Danish media recently broke the news that the U.S. National Security Agency used its cooperative relationship with the Danish intelligence agency to spy on leaders and senior officials of European allies, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

relations, monitoring European allied leaders and senior officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This incident caused an uproar in European public opinion.

Analysts pointed out that the United States, which is known as the "guardian of cyber security", has repeatedly exposed scandals about spying on its European allies, which has continuously suffered heavy blows to transatlantic relations, weakened mutual trust and deepened the rift between the two sides.

On March 24, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Borrell (right) and visiting US Secretary of State Blinken attended a press conference in Brussels . (Xinhua News Agency, photo provided by the European Union)

Use allies to spy on allies

Denmark is located at the throat of Northern Europe, bordering Germany to the south and facing Norway and Sweden across the sea to the north. The submarine cable connecting the Netherlands , the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, and Germany has multiple key landing stations built in Denmark.

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation, working with media outlets in Sweden, Norway, Germany and France, found "alarming results" in a secret internal investigation report into the work of the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014.

The internal investigation report code-named "Operation Dunhamer" was completed in 2015. An important conclusion it reached was that the US National Security Agency, through cooperation with the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency, purposefully accessed the Danish Internet to obtain data. , thus being able to eavesdrop on high-level officials of the target country, including German Chancellor Merkel, current German President , Steinmeier who was the German Foreign Minister at the time, and Steinbrück, the then Chancellor candidate of the German Social Democratic Party. , as well as leaders of France, Sweden, Norway and other countries.

According to reports, the US National Security Agency uses its allies to monitor its allies. The scope of monitoring is very wide. It not only intercepts mobile phone text messages and phone calls, but also obtains search contents and chat information on the Internet.

This is the Capitol Building taken in Washington, USA on March 3. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie)

"This is a political scandal"

In response to this report, Danish Defense Minister Bramson responded in an email to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, saying that systematic targeting of close allies Eavesdropping is unacceptable.

The Norwegian and Swedish governments also requested the Danish government to respond immediately to relevant reports. Swedish Defense Minister Hultqvist said he wanted to know full information about the incident. Norwegian Defense Minister Back-Jensen said the incident would be "taken seriously".

"Intelligence agencies of friendly countries are really intercepting and monitoring information of senior officials of other countries. This is ridiculous," Steinbrück told the German media. "I think this is a political scandal."

France's Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clement Bonne, said in an interview with French news channels that if the matter is confirmed, its nature is "extremely serious."

Patrick Sensberg, head of the German Bundestag committee responsible for investigating previous US surveillance incidents, said in an interview with the media that the driving force behind the intelligence services "is not friendship or ethics, but the pursuit of interests."

On March 18, 2015, in Hannover, Germany, the screen showing Snowden being interviewed was displayed on the big screen. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Fan)

An “Eavesdropping Empire” of its own

The United States, which has always regarded itself as the “guardian of network security,” has actually been engaging in espionage activities against its European allies.

In 2013, Snowden, a former U.S. defense contractor employee, revealed through the media that the U.S. government had extensively monitored domestic and foreign phone calls and Internet communications, causing an uproar internationally. Merkel's mobile phone is also within the scope of monitoring by US intelligence agencies. The German chancellor called then-U.S. President Obama and called it a "serious breach of trust."

After that, the "WikiLeaks" website broke the news in 2015 that the US National Security Agency had monitored the three French presidents Chirac Sarkozy and Hollande and obtained some important information about their policies. intelligence.

In recent years, the true face of the United States’ “eavesdropping empire” has been further exposed. In August 2020, Danish media reported that the U.S. National Security Agency, through the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency, had free access to raw Internet data including the private information of Danish citizens. In November, Danish media reported that the United States had launched espionage activities against the Danish government, its defense industry, and other European defense contractors to obtain information on relevant countries' fighter aircraft procurement plans.

Analysts pointed out that the latest scandal has once again exposed the hegemonic mentality of the United States that continues to monitor its European allies to safeguard its own interests. This will bring new challenges to the efforts of the United States and Europe to repair relations, and the deep cracks left by the "America First" policy in transatlantic relations will become increasingly difficult to heal.