Danish Defense Intelligence Service property collects massive data for the NSA. Sandagergaard, Amager Island, close to Copenhagen. [Source: computerworld.dk]
Data acquired by the NSA has been used to convince the Danish government to buy fighter jets from Lockheed-Martin.
Denmark’s military allows the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on the nation’s Finance Ministry, Foreign Ministry, private weapons company Terma,[1] the entire Danish population, and Denmark’s closest neighbors: Sweden, Norway, France, Germany and the Netherlands (NL).
Information that the NSA acquired, with the aid of Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service (FE) under the command of the Defense Department, was used to convince the government to buy Lockheed-Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter F-35 capable of carrying nuclear weapons, albeit Denmark forbids the possession of nuclear weapons on its territory.[2]
Such favoritism for both the U.S. government and the country’s private weapons industry knocked out European competition from the Eurofighter GmbH Typhoon and Sweden’s Saab Gripen-fighter. Boeing’s Superhornet was also a competitor.
In 2016, the government decided to buy 27 F-35s to replace F-16s. The price today is around $10 billion, which is double the country’s annual defense budget. After years of technical problems, the first F-35 for Denmark is just about to reach the assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Danish government ignored its own national audit agency, which had “identified serious shortcomings in the decision-making process and calculations used as the basis for selecting the aircraft.”
FE is comparable to the U.S.’s CIA. It is unknown if FE has informed its own government leaders of all its spying for NSA/CIA and for private concerns. No member of the government, parliament, military, or the civilian-led Danish Intelligence Oversight Committee (TET) will comment.
DR, Denmark’s public-service broadcaster and online medium, recently reported these developments based on revelations that one or more intelligence whistleblower(s) provided.
No major English-language media have covered this most serious revelation of extensive spying in Denmark’s history, at least not that I could find in two hours of searching.
for the NSA. Sandagergaard, Amager Island, close to Copenhagen.
[source: computerworld.dk]
Danish Journalists Could Be Imprisoned in U.S. for Whistleblower Revelations
Ironically, Denmark’s media, both DR and newspapers, have not covered the extradition trial of the Australian Julian Assange in England. The U.S. government had long denied that Assange is a publisher but changed course mid-trial. It now contends that he is a publisher, and thereby asserted that any journalist anywhere in the world can be prosecuted in the U.S. for reporting “national security secrets.”
DR foreign news editor Niels Kvale answered my complaint of suppression of this important news, writing that DR’s decision of what to cover is based on “importance is the most important criterion.”
Extraditing a journalist-publisher to the United States, which could imprison Assange for 175 years for 17 alleged violations of its Espionage Act, is apparently not important enough. By not covering this not “important” trial, DR may not realize that its reporters and editors can be prosecuted for violating the 1917 Espionage Act for revealing NSA-FE “national security secrets.”
In 1961, the U.S. Congress removed language that restricted the act’s application to U.S. territory and its inhabitants. Now U.S. law applies to every human being in the world, including journalists.
If NSA-CIA get angry enough, they could order whatever president is in office to demand that Denmark extradite “bad guy” journalists for letting the public know of its war crimes. We can be certain that, whichever political party is in office in Denmark, it will obey orders while saluting.
Motives for revealing war crimes are not allowed as a defense in U.S. courts. That is a warning to all humans that the U.S. does not abide by basic democratic rights of free press and free speech.
I spoke on the telephone with DR editor Kvale about this U.S. government threat. He replied: “I was not aware of that. This sounds interesting. Send me your article and I will inform our journalists.”
[For rest of article go to original source Outposts of the U.S. Surveillance Empire: Denmark and Beyond – CovertAction Magazine]
RON RIDENOUR is a US-born journalist and anti-war activist living in Denmark. He is a member of www.thiscantbehappening.net His books, “The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert” and ‘Winding Brook Stories’ are available at Amazon and Lulu. His other work can be found at ronridenour.com; ronrorama@gmail.com