“The United States spied on European politicians with the help of the Danish secret service” | Abroad

Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) reports that the US intelligence agency NSA used Danish internet cables to spy on prominent politicians and senior officials in Germany, Sweden, Norway and France. The NSA used a security partnership with the Danish military intelligence service FE for this. Several submarine cables converge in and around Denmark, making the Scandinavian country a strategic Internet hub.

The fact that the United States was spying on several European countries by listening to Danish cable had already been reported by a Danish whistleblower last year. Danish broadcaster DR, in collaboration with Swedish broadcaster SVT, Norwegian broadcaster NRK, German broadcasters NDR and WDR, subsequently Suddeutsche Zeitung and the leaf The world, a more in-depth investigation into espionage practices.

According to the recent publication, the Danish secret service actively participated in spying on European allies. The Danish government may have been aware of these activities since 2015. According to DR, Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen, who took office in June 2019, was informed of the case in August 2020. Bramsen refused. to comment specifically, stating simply that “systematic allied espionage is unacceptable”.

The list of people wiretapped by the NSA includes Angela Merkel, then German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and then opposition leader Peer Steinbruck, according to DR. Americans would have had access to text messages, phone calls, and Internet traffic, including searches, chats, and email services.

The espionage was detailed in an internal report classified under the code name “Operation Dunhammer” and presented to the senior management of the Danish intelligence services in May 2015, DR. The disclosures, the broadcaster said, are based on intelligence from nine sources who had access to FE’s classified information, and have been independently confirmed by several other sources.

At the same time as the American espionage was said to have taken place, the Snowden case came to light. In 2013, former CIA agent and NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden revealed that the US government was spying on its own citizens and allies.

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