On 30th May 2021, Danish state broadcaster DR revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has used a partnership with Denmark’s foreign intelligence unit to spy on senior officials of neighbouring countries. The leaders spied upon by the US included German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The findings are the result of an internal investigation in the Danish Defence Intelligence Service from 2015 into US NSA’s role in the partnership. The United States has long spied on foreign governments.
In 2013, National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans' telephone records.Wanted by US, granted asylum by Russia. In 2014, President Obama had defended the controversial spying programme as necessary to safeguard the security of America and its allies. In 2020, a court ruled that the US government’s surveillance programme was illegal. Denmark is a close ally of the United States. It hosts several key landing stations for sub-sea internet cables to and from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Holland and the U.K.
How was the spying carried out?
NSA’s spying on politicians and officials in Denmark’s neighbouring countries was carried out through a special technical system, which the NSA and FE (Danish Defence Intelligence Service) used to intercept communications from Danish internet cables.
Sources describe the spy system as the FE's most effective tool when it comes to accessing information on everything from terrorist plots to information about Russia and China. The sources describe the spy system as the crown jewel of the FE. The NSA had used phone numbers as search parameters to pull the communications of politicians and officials out of the extensive data flows that run through internet cables to and from Denmark. The NSA then intercepted everything from text messages to phone calls that passed through cables on the way to and from the phones of politicians and officials.
Why was there an investigation?
The internal investigation in the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) was launched in 2014 following concerns about Edward Snowden’s leaks in 2013, revealing how the NSA works. However, upon receiving the Dunhammer findings, FE’s top
management at the time did not scrap the collaboration with the NSA.
Danish Minister of Defence Trine Bramsen, who took over the defence portfolio in June 2019, was informed of the spying in August 2020. She immediately suspended the head of the Defence Intelligence Service and three other officials.
What had the investigation revealed?
According to the investigation, the US National Security Agency (NSA) used a collaboration with FE to eavesdrop on Danish information cables to spy on senior officials in Sweden, Norway, France and Germany from 2012 to 2014.
In addition to Merkel, the NSA also spied on then-German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former German opposition leader Peer Steinbruck. Danish Defence Minister Bramsen declined to comment on the report but told the state broadcaster (DR) that the “systematic eavesdropping of close allies is unacceptable”.
Joe Biden’s role?
Whistle blower Edward Snowden accused US President Joe Biden of being “deeply involved” in the case. Biden was vice-president when Snowden blew the lid on the NSA’s mass spying programme. It is not illegal for the FE to help a partner spy on other countries. However, the incident has resulted in political inflammation, because the FE has allowed the NSA to spy on politicians in Denmark’s neighbouring countries by intercepting cables in and out of Denmark. This is a delicate matter for Denmark and its European neighbours.
Reaction
In Sweden, Swedish Parliamentarian Jens Holm described it as "extremely outrageous and surprising" that the FE has allowed the NSA to spy on Swedish politicians. “It is an affront to Sweden as a country, as we as politicians represent the Swedish people. We represent Sweden.” He points out that it is not only politicians' own communications that the NSA has gained access to through cooperation with the FE. The NSA has also been able to intercept communications from people who contact politicians, like: People who are hiding illegally, because they are persecuted in their home country. Journalists who will discuss sensitive issues. Political activists, opposition politicians from other countries and so on. Sweden’s Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told Swedish SVT broadcaster that he “demanded full information on these things.”
Norway’s Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen has said that they “take the allegations seriously.” On 31st May.
France’s Europe Minister Clement Beaune said: “Between allies, there must be trust, a minimal cooperation, so these potential facts are serious.”
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