US spied on Merkel, European allies with Danish help: press reports
Copenhagen, May 31,2021: The US spied on top government officials in Europe, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, from 2012 to 2014 with the assistance of Danish intelligence, Danish and European media reported Sunday.
Danish public telecaster Danmarks Radio (DR) said the US National Security Agency (NSA) had listened in on Danish web links to keep an eye on top lawmakers and high-ranking officials in Germany, Sweden, Norway and France. The NSA enjoyed taking advantage of a surveillance collaboration with Denmark’s military intelligence unit FE to do as such, it said.
Denmark’s defense ministry has not responded to press requests for a remark. Defense Minister Trine Bramsen, who assumed control over the defense portfolio in June 2019, was told about the spying in August 2020, according to DR. She told the telecaster that “systematic eavesdropping is unacceptable.”
It was not immediately clear whether Denmark approved the US to utilize its intelligence framework to keep an eye on its neighbors. DR revealed this information following an investigation it led along with Swedish telecaster SVT, Norway’s NRK, Germany’s NDR, WDR and Suddeutsche Zeitung, and France’s Le Monde.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, then foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and then opposition leader Peer Steinbruck were among those the NSA had kept an eye on, DR said. The NSA was able to access SMS instant messages, calls, and web traffic including searches, talks and informing administrations, DR said.
The spying was detailed in secret internal FE intelligence gathering report codenamed “Activity Dunhammer” and introduced to FE top administration in May 2015, DR said. DR said its data came from nine unique sources who approached grouped FE data, and said their disclosures were independently confirmed by multiple sources.
Neither the FE nor its chief at that point, Lars Findsen, remarked immediately on the disclosures.
The US spying, if confirmed, was going on during and after the 2013 Snowden affair, which erupted when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed thousands of classified documents exposing the vast US surveillance put in place after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Among other things, that documents showed the US government was spying on its own citizens and carrying out widespread tapping worldwide, including of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. In November 2020, DR reported that the US had used the Danish cables to spy on Danish and European defence industries from 2012 to 2015.
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