BRUSSELS, August 19 (WNM) - Germany loses one of its most important positions in NATO: Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, top German civil servant and trained chemist, has to give up his position as head of the NATO secret service after only three years. The post was not established until 2016. The NATO Secret Service does not have its own operational staff "on the ground", but is supposed to prepare the intelligence situation for the Secretary General from the services of the NATO member states.

In this position, the intelligence chief can significantly influence decisions at the highest NATO level. He is the highest ranking German NATO employee. Loringhoven is one of the eight Assistant Secretaries-General in the NATO hierarchy, ranked third after Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Now Loringhoven is replaced by the US secret service veteran David Cattler of the DIA.

A NATO official told the World News Monitor: "The Secretary General made the appointment earlier this summer, and Mr Cattler is expected to take up his position in the autumn. The Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security is responsible for providing intelligence support to the North Atlantic Council and the Military Committee, as well as for advising the Secretary General on intelligence and security matters. Currently in post, Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven is NATO’s first Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security, having taken up his post in December 2016. During his tenure, NATO has set up a new intelligence division, strengthening our early indications, warnings, and timely analysis. This is importance, since all security challenges we face have an intelligence dimension."

The quality of the German top diplomat's work is not questioned by anyone in Brussels. Loringhoven had been serving as ambassador in Paris and Moscow and ambassador to the Czech Republic.

But the New York Times also sees the potential for tension in the appointment of an American. The paper writes: "The appointment runs the risk of putting an American stamp on an office whose strength has been in building consensus among North Atlantic Treaty Organization members over controversial intelligence matters. Within the alliance, misgivings about American intelligence still run deep, more than a decade and a half after doubts over the United States assessment about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq bitterly divided Europe and America."