It turns out that the United States abused its cooperation with Denmark to spy on politicians in European countries



The US National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on German, French, Swedish, and Norwegian politicians by abusing the agreement it had with the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste: FE), and It became clear that the FE knew this fact but was concealing it.

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Electrospaces.net: Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in cooperation with the NSA
https://www.electrospaces.net/2020/10/danish-military-intelligence-uses.html

In a study conducted in collaboration with European media outlets such as the Danish broadcaster DR , the NSA used the data interception system XKeyscore to include German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany, France and Sweden. It has been revealed that he spy on Norwegian politicians and intercepted communications such as phone numbers, email addresses and text messages.

According to media reports, the move to sign an agreement has been seen since the mid-1990s. At the time, the NSA found out that Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, had lines for telephone, e-mail and text messages with Russia and China, and asked FE for permission to access the cable, but initially Will be hit by the request. The NSA did not give up and sent a letter directly to then-Denmark Prime Minister Paul Nilp Rasmussen to ask for reconsideration, and Rasmussen, who was active in relations with the United States, agreed to this request, and Denmark and the United States Is said to have signed an agreement on information provision.

It turns out that a 'secret agreement to allow eavesdropping' was made between Denmark and the United States --GIGAZINE



Since the lines subject to eavesdropping include international communications, the agreement is said to be within the authority of the FE, which has jurisdiction over foreign intelligence activities, and is subject to public debate over its pros and cons. It never happened. It is also reported that there was an agreement between the two countries that 'do not spy on Danish citizens and businesses' and 'interception is limited to approval with the highest level of authority'. According to the Danish daily Berlingske, which reported the event, the agreement signed by Mr. Rasmussen and the then Danish Defense Minister was shown to the private telecommunications company operating the line in question before FE's. It is said that it was strictly stored in the safe at the headquarters.

According to the DR, NSA personnel have frequently visited Denmark since the change of FE procurement manager in 2008 to help build an advanced espionage system and build a data center in the Danish city of Dragør. It was said that it was. The FE and NSA have built a spy system that intercepts communications over Internet cables laid in and out of Denmark and sends them to Dragør's data centers. Trained analysts were ready for advanced data retrieval using the NSA-developed Xkeyscore.



Denmark is located between Norway, Sweden and Germany, with numerous submarine cables connecting to European countries, and sources said, 'Denmark-US relations because of access to communications from many European countries and Russia. It's strategically important to us. ' The image below shows the submarine cables around Denmark on the

'Submarine Cable Map ', a world map that shows the location of submarine cables in the world at a glance.



However, in July 2013, former NSA employee

Edward Snowden revealed the existence of Xkeyscore, which was used not only in Denmark but throughout the country. Following reports about Snowden, then FE Secretary Thomas Allenkir led four specially licensed hackers and analysts, and the NSA took about a year in Denmark from 2014. We conducted an 'Operation Danhammer' to secretly investigate what we were doing and who we were getting information about.

In 'Operation Dunhammer,' it was revealed that the NSA had abused the agreement with FE and spy on politicians in neighboring countries at some point between 2012 and 2014. The report was received by Aalen Kiel, then head of procurement, and Lars Finsen, who succeeded Aalen Kiel as FE Secretary in 2015, at which point FE's senior management is the NSA. It seems that he chose to maintain a cooperative relationship with.

The case of espionage was once silenced, but in 2018, FE officials accused the independent auditing agency, the Intelligence Serveces Authority, of information about the NSA. The materials for 'Operation Dunhammer' have been taken over, and the investigation into FE will be conducted again.



In August 2020, the Intelligence Services Authority completed the investigation and submitted a report to Defense Minister Trin Bramsen. The investigation revealed that 'FE's senior management neglected to follow up,' 'hidden important information,' and 'NSA may have intercepted Danish citizens' communications,' and Secretary Finsen. At that time, Mr. Aalenkir, who was the director of the Ministry of Defense and was scheduled to become the ambassador to Germany in Denmark the following month, and three FE staff members were dismissed.

'For many years, FE has been trying to develop filters to prevent domestic information from being retrieved by Xkeyscore,' said DR, who said that communications within Denmark may have been intercepted by the NSA. , Klaus Frederiksen, who served as Defense Minister from 2016 to 2019, also confirmed the existence of this filter, but information researcher Tobias Ribetlau said, 'Because there is a large amount of data. , It is nearly impossible to properly classify only data about Danes. '

The DR described the matter as 'the biggest scandal in Danish history,' but 'the Danish bill does not specify whether the NSA's espionage activity against the country or neighboring countries needs to be investigated. , whether I do not know if 'this problem is properly investigated it says .

In addition, Edward Snowden, who made the exposure that triggered 'Operation Dunhammer', touched on the report of this case and tweeted that 'President Joe Biden was also deeply involved in this scandal.'




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in Security, Posted by log1p_kr