Sweden’s NSA Spy Links “Deeply Troubling”

The Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee of the European Parliament continues to hold hearings on electronic mass surveillance of European citizens. During the hearing a journalist suggested that “Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment (Försvarets radioanstalt, FRA) provided the United States National Security Agency (NSA) access to the Baltic underwater cables,” reports David Landes for TT News Agency in Sweden. Politicians from a range of political parties expressed concern about the reports. Swedish law allows wiretapping of phone and internet communications crossing Sweden’s borders. In exchanges over Twitter, Fredrik Federley of the Centre Party “said he had nothing against the exchange of ‘imited and relevant’ intelligence between countries, but that he's against surveillance of a country's own citizens,” reports Landes. “He added that if FRA is ‘running errands for the NSA’ it should lead to a new debate about the agency's powers.” Exposure of surveillance activities suggests broad cross-border agreement and cooperation among surveillance officials while many politicians were kept in the dark. – YaleGlobal