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- Denmark reportedly helped the US access the calls and texts of senior European officials, including Angela Merkel.
- Denmark held an internal investigation into its partnership with the NSA between 2012 and 2014.
- The country’s public broadcaster reported the findings of the investigation, citing nine unnamed sources.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Denmark’s foreign intelligence unit helped the US spy on European officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to a report by Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) on Sunday.
In 2015, the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) conducted an internal investigation – code-named “Operation Dunhammer” – into its partnership with the US National Security Agency (NSA), according to the report.
The investigation found that the NSA used Danish information cables to spy on senior officials in Sweden, Norway, France, and Germany between 2012 to 2014, according to DR’s report. The report cited nine unnamed sources with classified information from FE.
The NSA accessed calls, texts, and chat messages to and from officials’ telephones, the sources told DR.
In addition to Merkel, the NSA spied on former German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former German opposition leader Peer Steinbrück, according to the DR report.
The FE and the NSA didn’t provide comment on the DR report.
A spokesperson for the German chancellery told Reuters it only became aware of the NSA spying allegations when journalists asked them about the report, and declined to comment further.
Leaks by former NSA employee Edward Snowden alleged that the NSA tapped Merkel’s phone and spied on other countries. Snowden tweeted on Sunday that President Joe Biden was “deeply involved in this scandal the first time around” as he was vice-President when the reported spying took place.
Insider contacted the White House and the NSA for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
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