– Don’t be naive – NRK Norway – Summary of news from different parts of the country

Danmarks Radio wrote on Sunday, based on anonymous sources, that US intelligence, at the National Security Agency, has had access to collect large amounts of data from Danish Internet cables.

The Americans are said to have used a top-secret spy collaboration between Denmark and the United States for spying directed against central ministries and companies in Denmark.

A search analysis in 2015 showed that the NSA used the system to spy on targets in Norway, Sweden, Germany, France and the Netherlands, they write.

I want facts on the table

Audun Lysbakken (SV) is on the Storting’s Foreign and Defense Committee. Call on the Foreign Minister and the Defense Minister to immediately contact Danish and American colleagues to put all the facts on the table about what comes out anonymously.

– The government must investigate if this is correct, because it is about important national interests. We demand swift action to clarify this and the truth on the table.

– If this is correct, it is very serious and shows that we must be vigilant, also in Norway. This is, if true, an example of totally unacceptable espionage against citizens of allied countries.

His colleague on the committee, Christian Tybring-Gjedde (Frp), however, is not so upset.

– It’s a classic SV reaction. I am not willing to accept easily that the United States is a scary player who wants to hurt us. I think we have to accept that to some extent they know what we are doing. We have a close security collaboration, and this is perhaps part of the price to pay, he says.

Tybring-Gjedde emphasizes that he is not talking about espionage, but information gathering.

– You must find out if there has been foul play

NRK has contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, who currently do not wish to comment on the matter.

EOS committee head Svein Grønnern has no comment on this matter tonight.

The information appears in a series of strictly confidential reports, which an internal whistleblower from the Armed Forces Intelligence Service made around 2015, according to DR.

The NSA is said to have used the information to map other countries that had acquired, or were in the process of obtaining, F-35 fighter jets. Norway made its decision on the model airplane in 2008.

Lysbakken believes that the most sensational thing about the case is that the espionage must have taken place through Danish intelligence, and that it must have targeted targets in Norway and other countries.

– It shows that we should not be naive and be on guard so that it does not happen.

– If there has been foul play on the part of the US authorities in relation to the purchase of Danish fighter jets, then of course we must find out whether it may also have occurred in relation to the purchase of Norwegian aircraft.

Billion deal

Norway has signed an agreement to purchase a total of 52 new F-35 fighter jets to replace the F-16. The price is NOK 69.7 billion in 2016.

However, a weak krona exchange rate makes planes more expensive. An updated analysis estimates that the purchase of aircraft and equipment will cost NOK 98.8 billion, BT writes. That’s 10 billion more than the original cost framework.

In November 2017, the first three F-35 fighter jets landed on Norwegian soil. In total, Norway has received 28 F-35s.