Editor｜Alex Meier  Twitter   

It has been known for years that the US secret service NSA has spied on top German politicians such as Chancellor Angela Merkel, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Peer Steinbrück. Edward Snowden revealed the explosive actions of the US secret service back in 2013. However, these were not taken seriously until 2020. It was only when the Danish broadcaster DR reported on the scouting operation through extensive research that the topic received the necessary public attention.

In addition, further details of the surveillance actions have become known since last week. Apparently Germany's neighbor and close partner Denmark helped the NSA with a large-scale spying on top European politicians.

The Danish secret service Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE) has enabled the NSA to use its secret listening station "Sandagergardan" near Copenhagen, various European media report.   There is an important Internet hub of various submarine cables, which has been tapped. The action was directed against leading politicians from Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and France.  Demnach hatte die NSA Zugriff auf SMS, Telefonanrufe und Internetaktivitäten, wie Recherchen, Chats und Messengerdienste.

The Danish government had known about the surveillance operations since 2015, at the latest after the Snowden revelations were compiled in the "Dunnhammer Report". In this secret document, Danish intelligence and IT specialists had compiled the scope of cooperation between the FE and the NSA.

After it became known in 2020 that the Danish foreign intelligence service even helped the Americans to monitor their own government, the wave of indignation led to the entire leadership of the FE to resign.

In this context, it is interesting to note that the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, initiated by President Biden, took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the beginning of May.

The "Copenhagen Demorcracy Sumit" is an international conference that has been held every summer in Copenhagen, Denmark, since 2018. The meeting brings together political and economic leaders, including current and former leaders from democracies around the world. The aim of the summit is to discuss and shape security policy and economic challenges of a democratic world, as well as to analyse the interplay between technology and democratic norms.

The question that arises is: How can a country that claims to respect democracy and human rights allow the US to spy on its closest partners?

Added to this is the fact that US President Joe Biden has taken up the cause of the "Democracy Summit 2021" and boasted in an article published in "Foreign Affairs" that the summit would bring the countries of the world's democracies closer together.

The US also wants to host its own democracy summit in its own country. The only question is whether they are a suitable candidate for this at all.

Source: https://twitter.com/PRESSBOARDde