Danish Military Intelligence-NSA Allied Spying Cooperation

COPENHAGEN, May 31, 2021 (EIRNS)—The new round of disclosures about Danish Military Intelligence (FE) giving the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) access to massive amounts of data from the submarine Danish electronic information cable nexus, is occurring because whistleblowers inside FE want it to be known that the NSA-FE spying cooperation is not being directed only against “enemies” like terrorists, and Russia and China, but also against “friends” including Germany, France, Sweden and Norway, and other Danes, and that this is not in the interest of Denmark.

Tom Gillesberg, chairman of the Schiller Institute in Denmark, gave a video briefing today with the title, “What Is in the Danish Interest— To Be a Spy for the NSA against Our Allies, or Something Else?” The same question is also being raised by other commentators. After Edward Snowden’s 2013 revelations, a discussion ensued inside FE about the question, and an internal investigation started in 2014 under the name Operation Dunhammer, which was kept secret from the NSA, and was completed in 2015. It showed that the “selector” search words that the NSA was using to pluck out useful information from the data mass through the NSA’s XKeyscore system, also included the telephone numbers of leading politicians and bureaucrats in countries which are among Denmark’s best allies. This report remained secret from the public and the Danish Parliament. We don’t know if the prime minister was informed. This report has now been leaked to the investigative journalist alliance, that was working on the story since 2012.

Though the FE leadership was informed about the NSA allied spying, they did nothing to stop it, according to the sources. Another very important question is whether this kind of spying is still going on. In 2018, a member of the Operation Dunhammer team went to the Danish Intelligence Oversight institution with accusations that the NSA-FE cooperation included spying against Danish citizens, which is illegal. A year ago, that oversight institution came out with an unprecedented press release which included a strong attack against FE, which resulted in the Danish defense minister suspending the FE leadership; the government established an investigative commission, but without the allied spying being part of the commission’s mandate.

Edward Snowden posted a tweet on the subject last night: “Biden is well-prepared to answer for this when he soon visits Europe since, of course, he was deeply involved in this scandal the first time around.

“There should be an explicit requirement for full public disclosure not only from Denmark, but their senior partner as well.” Biden was Obama’s Vice President when the Snowden leaks came out.

RT reports that Norway’s Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen said they were “taking the allegations seriously,” while Sweden’s Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said he “demanded full information on these things.”