O, reason not the need
Oh good, it seems we’re spying on Denmark, and by spying of course I mean casing the joint.
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.”
These are worrying people. It’s always safest to worry, with them in power.
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.
Well that was then, before they wanted to steal the Arctic island.
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.”
Ok. I very badly need all of Trump’s money, so he has to give it to me. That’s how needing something works.
Yes, but will you cherish his money?
The relevance to Trump’s America being…?
What I find interesting is that it got leaked to the Wall Street Journal so quickly. I reckon that the spooks don’t think much of their new boss.
I’d think it wouldn’t be easy to be a spy* in such a small community; strangers and newcomers are going to be rather obvious. Trump could equip them with red white and blue T-shirts saying I’M NOT AN AMERICAN SPY.
*Of course there are other ways of spying that don’t require US feet on the ground, but they do not lend themselves quite as obviously to comedic hilarity.
Something is rotten, though not in the state of Denmark.
In a different era, Denmark’s “Friends don’t spy on friends” reaction would strike me as quaintly naive. I remember several years ago, I think during Obama, that there was a ‘scandal’ about us engaging in intelligence activities in Brazil. My first thought upon hearing the story was that we should send the Brazilian embassy a card reading, “Congratulations–you’re important enough that we want to know about the stuff you don’t tell us. Welcome to the Big Leagues!” Hell, I’m pretty sure we spy on England, so the notion that any major nation on the planet would be immune just because of our ‘friendship’ is silly.
But of course, this isn’t that era. It’s Trumptime, and in Trumptime, every little thing tends to be much, much more worrisome than it should be. So, yeah, I don’t blame the Danes for being a little freaked out here.
“But we need that for international security”
So Trump is Marxist?
To each according to their need.