Danish Secret Service Shouts To Help US Spy On German Chancellor Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - The Danish Secret Service is reportedly helping the United States National Security Agency (NSA), the NSA, to spy on European Union leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The revelations that the US had been spying on its allies first came to light in 2013.

But it is only now that European media have had access to the report released by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE). The spy information was leaked by US citizen Edward Snowden. He suspected the NSA had tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone.

When the allegations surfaced, the White House gave no outright denial. But said that there was no wiretapping of Merkel's phone and there would be no wiretapping in the future. Launching DW, Friday, June 4, 2020, the report shows that Germany's close allies and neighbors are cooperating with US spy operations.

They target the chancellor and the president. Chancellor candidate from Germany's center-left socialist party (SPD), Peer Steinbrück, was also a target for spies. Steinbrück spoke to members of the German research team after learning about the spy operation against him.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

"Politically, I consider this a scandal", he said. While he views the fact that the Danish authorities have been spying on their partners shows "they prefer to do things themselves".

Edward Snowden is a former contractor for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 2013, he leaked details of internet and telephone surveillance to the media carried out by US intelligence.

The US later charged him with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and intentional secret intelligence communications. Snowden then found refuge in Russia. Before the evidence he revealed, top US intelligence officials publicly insisted that the NSA never knowingly collected data from private phone records.

The reason for spying

An expert in Danish Secret Service operations, Thomas Wegener Friis, said FE was faced with a choice about which global partner to work more closely with.

"They made a clear decision to work with America and against European partners", he said.

Patrick Sensburg, who chairs the German parliamentary committee to investigate the NSA spying scandal, was not surprised by the news. For the MP from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), it is important to understand what the Danish Secret Service is doing.

"It's not about friendship. It's not about moral-ethical aspirations. It's about pursuing interests", Sensburg explained.

The NSA, FE, and the Danish Ministry of Defense have not yet responded to the study. However, a general statement from the Danish Ministry of Defense said that "systematic eavesdropping on close allies is unacceptable".

Sources from the Danish Secret Service relayed the spy report to various parties including the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian broadcasters, as well as the French newspaper Le Monde, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the German public broadcasters NDR and WDR.

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