Danish secret service helped NSA spy on Merkel, EU officials: report

Denmark’s secret services helped the U.S. National Security Agency spy on European officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, under the Barack Obama administration, according to reports by multiple European news outlets.

Reports of the NSA spying on U.S. allies first came to light in 2013 through disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden, but the new investigation published Sunday details alleged support from the Defense Intelligence Service (FE) in Denmark, Germany’s northern neighbor.

Citing multiple unnamed sources, Danish public broadcaster DR and other news organizations in Germany, France, Norway and Sweden reported that a confidential Danish intelligence analysis reviewed the NSA’s relationship with FE from 2012 to 2014. This so-called Dunhammer report, conducted by four specialized FE agents following the Snowden revelations and concluded in 2015, found that the NSA was able to use Danish eavesdropping systems on submarine internet cables, with Denmark’s knowledge and agreement.

The media reports describe a system of Danish-American cooperation used to surveil and stock data from underwater internet cables. DR reports that a data center was even built for that purpose at a Danish intelligence facility on the island of Amager, south of Copenhagen.

Merkel was reportedly among the targets, as well as two of her past rivals for the chancellery, Social Democrats Peer Steinbrück and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the latter of whom is now the German president. DR also reported that other high-level officials had been surveilled from France, Norway and Sweden, though did not name them.

Contacted by the news organizations conducting the investigation, the German, Swedish and Norwegian governments said they had not been aware of the Danish intelligence report’s conclusions, while the office of the French president declined to respond.

Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen declined to comment to DR, writing only that “systematic interception of close allies is unacceptable.”

The media investigation was conducted in collaboration with French newspaper Le Monde, German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung, German broadcasters NDR and WDR, and public broadcasters from Sweden (SVT) and Norway (NRK).

In the wake of the 2013 Snowden reports, Obama committed to stop spying on allies. Le Monde said it was unclear at this point whether the spying via Danish systems happened prior to, or after, this promise.