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grapevine

MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir claims British authorities spied on Icelanders in the Icesave negotiations committee.
Birgitta sat on a multi-partisan committee tasked with following the progress of the Icesave matter from 2010 to 2011. During that time, Vísir reports, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told committee members that it was possible the British were spying on their communications. He urged them to not use Gmail or Hotmail when communicating with each other.
“Then one Canadian expert who sat on the committee sent an email, through Gmail, to another committee member,” Birgitta said. “This email quickly ended up on the pages of the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph.”
Birgitta contends that the British tried to systematically spy on all communications between committee members.
“The British had very good access to all that was passed between committee members,” she said. “Their duty was to increase information and spy on us, and the duty of the Icelandic government was to do everything to protect us from such spying.”
Icesave was an electronic branch of Landsbanki that promised depositors very lucrative interest rates on their savings accounts. After the economic collapse of October 2008, however, depositors from the Netherlands and Great Britain found themselves unable to withdraw their funds.
The matter resulted in a protracted legal battle between the three countries. Currently, assets from the former incarnation of Landsbanki are being used to pay down the Icesave debt.