MP Raises Questions About CIA Activity

According to a report in Fréttablaðið, it has recently come to light that the Danish military’s intelligence service has given the CIA access to the country’s fibre optic network, which the Americans are using to spy on Denmark and other countries.

A whistleblower in the Danish Defense Intelligence Service revealed how the agency partnered with the US NSA to carry out domestic surveillance. The whistleblower’s report claims that Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE) engaged in potentially illegal surveillance with the NSA, including tapping submarine cable landing stations and fibre optic cables, and building a data centre to store all of the information they found.

MP Andrés Ingi Jónsson has submitted questions to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Transport about their response after it was discovered that the United States were using this access to spy on Denmark, Sweden, France and The Netherlands. Andrés believes that there is a high chance that Iceland will be included, as the country’s network traffic passes through Danish territory.

Negligence, not bad intentions

”Iceland has never been excluded from intelligence, and these large intelligence services spy on everyone”, Andrés says. American interest in Iceland has also increased recently, due to Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic. He adds that state secrets, business information and personal information about the public could be seen by the CIA using the fibre optics.

The MP states that he does not believe that this will effect Iceland’s relationship with Denmark and that the situation arose due to negligence rather than bad intentions. “It is very negligent to let outsiders into such an important infrastructure. Reports suggest that the Danes did not expect the Americans to spy on them; rather, it was expected that the Danes would assist the Americans in their intelligence efforts. This was done behind their backs.”

Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevine’s journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club.

You can also check out our shop, loaded with books, apparel and other cool merch, that you can buy and have delivered right to your door.