The Danish Broadcasting Corporation reported on May 30 that the results of an internal investigation recently disclosed by the Intelligence Agency of the Danish Ministry of Defense revealed that the United States, through its Danish intelligence unit, monitors a number of European political figures including German Chancellor Merkel. The monitored content includes SMS and phone monitoring. The results of an internal investigation disclosed by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation showed that the US National Security Agency, with the assistance of the Intelligence Agency of the Danish Ministry of Defense, monitored German leaders and senior officials from 2012 to 2014. Including German Chancellor Merkel, former German Foreign Minister Steinmeier, and former German opposition leader Per Steinbrück. In addition, senior officials from Sweden, Norway, and France are also being monitored.The Swedish Minister of Defense Peter Hutquist publicly requested all relevant information. Norwegian Defense Minister Bark Jensen said that he would take these allegations seriously. It is reported that this surveillance operation in the United States was code-named “Operation Dunhammer.” According to the report, the United States mainly obtains the content of European politicians’ briefings and monitor calls through Danish communication cables. Denmark has several major landing stations connected to submarine cables such as Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
In fact, the United States’ monitoring of high-ranking officials from European allies was exposed as early as the “Snowden Incident” in 2013. In June of that year, Snowden, a former employee of the US Central Intelligence Agency, disclosed the secret documents of the US National Security Agency about the PRISM monitoring project to the British “Guardian” and the US “Washington Post”. After these two media were published, they caused an uproar around the world.
The documents disclosed by Snowden at that time showed that the United States was monitoring the phone call of German Chancellor Merkel, and Merkel said at the time that it was “unacceptable.” The German government has since re-customized a BlackBerry phone for Merkel and installed a security chip worth up to 2,500 Euros. After Snowden broke the news that year, the Danish Ministry of Defense Intelligence Agency launched an internal investigation in 2014. In response to a recent report by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Snowden accused US President Biden on May 30 of being inseparable from the scandal. Because while the United States was monitoring European politicians, Biden happened to be the vice president of the United States.
The U.S. Global Surveillance Program and the Prohibition of Cyber Hegemony
For 50 years, the United States used its equipment to monitor 120 countries around the world, across all continents, and even the United Nations headquarters did not escape its surveillance. As early as the early 1970s, the U.S. government launched the “Ivy Bell” operation to tap a communication cable on the east coast of the Soviet Union by placing a waterproof recording cabin to obtain military secrets. The Washington Post reported that the US spy agency had a “black budget” of nearly $53 billion for covert operations in 2013.
In June 2020, the United States proposed the so-called “Clean Network” plan to take comprehensive measures to protect the privacy of American citizens and sensitive company information from so-called malicious actors. However, U.S. communications and Internet giants have been providing the U.S. government with data concerning the privacy of U.S. citizens and important information about U.S. companies under the provisions of the American Patriot Act and the American Freedom Act. After the 911 incident, the Bush administration signed and promulgated the “American Patriot Act”, stipulating that for the purpose of preventing terrorism, police agencies have the right to search for telephone calls, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other types of records.US communications giants AT&T and Verizon both use their phone and text messaging services to provide sensitive information to the US government. In June 2011, Microsoft stated that in accordance with the requirements of the Patriot Act, any data stored, processed or possessed in Europe and other regions, including emails, web applications and file storage, must be subject to inspection by the US government. In August 2011, Google stated that it had passed the safe harbor framework to submit information from the European Data Center to the US intelligence agency.
Recently, Brad Smith, the president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, has become intolerable of the US government’s actions and publicly criticized the US government for issuing secret data subpoenas to cloud service providers such as Microsoft and Apple. According to reports, Microsoft’s vice president for customer security testified before the House Judiciary Committee criticized the government for excessive use or abuse of confidentiality orders. That is, through court orders, the company is prohibited from notifying customers when the Ministry of Justice investigates customer account information. In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice—especially during Trump’s presidency—repeatedly required technology companies to provide stored information for investigation of politically sensitive cases and prevented these companies from discussing data collection matters with customers.US law enforcement agencies can easily obtain personal emails, text messages, and other data held by cloud service providers. Burt said: “The government has turned decades-old criminal investigation techniques into covert surveillance operations-all of which are carried out without strict court review.” Burt said that Microsoft alone receives as many as 10 confidentiality orders every day, and 3,500 orders per year. If you multiply these numbers with the number of technology companies that control or process data, you can get a rough idea of the scale of the government’s excessive use of secret surveillance. ”
Europe is forced to choose sides
The BBC pointed out in an article that the signal released by the so-called “clean network” plan is worrying, and it has contributed to the breakdown of the globalization of the Internet. The article quoted Alan Woodward, a computer security expert at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, as saying, “The U.S. government has long criticized other countries for controlling Internet access… Now we are seeing Americans doing the same thing.” Europe is facing a decision again at this node, and this time it will largely determine Europe’s development and interests in the next few years. Hope that Europe will no longer make Ulster’s mistakes.