European headline eavesdropping storm continues to ferment. Can the rift between the United States and Europe be bridged？
The Danish Broadcasting Corporation launched a special report on May 30, revealing that the US National Security Agency accessed the Danish Internet through the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency to obtain raw data in order to monitor and monitor the political figures of many European countries, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The report said that the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, in cooperation with Swedish, Norwegian, German and French media, found "amazing results" in a secret internal investigation against the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency on the basis of clues provided by insiders of the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency. The internal investigation report, code-named "Operation Dunhammer", was completed in May 2015. One of the important conclusions is that the US National Security Agency can purposefully access the Danish Internet to obtain data through cooperation with the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency, so that it can secretly monitor and monitor the target heads of state, such as Merkel, leaders of allies such as France, Sweden and Norway, and high-level politicians.
The European countries involved reacted strongly to the incident revealed by the news media.
Danish Defense Minister Bramsen told the media that "the government cannot make public comments on the information provided by the media or others. Intelligence can only be discussed in the relevant committees of parliament. But it can be said in general terms that systematic eavesdropping on close allies cannot be accepted. "
Swedish Defense Minister Hultkvist said that he had contacted the Danish Ministry of National Defense and asked the other party to give a clear reply; Sweden has also approached Germany, France and the United States and needs to know "comprehensive information" about this matter. The incident was a "spy activity for politicians" in Sweden. "Now that this has happened, we must take the protection of Sweden’s interests as the starting point." He said that Sweden can’t accept such monitoring behavior between close allies, which is a "matter of principle."
Swedish parliamentarian Holm severely criticized the interception incident. He said that the monitoring incident was "too outrageous and very angry." "We need to know who is being monitored when and how. It is shocking that such a thing happened and it feels like we are back to the Cold War."
The Norwegian government also asked the Danish government to respond to relevant reports immediately. Norwegian Defense Minister Barker Jensen said that the incident would be "taken seriously".
On May 31st, Merkel and French President Macron co-chaired the 22nd joint meeting of French and German ministers in a remote way. When answering a reporter’s question, Merkel said that Germany and France communicated with the US intelligence agencies about the interception a long time ago, and Germany hoped that the US’s attitude of clarification had not changed.
△ German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a statement asking the US to clarify the interception.
Former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the German media: "I think this is a political scandal."
Patrick Sensberg, head of the German Bundestag Committee responsible for investigating the previous US surveillance incident, said in an interview with the media that the driving force behind the intelligence department "is not friendship, nor morality, but the pursuit of interests".
Macron said at a news conference that if the news is accurate, it is obvious that this kind of monitoring behavior is unacceptable among allies, and even more unacceptable among EU partners.
In an interview with French news channel, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Bona made it clear that he did not know the specific identity of the French officials accused by the media of being monitored by the United States, but if the practice of American intelligence agencies monitoring European politicians through Denmark is confirmed, its nature will be "extremely serious" and will have consequences for cooperation between Europe and the United States. Bona said that it is time to verify whether Denmark has made mistakes in its intelligence cooperation with the United States and whether the United States has indeed carried out espionage activities against European politicians.
△ French Secretary of State for European Affairs Bona
Le Feible, a French communication technology expert who wrote the book Snowden Incident: How the United States Monitors the World, told French news station that he was not surprised at the contents exposed by the media at all, and believed that the monitoring behavior of the United States was still going on. Lefebvre said bluntly that Europe is a "free lunch" for the US National Security Agency, and the United States will not be willing to give up such intelligence hegemony, because European countries rely on American intelligence work, especially at the software level. Therefore, in the face of repeated US surveillance incidents, Europe’s response is usually weak.
The United States, known as the "cyber security guardian", has actually been spying on its European allies.
In 2013, Snowden, a former US defense contractor employee, revealed through the media that the US government was widely monitoring domestic and international telephone and Internet communications, which caused an international uproar. Merkel’s mobile phone is also within the monitoring range of US intelligence agencies. The German Chancellor called the then US President Barack Obama, calling it a "serious breach of trust".
△ Three former presidents of France who were monitored and monitored by the United States
In June 2015, Wikileaks revealed that the US National Security Agency had monitored three French presidents from 2006 to 2012, which caused an uproar in France. At that time, French Prime Minister Vals said in a parliamentary question that this kind of monitoring behavior seriously trampled on the relationship between France and the United States and the spirit of trust on which the two countries depended.
The documents exposed by Wikileaks also show that the National Security Agency even wrote a detailed report based on the monitored information. It is said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007, knew that the United States was eavesdropping on himself. At that time, French Ambassador to the United States Vermont expressed dissatisfaction with the United States during Sarkozy’s visit to the United States in 2010. The US National Security Agency wrote in the report, "Although he expressed dissatisfaction, the United States will continue to eavesdrop on France, and this policy will not change."
In recent years, the United States has always adhered to this monitoring policy. In August, 2020, according to Danish media reports, the National Security Agency of the United States can freely obtain the original Internet data including Danish citizens’ private information through the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency. In November, Danish media reported that the United States had carried out espionage activities against the Danish government, its defense industry and other European defense contractors in order to obtain information on fighter procurement plans of relevant countries.
Analysts pointed out that the latest scandal has once again exposed the hegemonic mentality of the United States, which 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 rift left by the "US priority" policy on transatlantic relations will become more and more difficult to bridge.
Producer: Jiang Qiuyong
Reporter Hao Xiaoli Zou Heyi Yu Peng Ruan Jiawen
Editor Li Xia