The Danish survey reveals that thethe German Chancellor was spied on, just like other European leaders without giving names. But according to Wikileaks, presidents Chirac, Sarkozy and Holland were also bugged.
This spy case is shocking, but not really surprising. Emmanuel Macron may say that espionage between allies is unacceptable, itis an old and widespread practice. Americans probably abuse it more than anyone. What we learn from the Danish survey is the method: the NSA, information services, would have plugged into submarine cables.
These cables, there are 447 listed laid or buried over hundreds of thousands of kilometers and they provide the telephone and internet traffic. To spy, 3 solutions: Either a submarine sends a robot to put suspenders on the cables to listen. Either we hack the earth station where communications land, by sending a virus. Or, a country kindly gives you access to that earth station where the cables come in so that you can listen.
It would not be the first time
Was Denmark able to help US intelligence listen to its allies? Maybe not the Danish government. And anyway, unless there is compelling proof, he’ll never admit it. But there could have been a arrangement between spy service : “I’ll let you plug in, but I want information on such and such a country or such a leader”.
Angela Merkel did not learn this week that she was being listened to : Edward snowden (former NSA) had revealed that the Chancellor was being spied on from the American Embassy in Berlin. A little later, this time it is the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, which indicated that the United States had listened to Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande (from 2006 to 2012).
France and Germany protested. Barack Obama, then president, had promised The hand on the heart that his country would stop spying on its allies. In 8 days, at the G7 summit: Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron will be able to ask Joe Biden directly (since he was vice-president at the time).
In the United States, there was no reaction. The State Department refers to the NSA which says: No comment – no comment. Even in the media, there have been a few articles but it did not get a lot of attention. Over there, it does not surprise many people because to use a famous phrase “countries have no friends or allies, they only have interests“.
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