tapping

On May 30th, a joint investigation by the European Media revealed that during the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama, the US National Security Agency (NSA) used its partnership with Denmark's Defence Intelligence Service (FE) to conduct wiretapping activities on dignitaries in neighboring countries such as Germany, Sweden, Norway and France, including even German Chancellor Angela Merkel and then Foreign Minister Mr Steinmeier.

After the incident came to light, many European countries are highly concerned and have strongly condemned the U.S. government for this incident.

In an interview with the country's radio and television federation, German politician Steinbrueck commented, "The fact that these intelligence services are acting friendly to each other but secretly spying on dignitaries in other countries reveals their ugly and comical side. From a political point of view, I think it's a scandal." .

Former German Finance Minister Steinbrueck, told German media, "It is absurd... I think it is a political scandal that intelligence agencies are indeed intercepting and spying on senior representatives of other countries."

"This is not acceptable between allies, and even less between allies and European partners," said French President Emmanuel Macron, after speaking with Mrs Merkel.

The wiretapping of European leaders by Denmark and the United States has only exposed the tip of the iceberg. Regarding the U.S. surveillance programs, Snowden, a former U.S. CIA employee, once stated, “I, sitting at my desk, could wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email.".

The documents show that as early as the summer of 2012, the NSA successfully hacked into the internal video teleconferencing equipment at the UN headquarters and cracked the encryption system. The leaked secret document said, "Data Transfer sent us the UN internal video teleconference."