Angela Merkel was reportedly spied on by the NSA

Danish television has made some shattering revelations. Senior European politicians, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, were reportedly spied on by US intelligence between 2012 and 2014, with the help of Danish intelligence services. Danmarks Radio (DR) TV reported that the US National Security Agency (NSA) tapped into Danish telecommunications cables to spy on prominent officials and senior officials in Germany, Sweden, Norway and in France. To achieve this, the NSA has benefited from a surveillance collaboration with the Danish Military Intelligence (FE).

DR revealed this information after an investigation carried out jointly with the Swedish channel SVT, the Norwegian channel NRK, the German channels NDR, WDR and the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung, as well as the French daily The world.

Operation Dunhammer

Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen, who was appointed in June 2019, was briefed on the case in August 2020, according to DR. The Danish Defense Ministry, questioned by Agence France-Presse, did not react but Trine Bramsen told DR that “systematic espionage by allies is unacceptable”. It is not established that Denmark knew that the United States was using its surveillance system to spy on its neighbors.

Angela Merkel, then German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and then opposition leader Peer Steinbruck were among those the NSA spied on, according to DR. The NSA was able to access text messages, phone calls and internet traffic, including searches, chats and messaging services, according to DR.The NSA spying was reported in an internal FE report codenamed “Operation Dunhammer” and presented to FE management in May 2015, according to DR. DR said his information was confirmed by nine sources who had access to classified information from FE, and said their disclosures were independently confirmed by several other sources. Neither FE nor then FE director Lars Findsen have commented on the revelations yet.

This spy case, if it is confirmed, occurred during and after the Snowden affair, in 2013. NSA employee turned whistleblower, Edward Snowden then revealed the existence of a surveillance system global communications and internet campaign targeting Germans in particular and the Chancellor’s cell phone in particular. In November 2020, DR previously reported that the United States used Danish cables to spy on Danish and European defense industries from 2012 to 2015.