German Foreign Ministry probes alleged 'America-hating' diplomat

Jun 30, 2005, 15:14 GMT

Berlin - The German Foreign Ministry said Thursday it was investigating allegations in a Wall Street Journal report about an "America-hating" senior German diplomat who is stationed in New York.

"The allegations are being taken seriously and will be carefully examined," said a foreign ministry spokesman who declined to give any further details.

A report in The Wall Street Journal on June 17 told of a private visit by a correspondent of the paper and his wife to the diplomat's home where the German envoy is quoted as saying the Soviet Gulag was better than the U.S. prison for al-Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay "since at least the Stalinist system offered its victims a trial of sorts".

The German diplomat was also quoted as saying that civil rights in the U.S. were "on a par with those in North Korea and rather behind where they had been in Europe in the Middle Ages".

"The only people who appreciate American foreign policy are poodles," said Berlin's diplomat as quoted in The Wall Street Journal.

Guido Westerwelle, the leader of Germany's opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP), termed the alleged comments "scandalous" and in a Bild newspaper interview called on German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to take disciplinary action.