Danes ‘helped US to spy on neighbours’
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Danes ‘helped US to spy on neighbours’
Report in The Times.
Danes ‘helped US to spy on neighbours’
Decidedly sneaky...
Danes ‘helped US to spy on neighbours’
The Danish military intelligence agency helped its American counterparts to spy on targets across northern Europe, including government ministries and two jet fighter projects, the country’s public broadcaster has claimed.
Several senior officers have been suspended or forced out after a whistleblower said they enabled the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor internet traffic in France, Sweden, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands.
It is also alleged that the NSA used a data centre near Copenhagen to wiretap defence manufacturers, including those working on the Eurofighter and Saab Gripen jets in competition with America’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
“This raises the possibility that the Americans may have used [the espionage] to support their own industry in relation to the production and sale of fighter jets,”Tobias Liebetrau, a Swedish intelligence researcher, told Danish television. “This is very open to criticism and surprises me a great deal.”
The scandal has echoes of Operation Eikonal, in which Germany’s foreign intelligence service allowed the NSA to spy on Brussels, Paris and Airbus until the Snowden leaks in 2013.
The NSA specialises in obtaining electronic communications such as emails, phone calls and text messages. At its peak in 2013 the agency is estimated to have harvested data on more than a billion people. It was exposed by Edward Snowden, a former defence contractor who is now in exile in Russia.
The NSA allegedly began working with the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) in 2008. It is said to have helped the FE build a data centre on the island of Amager, near Copenhagen airport, to intercept traffic passing through submarine internet cables from about 2014.
DR, the Danish state broadcaster, claimed that the NSA used a secret computer program to search for particular terms in the communications.
The targets are believed to include the Danish finance and foreign ministries as well as defence manufacturers including Terma, of Denmark, Saab of Sweden, and Airbus, the European conglomerate. All three companies were working on fighter jet projects.
The NSA has declined to comment. The Eurofighter consortium, the Danish government and the body in charge of the country’s intelligence agencies have yet to issue a public response.
Several senior officers have been suspended or forced out after a whistleblower said they enabled the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor internet traffic in France, Sweden, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands.
It is also alleged that the NSA used a data centre near Copenhagen to wiretap defence manufacturers, including those working on the Eurofighter and Saab Gripen jets in competition with America’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
“This raises the possibility that the Americans may have used [the espionage] to support their own industry in relation to the production and sale of fighter jets,”Tobias Liebetrau, a Swedish intelligence researcher, told Danish television. “This is very open to criticism and surprises me a great deal.”
The scandal has echoes of Operation Eikonal, in which Germany’s foreign intelligence service allowed the NSA to spy on Brussels, Paris and Airbus until the Snowden leaks in 2013.
The NSA specialises in obtaining electronic communications such as emails, phone calls and text messages. At its peak in 2013 the agency is estimated to have harvested data on more than a billion people. It was exposed by Edward Snowden, a former defence contractor who is now in exile in Russia.
The NSA allegedly began working with the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) in 2008. It is said to have helped the FE build a data centre on the island of Amager, near Copenhagen airport, to intercept traffic passing through submarine internet cables from about 2014.
DR, the Danish state broadcaster, claimed that the NSA used a secret computer program to search for particular terms in the communications.
The targets are believed to include the Danish finance and foreign ministries as well as defence manufacturers including Terma, of Denmark, Saab of Sweden, and Airbus, the European conglomerate. All three companies were working on fighter jet projects.
The NSA has declined to comment. The Eurofighter consortium, the Danish government and the body in charge of the country’s intelligence agencies have yet to issue a public response.
Decidedly sneaky...
