SPOILERS S1 E3-5

posted 8 years ago by CobblersAwls
2 replies | jump to latest

Does it seem odd to anybody that Valerie's project out of Berlin Station is to intercede into a German citizen recruiting German girls as jihadi brides who are traveling to Syria from German airports?

Not sure where the U.S. comes in there. Would this not entirely be under the purview of the German government--either the intelligence services or police, or perhaps both working together?

She has called on German cops to detain the girls at a German airport. And now is questioning them in a room on German soil.

Why is this her job? And why are the Germans tolerating it? These are German citizens she's detaining as a CIA person.

I'm a bit baffled by that story line--with regard to logic and jurisdiction.

Unless the writers are just forcing a jihadi bride storyline into the show to get it in there, even though it doesn't make sense that that is what Valerie would be doing.

I know she started off investigating the husband as the former terrorist. But once it went to his wife and it became another thing altogether with the girls (instead of the incoming "refugees") then...

I get why she originally got involved--because the Berlin intel officers couldn't bug the guy's house and Foster made that happened illegally. And then she figured out it was the wife.

But once she found something nefarious, how is she taking control of a legal issue on German soil--and detaining German citiziens?

Why would she even want to? She has nothing better do to on behalf of the U.S. from her perch at the Berlin office to take care of other than clearly German girls who want to abscond to Syria which would be a German problem at least at first?

Weird.

[–] macktan894 8 years ago

My thinking is that Germany, an ally, has partnered with the US in this fight against mid eastern terrorism and given the CIA considerable powers to investigate and interview in that regard. Because the US is responsible for most of the military effort in the mid east war on terror, a very expensive undertaking that the US bears the burden of, US allies have contributed in other ways--taking in refugees, for example, and also supporting the CIA investigatory effort in their homelands. Germany, by law, cannot surveil its citizens, so it lets the US do it for them, pretending to its citizens that they don't. The US takes advantage of other countries who spy on Americans when they cannot--it's all a ruse, and gives these govts a workaround their own laws.

Germans must do the detaining and arresting, and they must also prosecute their own citizens should it come to that in German courts.

Generally, the CIA is a powerful agency and is given a lot of authority in the countries that are allies. This was also depicted in the adaptation of a LeCarre novel, A Most Wanted Man. The Americans pretty much do what they want.

[–] CobblersAwls 8 years ago

That makes sense! Good parallel with the Le Carre "A Most Wanted Man." Yes, the Hoffman and Wright cat and mouse....

It occurred to me later that I guess every western intel office in Berlin would want to keep tabs on jihadi brides and western guys going over to fight who all could return to wreak mayhem. Guess everybody has a stake.