<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/07/greenland-spying-surveillance>
"Denmark has said that it will summon the US ambassador to Copenhagen to
respond to reports that US intelligence agencies have been ordered to increase
espionage in Greenland.
The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said on Wednesday that he
was concerned about the report in the
Wall Street Journal, telling the
Ritzau news agency: “It worries me a lot, because we don’t spy between
friends.”
Speaking on his way to a meeting in Warsaw, he added: “I can’t know if it’s
true because it’s in a newspaper. But it doesn’t seem to be strongly rejected
by those who speak out. That worries me.”
High-ranking officials working under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national
intelligence, issued the instruction to agency heads in a “collection emphasis
message”, the
Journal reported.
Such messages customarily help to set intelligence priorities and direct
resources and attention to high-interest targets.
The Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the
National Security Agency were all included in the message. It told chiefs to
study Greenland’s independence movement and attitudes to American efforts to
extract resources on the island, according to the Journal, citing two unnamed
officials familiar with the matter.
Seasoned intelligence operatives say the Arctic island of about 56,000
inhabitants has not historically been a target of US espionage activity.
The move will further alarm Denmark, a US ally and Nato member, which has
repeatedly vowed that the island is not available for sale or annexation. The
country is planning to spend $1.5bn to protect Greenland, which has autonomous
status under Denmark’s constitutional monarchy.
Trump, who has mused since his first presidency about the possibility of
possessing Greenland, refused to rule out seizing the 836,000 sq mile territory
by force in an interview with
NBC that was broadcast last weekend.
“I don’t say I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything,” he said. “We
need Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which
we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that
for international security.”
The comments renewed a vow the president made in an address to a joint session
of Congress in March, when he said: “One way or the other, we’re going to get
it.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
