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New Details of US Surveillance Scandal Shake Norway

The U.S. Secret Service National Security Agency (NSA) watched more than 33 million mobile calls in Norway for a period of 30 days, according to Snowden documents published in Dagbladet today. Monitoring may also have occurred both before and after this period.  The document is titled “Norway – Last 30 days” shows that in the period between 10 December 2012 and 8 January 2013, 33,186,042 calls have been monitored in Norway. 

Former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said he did not know the extent of the U.S. surveillance. 

– What appears to be important now is not to mention the scale, but to clarify what actually happened, says Stoltenberg to NRK P1. 

Another Labor party politician and former culture minister Hadia Tajik stresses that the Norwegian people must have access to what Americans know about them. The minister of environment during the Stoltenberg government, BÃ¥rd Vegard Solhjell (SV) agrees with Tajik and thinks monitoring should have consequences for Norway’s foreign relations with the U.S.. 

Socialist Left party (SV) leader, Audun Lysbakken, writes on his Twitter : 

“Monitoring scandal revealed by Dagbladet today is very serious. Norway must protest vigorously against the United States” 

Like the opposition parties, the other political parties supporting the current government reacted to the surveillance fiercely. Liberal Party leader (Venstre) Trine Skei Grande and the Christian Democratic Party (KrF) leader Knut Arild Hareide believe the massive collective surveillance of Norwegian citizens is shocking.

Venstre leader Trine Skei Grande says Prime Minister Erna Solberg must now go out and publicly react strongly. KrF leader Hariede similarly believes the prime minister must now give a clear response to the U.S. government. 

– This requires a clear response from Norway to the United States. This is totally unacceptable, says Hareide. 

On the other hand, Prime minster Erna Solberg stressed that she is shocked by revelations and they did not have any information on this volume. 

– But based on data from other countries, it is not surprising to find that there could be a similar situation in Norway. It is legitimate to engage in intelligence and intelligence cooperation, but it must be targeted and based on actual suspicions. Friends should not monitor each other, says Solberg. 

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