Lars Findsen, Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service (FE) chief—the equivalent of the U.S.’s CIA director—walked into Copenhagen city court with three large police escorts pressed against the country’s leading spy charged with treason. Findsen is forbidden to speak to reporters, but they understood his opinion about his arrest when they saw the paperback in his hand: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.^[1]

He was one of four FE and PET (Danish Security and Intelligence Service—the police equivalent of the FBI) employees arrested last December 8. Findsen was charged with violating Criminal Code §109—“disclosing highly classified information from the intelligence services”—an act of “treason” punishable by 12 years’ imprisonment.^[2]

Copenhagen City Judge Merete Engholm allowed his name to be released in a subsequent court hearing, January 10, 2022, at his request. Findsen told reporters from a distance: “I want the preliminary charge brought forward, and I plead not guilty. This is completely insane.”

Findsen has since been forbidden to say one word to any media from any distance. The other three persons’ names and whereabouts are unknown to the media and public. It is not even known if they are formally charged and awaiting trial, either in prison or at home.

The prosecution and the judge refuse to disclose what information on what secret matter(s) Findsen allegedly disclosed or to whom he disclosed them. At the end of the 10-hour court hearing, the judge continued his remand detention until March 3.

DR court reporter Trine Maria Ilsøe explained that Findsen’s detention allows him television but no access to IT or telephone. He is allowed a few visitors but cannot speak about the case. Guards watch. (DR is Denmark’s largest media outlet—online, radio and TV—and is state-supported.)

This case can well be associated with the U.S.’s Espionage Act, Britain’s Official Secrets Act, and what the U.S./UK are doing to Julian Assange now. Yet the mass media do not mention any of that. It seems Julian Assange’s name is taboo.

Since the judge and government will not say what the case is all about, reporters predict that we may never be told, which leads to even more speculation. The fact that the judge is keeping Findsen confined until trial—which has no time limit and some remanded prisoners have been kept in jail for more than a year—also raises questions of lack of respect for human rights.

The judge simply agreed with the state that, if he were released, he could talk to the media and/or in some way hinder the police investigation, or even continue to commit whatever “crime” he is charged with.

DR produced a video in the style of a future detective novel. It speaks of three possible issues that could lay behind these arrests:

1) FE delivered a recent report to the government about children of Danish citizens involved with Islamic State terrorists. They are now interned in a Kurd-controlled concentration camp in Syria. FE told the Danish government, which does not want them returned, that they could be trained in terrorism and return to Denmark to do damage.

2) A Danish citizen, Ahmed Samsam—assumed by Danish journalists to have been an FE agent, and perhaps a PET agent as well—was arrested in Spain for aiding the Islamic State there. He received eight years in prison, and apparently Danish intelligence personnel are upset that their government has not aided him.

Ahmad Samsam [Source: theolivepress.es]

Journalists were again kept out of the February 4 hearing by double-locked doors. They protested the lack of transparency, sparking speculation that Findsen may be considered “too open toward the media.”

Lars Kjeldsen, one of Findsen’s two lawyers, said the 57-year-old career intelligence officer is “sad and shocked.” “He has cooperated fully…I remain baffled that it should not be possible to make public the charges and the basis for his detention.” “I think there would be a considerable debate if we actually [understood] what is going on here,” Kieldsen told reporters.

Kjeldsen is not allowed to comment on the substance of the case for fear of violating the same Criminal Code §109. Media headlines in recent days have spoken of this case as an “Unprecedented Scandal,” “Spectacular,” “Violent,” “Internal Chaos” and “Something’s Rotten in Denmark”!

The right-wing daily, Jyllands-Posten, editorialized that “Denmark’s security and credibility stand to become the big loser” no matter how the case ends, and that it “undoubtedly must trigger the question: What is rotten in Denmark?”

Several of these silver-coated metal boxes containing prosecution documents were carried into court. [Source: dr.dk]

Bonnichsen wrote that Findsen made “the largest turnaround process in PET’s history. We created a modern organization with greater openness about the work of the service, with a website, annual report; meetings were held with the press and interviews were given. I find it infinitely difficult to see that such a profile has a motive for national harm, but let the process determine this.”

Five days after Findsen and the other three were arrested, the three-judge government commission delivered its year-long report on the FE whistleblower case: “Acquitted: There is no basis for criticism of either FE or its employees in this case.” No more details were forthcoming. [Kommission frikender Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste | avisendanmark.dk]

“There are no grounds for critique,” informed Minister Trine Bramsen. “I am very satisfied with that conclusion.” Nevertheless, Findsen is not back on the job as FE chief but in prison.

Apparently, that has had no effect on the government’s prosecution or the judge concerned. We do not know if it has even been brought out in court, as lawyers are forbidden to speak about the proceedings. Nevertheless, anyone following this grave matter must wonder why the government’s investigation by judges cleared Findsen (maybe the others as well), but the police (PET) investigation resulted in arrest with the severest of charges against intelligence officers.

To confound matters all the more, the Ministry of Justice has also charged Claus Hjort Frederiksen, a leading hawk member of Parliament and defense minister (2016-19), with the same law leveled against Findsen. Hjort revealed this in mid-January; the Justice ministry has been silent.

“I can confirm that I have been charged under Section 109 of the Penal Code for violating the limits of my freedom of expression. I have expressed myself as a member of parliament on a political matter and I have nothing further to add at this stage. But I could never dream of doing anything that could harm Denmark or Denmark’s interests.”

Former Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen (Venstre Party) observing tank war games in Denmark, 2017. [Source: oifi.dk]

“I came home after a massage on December 20 last year. Two policemen came to my door and handed me a citation that I was charged with Criminal Code §109. I was shocked. I have not been charged with any criminal offense in my life. This charge is about nationally harmful activities with a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.” The charge does not explain what he is supposed to have done.

Hjort has not been jailed, as members of Parliament have certain immunity rights that can be removed by parliament only in exceptional cases. That could be forthcoming; however, the Ministry of Justice has made no comment on the matter. Hjort was recently sent material that he had violated required silence about “state secrets,” which he says is not the case.

Hjort believes the claim has to do with a television interview and newspaper articles he participated in more than a year ago. He said he did not state anything that had not already come out in the media. A former head of FE, Thomas Ahrenkiel, had been one of four leading FE men suspended in August 2020 after a whistleblower informed Danish media about what he considered to be constitutionally illegal surveillance of all Danish citizens and other residents, which is sent to NSA. Denmark has also spied upon its closest European leaders. [See below.]

Edward Snowden first revealed in 2013 some of this spying, XKEYSCORE, which also involves spying within the “international community.”

Hjort had also stated that Denmark is part of the U.S.’s 9 Eyes: UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand—5 Eyes—plus the Netherlands, Norway and France. There is also “14 Eyes,” which includes Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Italy and Spain. The U.S. and UK started the first Eyes just after WWII to exchange “security secrets.”

The first 2 eyes, U.S.-UK, signed an agreement on March 5, 1946, to spy upon the Soviet Union.

Already the year before—at the close of the war in Europe—Winston Churchill had devised Operation Unthinkable—a surprise attack on Soviet forces in Europe, with the possible use of atomic weapons against Moscow, Stalingrad and Kiev. It did not happen because he lost the July 1945 election to Labour Party leader Clement Attlee. Additionally, President Harry Truman did not have enough atomic bombs. The few he had were used the next month against Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The only official restrictions set upon the Eyes is that they must not spy on their own citizens. However, Edward Snowden proved that the U.S. does so. While U.S. authorities have lied about the fact that they spy upon everyone in the U.S., Britain passed a law—the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016—granting the state the power to record anyone’s browsing history, text messages and connection logs.

The USA PATRIOT Act, following 9/11, allows the government to force social media to turn over any information they have on customers—that means all of us.

Hjort’s former political party leader and PM, Lars Loekke Rasmussen (Venstre Party) called charges against him an “over-reaction…which could have been avoided…here lies the germ of a political scandal.”

What has been unraveling for 18 months seems to show that Denmark is the U.S.’s lead Eye into spying on other European allies. The Nordic countries share the same original language and cultural roots, including having been the warring slave-trading Vikings. Sweden and especially Norway were also under Danish colonial control for centuries.

Spying on them and their own citizens has nothing to do with spying upon the U.S./Denmark’s new “Cold War enemies”: Russia, China and Iran.

Background on FE-NSA Spying Since 1990s Eyes, and Since 2008 Through Fiber Cables

In August 2020, I wrote the first of several CAM pieces about this unprecedented exposure of rampant spying on all Danes and other residents, and other Europeans, all to please the United States of America’s self-purported interests in managing the world’s affairs.

A military whistleblower first reported on illegal espionage to the military leadership in 2015. His superiors ignored his reports. Four years later, he revealed illegal spying to the new Danish Intelligence Oversight Committee (TET), and later to Danish media.

Some information about what appears to be long-standing illegalities in the Defense Intelligence Service, which TET presented on August 24, includes:

1. Withholding “key and crucial information to government authorities” and the oversight committee between 2014 and today;
2. Illegal activities even before 2014;
3. Telling “lies” to policymakers;
4. Illegal surveillance on Danish citizens, including a member of the oversight committee. [Some of this illegal spying had been shared with unnamed sources (perhaps the U.S.?)];
5. Unauthorized activities have been shelved; and
6. The FE failed to follow up on indications of espionage within areas of the Ministry of Defense.

TET was created in 2014 with five civilian members, experts in the rule of law, chief judges and professors. It has eight employees and a budget of only $1.3 million. TET told the media that, in November 2019, it received from unnamed whistleblower(s) four thick ring binders of classified material showing FE illegalities. When TET delivered its report to the government, it asked Parliament to create a whistleblower scheme for the FE, which it has not done.

Operation Dunhammer is the code name for an FE internal investigation, begun in 2012, concerning NSA sucking all surveillance out of Denmark. Who knew about that? Was it sanctioned by top Danish leaders over decades? Those questions are at the heart of the current growing scandal.

“Four leading Defense Intelligence Service personnel were suspended on Monday, August 24, pending an independent investigation into serious charges of illegalities—amounting to what the liberal Danish daily Politiken is calling the greatest ‘life scandal in its history’.”

Lars Findsen, his predecessor, Thomas Ahrenkiel, and two other current intelligence officers, were temporarily suspended. A fifth was suspended later. After Bramsen was bombarded with protests from opposition politicians, they were placed in military positions other than intelligence until a three-judge commission investigated the matter for more than a year, until December 2021. The government would not explain what it would and would not look into.

“We cannot expect that most of the possible illegalities committed will be made public,” Bramsen said. “Denmark’s intelligence services are connected to and dependent upon foreign powers [i.e., the U.S.]. Denmark could be compromised if secrets were revealed.”

Claus Hjort speculated for the daily Ekstra Bladet that he might be in trouble with the Ministry of Justice, because he had told the media that then-Defense Minister Bramsen should have handled the sensitive information about FE/NSA spying much better. She should have prevented TET from sending out a news release with its critique of FE, and that she should not have suspended the four leading FE figures.

For several months, DR worked with journalists from Sweden (SVT), Norway, Germany (Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, WDR) and France (Le Monde) on these developments. Their work forced some of the 35 national leaders, known to be spied upon to come forward.

“We demand to be fully informed about matters concerning Swedish citizens, companies and interests,” Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told national broadcaster SVT.

The leaders of Germany and France said that spying on them is “unacceptable among allies.”

PM Merete Frederiksen’s Social Democrat (SD) government neither confirmed nor denied the assertions, simply stating that such spying is “unacceptable among allies.”

Macron and Merkel. [Source: a2news.com]

This was one of the key questions for Defense Minister Bramsen and Justice Minister Nick Haekkerup when they were in consultation with the Folketing [Parliament] Defense Committee. They would not reply “for fear there are major risks if confidential information from the intelligence services comes out publicly” said Minister Bramsen. Apparently, the committee did not ask if the government would continue spying on its own citizens.

NSA and FE signed an agreement in 2008 that enables NSA to tap huge amounts of data sourced from Danish fiber-optic communication cables passing through Denmark. This metadata is stored by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service in a center called Sandagergãrd built with NSA guidance and technical assistance on the small Danish island of Amager to which the NSA has access.

Sandagergãrd is one of three Danish military-intelligence “listening posts” which trawl through and analyze global internet data seeking information, for example, on what Terma, Denmark’s largest weapons firm, has. This is clearly an intrusion on capitalism’s basic principle and need for free-market competition.

Danish military base’s data center at Sandagergãrd close to Copenhagen, on the island of Amager, to which NSA has access. [Source: datacenterdynamics.com]

In 2013, XKEYSCORE was NSA’s most advanced electronic surveillance program, which Edward Snowden exposed. Another NSA whistleblower, William Binney, had designed a program prior to XKEYSCORE, which could be used for extensive surveillance. He opposed using it to spy on entire populations, and resigned in 2001 after 30 years’ service. When XKEYSCORE was designed, it had greater capabilities than ECHELON in that it could access all users’ emails, all computer communications, and even spy on us from our computer screens that have cameras.

[Source: covertactionmagazine.com]

In 2016, the government decided to buy 27 F-35s to replace F-16s. The price today is around $10 billion, which is double the country’s annual defense budget. After years of technical problems, the first F-35s for Denmark were to have arrived two years ago. Not one is yet in sight, fortunately.

Besides land-based electronic surveillance, there are hundreds of transoceanic submarine cables carrying information between many countries. For decades, Denmark has had a key cable connected to the U.S., which NSA taps into. In addition, there are new submarine commercial cables.

Denmark and Iraq

The first and last serious case of illegalities connected to the government and its military intelligence service took place in 2004. Major Frank Grevil was an analyst at FE. He led a report that concluded there was no solid evidence that Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government possessed weapons of mass destruction.

This information was forwarded to then-Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen who lied to the public, stating he was “absolutely certain” Iraq had such weapons.

Rasmussen convinced a majority in parliament to declare war on Iraq because it had such weapons—as though that is a global crime in itself but not for the West. Hundreds of Danish soldiers and mercenaries were sent to Iraq to murder thousands. Military aircraft and ships were also later sent to Afghanistan and Libya. Some 50 Danish warriors were killed in a 15-year period.

Grevil’s conscience bothered him so he let the media know the prime minister had lied. He was identified and charged under Criminal Code §152 for violating a secrecy obligation. Since it was only an internal report to the PM, the more severe §109 provision was not used. He received the maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment, serving four months, and lost his job. The prime minister, on the other hand, served two terms and the U.S. then rewarded him with the top NATO post.

Major Grevil speaks to the media about the case. [Source: alchetron.com]

PM Rasmussen doused in “red blood.” The activists were jailed for four months (serving 70 days in isolation), fined $40,000 plus court and damage costs of approximately $200,000. [Source: BT]

[Source: twitter.com]

Danish Journalists Could Be Imprisoned in U.S. for Whistleblower Revelations

Denmark’s Constitution (Grundlov) from 1849, Chapter 8, §72, is as close as Denmark’s fundamental law comes to the U.S.’s First Amendment guarantee of free press and speech, and the right to privacy.

“The home is inviolable. House investigations, seizures and examinations of letters and other papers, as well as breaches of postal, telegraph and telephone secrecy, where no law confers a special exemption, may be carried out solely on the form of a court order.”

When that law speaks of the “home” it also means the people living in that home, and “other papers” includes today’s e-mails and internet searches. Has any subsequent law changed that guarantee? CAM asked an expert in constitutional law who responded that it would take many hours to determine the answer. Unfortunately, he did not have the time (or, apparently, the interest) to do so.

Is Criminal Code §109 such a possibility? I asked a former member of TET, political science professor Joergen Groennegaard Christensen. He had written in Weekend Avisen that the laws governing state secrets are “very broadly formulated,” “really problematic” and that, in recent years, “intelligence services have been freed from restrictions they were earlier subject to.”

Christensen spoke cautiously due to his “sealed lips duty,” and the fact that he is not an attorney, but he indicated that the constitution is “not absolute”—that one or more laws could be interpreted as making exceptions to civil liberties guarantees.

Given these circumstances, it is certainly ironic that Denmark’s media have not covered England’s extradition trial of the Australian Julian Assange, nor do they openly support him. The U.S. government had long denied that Assange is a publisher but changed course midway in the extradition trial. The U.S. now contends that he is a publisher, thereby asserting that journalists worldwide can be prosecuted in the U.S. for reporting the “U.S.’s national security secrets.”

In December 2020, DR foreign news editor Niels Kvale and I communicated concerning press freedoms and why DR does not cover Julian Assange’s extradition trial.

Kvale responded to my complaint of suppression of this important news. He wrote that “importance is the most important criterion” in making DR’s determination of what to cover.

Extraditing an Australian publisher to the U.S.—which could imprison Assange for 175 years for 17 alleged violations of its Espionage Act—is apparently not important enough. By not covering this trial, let alone not coming out in support of Assange and WikiLeaks, DR may not yet realize that its reporters and editors can also be prosecuted for violating the 1917 Espionage Act. In 1961, the U.S. Congress removed language that restricted the Act’s application to U.S. territory and its inhabitants. Importantly, the motivations for revealing war crimes are not allowed as a defense in U.S. courts. That is a clear warning to all that the U.S. does not abide by basic democratic rights of free press and free speech.

I spoke by telephone with DR editor Kvale about the U.S. government threat. He replied: “I was not aware of that. This sounds interesting. Send me your article and I will inform our journalists.”

Well, a year later, Danish journalists must now realize that the Assange matter is of concern to them. Yet they still do not incorporate Julian’s punishment for publishing factual documentation of state war crimes into their reports. In these months that the media have been reporting what a Danish whistleblower(s) has revealed, and now with the government desperate to worm its way out of a chaotic mess it feels is damaging its cozy relationship with Big Daddy, reporters still refuse to make any association with the legitimate Assange/WikiLeaks work for real democracy: transparency.

Denmark’s’ temporary FE chief, Svend Larsen, and PET chief Finn Borch Andersen personally admonished two dailies, Politiken and Extra Bladet, for suggesting that those arrested on December 9 had divulged information to Danish media about those agencies, that they had committed illegalities to please the U.S.

The spy chiefs also warned other daily newspapers that they have a duty to be “silent” about such secrets. They also threatened to use Criminal Code §109 with 12 years’ imprisonment against them, the same law now being used against FE Chief Findsen.

The Communist Party’s website article on this matter maintains that, since FE and PET warned the media not to reveal any more leaks, at least one article has been stopped from publication.

No doubt, Denmark’s government is emboldened by the British aristocratic “high court” decision to help the U.S. silence all journalists about “national security secrets” by deciding to extradite publisher Julian Assange to a U.S. torture prison.

Edward Snowden told Politiken (January 22) that this is a “democratic scandal.”

By charging whistleblowers with high crimes, the Danish state is “moving in an authoritarian course—punishing people for telling the truth to a population that needs to know,” says the activist-whistleblower. “This should be a screaming red alarm for everybody that something is all wrong.”

Snowden says that Danish and American laws about national security secrets have to do with handing over national secrets to enemies, especially in times of war—that is classic espionage—and should not be spying on their own citizens and friendly neighbors.

Interviewer Sebastian Stryhn Kjekdtoft speculated that whoever the FE whistleblower is who passed on secrets to the oversight committee TET, may have been inspired by Snowden’s 2013 revelations. Snowden says he does not know who he is, but he feels “inspired by that person’s courage and ability to do it. He has captured them [those responsible] breaking the law and the civil rights of everybody in Denmark and the whole world.”

The former CIA/NSA employee turned people’s activist hopes that Danes will be inspired to demand answers from the government instead of allowing a blackout. “I think the Danish society has a duty to support that person [the whistleblower]…and see to it that the situation is changed.”

A. When you have such enormous surveillance with all of internet…some slips through…NSA is indifferent…Not because Denmark is an enemy, rather that NSA is part of the American state, which seeks to maximize its power and influence in all corners of the world.

Q: The Danish government considers partnership with NSA vital. Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup recently spoke of a paradox, “the secret that lays in the intelligence service, is part of the foundation so that we can preserve our freedom.”

A: That is silly, really silly…The idea that Denmark finds itself in a threatened situation, such that, in desperation, you reduce yourself to some kind of colony in USA’s foreign policy department is hopeless…And when you gather communication on everybody outside Denmark, treating them as second-class citizens, you create enemies.

Snowden told the reporter that he has seen the most secret documents about Danish-American cooperation. Each prime minister and president signs an agreement (which permits massive surveillance), which is shown to and signed by each successor. “A form of written handshake…There is no public debate allowed, nothing must be known. How can that be considered democratic?”

“Just because an official comes out and says that something is secret and cannot by law be disclosed doesn’t make it so. If a government does something illegal but calls it ‘secret,’ and any who discloses this is a ‘traitor,’ so raises the question: Who is the real enemy? In that case, the enemy is the people. The media is an intelligence service for a free society.”

Snowden furthermore explained that the U.S.-Danish government heads’ agreement sets in motion the technological problem that effective filtering is “impossible.” He adds that spies think they “need as much data as possible.”

Q. Kjekdtoft ended the interview by asking Snowden what he thought about intelligence

chiefs’ threat to at least eight journalists, himself included, that they must testify in an eventual court case that could run the course of several years.

A. “This is really extortion. If the government mixes in press freedom there should be civil opposition…If the government is stupid enough to demand that journalists [serve as] witness in this case, so it is the government that is in the dock and not the journalists or their sources.”

That is basically what several national and international civil liberties and press freedom organizations conclude as well. Nevertheless, neither those that I have seen nor Politiken’s interviewer, is willing to point out that the precedent for this is the case against WikiLeaks/Julian Assange. (And, of course, the case against Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, which we won.)

The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is one of several such organizations, which has condemned Danish authorities for threatening journalists with imprisonment.

“The overly broad application of national security laws to criminalize the press, combined with attempts to stifle publication of public interest journalism designed to hold authorities to account, is of growing concern globally. It is a favored tactic of oppressive, authoritarian regimes and we sincerely hope this is not a direction that Denmark is choosing to go towards.”

“This is nothing short of intimidation by the authorities in an attempt to impose pre-publication censorship,” said WAN-IFRA CEO Vincent Peyrègne.

WAN-IFRA spokespeople refused to answer CAM’s question about why the association refuses to take a stand on Assange.

Mads Brandstrup, chief executive officer of Danske Medier, the Danish Media Association, said: “The intelligence services must subject themselves to public scrutiny just as any other part of government. I find this kind of approach deeply concerning and it should have no place in a democratic society.”

“Can the government guarantee that the Danish Defense Intelligence Service does not allow the U.S. secret service NSA to spy on Denmark’s neighboring countries?” wrote DR, September 26, 2021. 

This was one of the key questions for then-Defense Minister Bramsen and Justice Minister Haekkerup when they were consulting with the Folketing [Parliament] Defense Committee. They could not reply “for fear there are major risks if confidential information from the intelligence services comes out publicly” said Minister Bramsen. Apparently, the Defense Committee did not ask if the government would continue spying on its own citizens.

1. “Winner of Pulitzer Prize, 2015, and NYT bestseller involves a Parisian father and daughter fleeing invading Nazis with “invaluable secrets.” The novel is a study in how people against all odds try to find out what is right and good. Besides being framed for “treason”—perhaps a whistleblower for democracy—Findsen must also be an avid reader of Graham Greene, John le Carré and Kafka.”↑
2. Criminal Code §109 : Anyone who reveals or transmits secret notifications, sub-actions, consultations or decisions of the State in cases in which the security or rights of the State in relation to foreign States, or which relate to significant socio-economic interests abroad, is punishable by imprisonment up to 12 years. [Author’s translation] The only other time this statute was applied was in 1980 when a man named Jorg received six years’ imprisonment for smuggling Danish state secrets concerning atomic and oil energy for East Germany’s Stasi. His lover, Karen Vinter, who photographed secret documents, received 18 months’ imprisonment. ↑

covertactionmagazine.com

Two former or current secret surveillance officers for Denmark’s Military Intelligence Service (Forsvars Efterretningstjeneste FE) and two current or former Police Secret Service (Politiets Efterretningstjeneste PET) were arrested for leaking “deeply confidential information”. Three of them appeared before Copenhagen’s City Court yesterday. To fængslet i hemmeligt grundlovsforhør: Medarbejdere anholdt for lækager fra FE og PET | Indland | DR

The court forbad media coverage in court. The nine-hour indictment hearing was held behind double locked doors. Denmarks Radio (DR), the public service radio-television-online medium, learned only that three of the four were heard in court, one was released and two remanded in custody. There is no information about the fourth person arrested.

FE is the equivalent to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. While the FE jurisdiction also covers military intelligence, they must not spy on Danish people—only foreigners and those in other countries. The Police Intelligence Service (PET) surveils Danes, as the FBI surveils people within the U.S. The constitution forbids blanket spying on any Danish resident without court approval.

Trine Maria Ilsoee, DR legal reporter, wrote that there is “nearly no precedence” that there is an “internal investigation in PET and FE.” If found guilty they could end up in prison for 12 years. (1)

As of now, the public does not know what the leaking is about. Ilsoee mentions two possibilities. One of those is Denmark’s biggest spying scandal to date.

Last May, Denmarks Radio (DR) published information provided by at least one FE whistleblower exposing how Danish governments (right and so-called left) have been violating its own constitution by spying upon all its inhabitants and upon its closest neighbor leaders. Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste lod USA spionere mod Angela Merkel, franske, norske og svenske toppolitikere gennem danske internetkabler | Indland | DR (2) (See France and Germany ‘seeking full clarity’ from US and Denmark on spying report – CNN )

Ironically, it may be that the state prosecutor in the current case is contending that those charged have violated Denmark’s constitution by revealing secrets. This may well be associated with the US’s Espionage Act, and Britain’s Official Secrets Act.

FE has been illegally and systematically spying upon its own citizens for United States economic profit and political interests. This has nothing to do with spying upon their “enemies” (Russia, China, Iran, et al.).

Operation Dunhammer is the codename for a FE internal investigation of how the US’s National Security Agency (NSA) was sucking all surveillance out of its spy network with the Danish military secret service.

For several months DR has been working with journalists from Sweden (SVT), Norway, Germany (Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, WDR) and France (Le Monde) on these new developments. Their work forced some of 35 national leaders known to be spied upon by the U.S. to come forth.

“We demand to be fully informed about matters concerning Swedish citizens, companies and interests. And then we have to see how the answer sounds from the political side in Denmark,” Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told national broadcaster SVT.

Norway, Sweden Demand Answers on Espionage After Report of Denmark Helping NSA Spy on EU Politicians – Sputnik International (sputniknews.com)

PM Emmanuel Macron said such behavior is “unacceptable among allies”.

Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen said the government “cannot and will not enter into speculation about intelligence matters”, yet she emphasized that she views the systematic wiretapping of close allies as “unacceptable”.

The information of long-standing illegalities, which the understaffed and weak Danish Intelligence Oversight Committee (TET) presented to the public last August, includes:

1. Withholding “key and crucial information to government authorities” and the oversight committee between 2014 and today;
2. Illegal activities even before 2014;
3. Telling “lies” to policy makers;
4. Illegal surveillance on Danish citizens, including a member of the oversight committee. (Some of this illegal spying had been shared with unnamed sources [perhaps the U.S.?]);
5. Unauthorized activities have been shelved and;
6. The FE failed to follow up on indications of espionage within areas of the Ministry of Defense.

When DR first exposed some of this spying, Defense Minister Bramsen suspended five FE leaders responsible. Under pressure from several political parties, and most likely the U.S., she reinstated them in different jobs.

Bramsen said that a secret internal investigation into the reports by TET would begin in December and last one year. Results will be shown only to a select few in government and to only five parliamentarians, who must not share information with anyone else.

What is to be and not be investigated will not be revealed either. That was made clear by the government to DR when it first published the whistleblower’s revelations. Reporter Trine Marie Ilsøee wrote:

“We cannot expect that most of the possible illegalities committed will be made public.” She added that Denmark’s intelligence services are connected to and dependent upon foreign powers [i.e. U.S. and not Europe]. Denmark could be compromised if secrets were revealed. “After all, intelligence services operate in secrecy.”

Edward Snowden first revealed some of this spying, XKEYSCORE, in 2013, which also involves spying within the “international community”. XKEYSCORE: NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications (theintercept.com) and Portrait of the NSA: no detail too small in quest for total surveillance | NSA | The Guardian.

Denmark is one of the US’s closest Eyes, part of “9 Eyes” (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand—5 Eyes—plus the Netherlands, Norway and France, and “14 Eyes”, which includes Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Italy and Spain).

What is unravelling seems to show that Denmark is US’s lead Eye into spying on other European allies. The Nordic countries share the same original language and cultural roots, including having been the warring Vikings. Sweden and especially Norway were also under Danish colonial control for centuries. Outposts of the U.S. Surveillance Empire: Denmark and Beyond – CovertAction Magazine.

Notes

(1) FE Major Frank Grevil revealed in 2004 that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen knew that Iraq did not have “massive weapons of destruction” when he convinced the parliament to declare war on that country. This was the first time Denmark had declared war since 1864 when it did so against Germany. Rasmussen was rewarded by being named head of NATO. Grevil went to prison for four months. This was Denmark’s Julian Assange case, albeit the Yankees and British aristocratic state seek Julian’s death.

(2) The headline reads in English: FE (Military Secret Service) let USA Spy against Angela Merkel, French, Norwegian and Swedish top politicians through Danish internet cables. (The US had helped provide the technology.)

The African Union and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) condemn the state of Denmark and its Social Democrat government for xenophobia. An Uncle Tom, “integration” minister Mattias Tesfaye (Ethiopian-Danish), is used as a leading promoter of racist neo-colonialism. 

Mattias Tesfave, Minister for Immigration and Integration (sic), is leading a crusade to deport to one or more African countries asylum-seekers in Denmark. His ministry has rejected their status as refugees, but cannot return them to their land of origin as their lives could be in danger.

The African Union (AU) has strongly condemned Denmark for practicing “xenophobia”, i.e. racism, for its treatment of refugees, most of whom do not come from Africa but rather the Middle East. AU is a continental union consisting of 55 member states of Africa, founded May 26, 2001. Its headquarters is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The bloc encompasses 1.3 billion people.

In a news release (August 2), the African Union “condemns in the strongest terms possible, Denmark’s Aliens Act, which was passed recently [June 2021], and which provides for Denmark to relocate asylum seekers to countries outside the European Union while their cases are being processed. This law effectively externalizes and exports the asylum process beyond the borders of Denmark.” Press Statement On Denmark’s Alien Act provision to Externalize Asylum procedures to third countries | African Union (au.int)

“African Union notes with concern attempts…to establish…an extension of the borders of [Denmark]…to the African shores. Such attempts [are] xenophobic and completely unacceptable.”

“The African Union views this [Danish] law with the gravest of concerns and wishes to remind Denmark of its responsibility towards international protection for persons in need of that protection as provided for in the 1951 UN Convention on refugees, to which Denmark is a state party.”

The Refugee Convention sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum. 4ca34be29.pdf (unhcr.org)

Less than a year ago, Denmark was strongly criticized by the European committee against torture, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) (coe.int).

CPT found that many refugees in Denmark’s Ellebaek “Immigration Center” are met with violence and racism by “immigration” personnel and police. CPT also criticized refugee’s lack of access to healthcare, and that refugee detainees are jailed in police stations, sometimes for many hours without access to light and proper ventilation.

Conditions at the Ellebaek Alien Center protested. (Foto: Niels Christian Vilmann © Scanpix)

These refugees are among those that Denmark is attempting to bury in “reception centers”, which it will create in poverty-stricken Africa still under the foot of Western neo-colonialism. Danmark afviser torturkomités kritik om vold og racisme på udlændingecenter | Indland | DR. See also: 09000016809f65d6 (coe.int)

Many of these homeless refugees were denied asylum by the Tesfave-party led government, Social Democrats. Denmark, however, must not return them to the country from which they fled due to their being in risk for punishment or death, because the country is at war. Many are from Syria, which the Danish government has bombed and sent volunteer mercenary soldiers to kill patriots fighting for their country’s sovereignty. Denmark’s aggression is illegal by national and all international laws. Its’ actions are motivated to please USA’s imperial plans of global domination and to confiscate natural resources.

Denmark is Still a Colonialist

BT, a conservative daily, interviewed Stig Jensen, on August 6, 2021, a Copenhagen University African Studies associate professor, regarding the significance of the Refugee Convention and African Union’s statement. Jensen considered that Denmark is willing to be “strategic enough to go down and ask who is hungry enough to take on this task.”

Regarding African Union’s critique: “It’s a bump in the government’s desire to implement the plans,” but Denmark will not change coarse, Jensen mused.

Tesfaye and Development Minister Flemming Moeller Mortensen went to Rwanda offering bribes—“carrots”, Jensen calls them—to pressed government officials to accept Denmark’s unwanted foreigners, most not Africans, to a timeless existence in “reception centers”.

Denmark’s counterpart to USA’s secretary of state, Jeppe Kofod, was sent to Ethiopia to see if it could be so bribed. However, Tesfaye’s fatherland is engaged in a brutal civil war brought on by Denmark’s friendly government of Abiy Ahmed. Several ethnic groups, separated and pit against one another by European colonialists, are now in conflict with the government. A civil war in the northern area of Tigray is so devastating—the government forbids any food/medicine to reach the area—that even Uncle Tom Tesfaye has taken Ethiopia off the list. U.S. Paves Way for Intervention in Ethiopia, Horn of Africa — Strategic Culture (strategic-culture.org)

Tesfaye was born in Denmark. His mother was Jytte Svensson, a Dane with Swedish roots. She was a social-health worker. His father is not even named on wikipedia, only that he was from Ethiopia.
Mattias Tesfaye – Wikipedia, den frie encyklopædi.

Teenager Tesfaye joined Denmark’s Communist Party Marxist-Leninist (Stalinist) where he made a name for himself in Denmark’s small radical circle for 15 years. He quit for a more acceptable, wishy-washy leftist party, and moved his way up to the former worker’s party, Social Democrats. He was rewarded with a seat in parliament and now disintegration minister.

With Ethiopia out of the running, Tesfaye prefers Rwanda, despite decades of mass murder—majority Hutus against minority Tutsi’s, culminating in the genocide of 1994. In later years, Tutsi’s murdering Hutu’s and peoples in the Congo over who gets control of selling the world’s richest minerals (uranium, coltan, copper, tin, tungsten, diamonds, gold…) to Western countries with the ships waiting at African ports. Europe/US then use these minerals to make weapons with which they invade and murder peoples of color, like Tesfaye’s father.

thiscantbehappening.net

New revelations concerning Denmark’s systematic spying upon its closest neighbor leaders—Germany, France, Norway and Sweden—since 2013 were broadcast and published online by the public service medium Danmark Radio (DR), May 30.

1. EU/NATO allies have been spied upon for the United States by the Danish Intelligence Service (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste-FE), and without knowledge of parliament and, perhaps, even government leaders.
2. France, Norway and Sweden leaders spied upon have come forth with strong critiques and demands for an investigation, for full clarity, and an end to such “grotesque” behavior. They backed up Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel critical statements in 2014 when Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. tapped into her private cell phone calls. Edward Snowden: Leaks that exposed US spy programme – BBC News
3. This spying by FE is code named Operation Dunhammer (1)

In addition to spying upon its neighbors, FE has been illegally and systematically spying upon its own citizens for United States economic profit and political interests. This has nothing to do with spying upon their ”enemies” (Russia, China, Iran, et. al.). Huge Intelligence Agency Scandal Rocks Denmark and Puts its “Deep State” on Trial – CovertAction Magazine.

FE is the equivalent to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. While the FE jurisdiction also covers military intelligence, they must not spy on Danish people—only foreigners and those in other countries. The Police Intelligence Service (PET) surveils Danes, as the FBI surveils people within the U.S.

Both FE and NSA refuse to comment. Nor has Barak Obama or Joe Biden apologized to Merkel, whom Obama told in 2013 that such tapping into her phone would not occur again.

For several months DR has been working with journalists from Sweden (SVT), Norway, Germany (Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, WDR) and France (Le Monde) on these new developments. Their work forced some of 35 national leaders known to be spied upon by the U.S. to come forth.

“We demand to be fully informed about matters concerning Swedish citizens, companies and interests. And then we have to see how the answer sounds from the political side in Denmark,” Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told national broadcaster SVT.

Norway, Sweden Demand Answers on Espionage After Report of Denmark Helping NSA Spy on EU Politicians – Sputnik International (sputniknews.com)

“We take the allegations seriously,” his Norwegian counterpart Frank Bakke-Jensen told national broadcaster NRK.

Both defense ministers emphasized that their Danish colleague Defense Minister Trine Bramsen had failed to inform them about the NSA’s espionage against Denmark’s neighbors.

“We did not get to know anything concrete about the case at all,” Frank Bakke-Jensen of Norway complained.”

“The French Foreign Ministry’s minister of state for European affairs, Clement Beaune, called the possible U.S. spying campaign on European politicians a very serious thing, and called for further verification of the information…If confirmed, Beaune did not rule out ’consequences.’”

PM Emmanuel Macron said such behavior is “unacceptable among allies”.

“Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen said the government “can and will not enter into speculation about intelligence matters”, yet she emphasized that she views the systematic wiretapping of close allies “unacceptable”.

Just why is it that the Danish government “cannot” speak publically (that is democratically) or even privately to its neighbor leaders about its spying is not forthcoming.

Concerning the new revelations, Edward Snowden states: Edward Snowden på Twitter: “Biden is well-prepared to answer for this when he soon visits Europe since, of course, he was deeply involved in this scandal the first time around. There should be an explicit requirement for full public disclosure not only from Denmark, but their senior partner as well.” / Twitter

Snowden had first revealed some of the spying in 2013, including against Germany Chancellor Merkel. XKEYSCORE

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Photo by Emilio Esbardo. Crescita e occupazione in Europa | | il Nuovo Berlinese |

These developments add to earlier ones published by DR last August and December (Huge Intelligence Agency Scandal Rocks Denmark and Puts its “Deep State” on Trial – CovertAction Magazine and Outposts of the U.S. Surveillance Empire: Denmark and Beyond – CovertAction Magazine.)

Denmark will definitely not allow a full disclosure. That was made clear by politicians to DR when it first published the whistleblower’s revelations. DR judiciary reporter Trine Marie Ilsøee said, “We cannot expect that most of the possible illegalities committed will be made public.” She added that Denmark’s intelligence services are connected to and dependent upon foreign powers [i.e. U.S. and not Europe]. Denmark could be compromised if secrets were revealed. “After all, intelligence services operate in secrecy.”

The information of long-standing illegalities, including its constitution, by the Defense Intelligence Service, which the Danish Intelligence Oversight Committee presented last August, includes:

1. Withholding “key and crucial information to government authorities” and the oversight committee between 2014 and today;
2. Illegal activities even before 2014;
3. Telling “lies” to policymakers;
4. Illegal surveillance on Danish citizens, including a member of the oversight committee. (Some of this illegal spying had been shared with unnamed sources [perhaps the U.S.?]);
5. Unauthorized activities have been shelved and;
6. The FE failed to follow up on indications of espionage within areas of the Ministry of Defense.

When DR first exposed some of this spying, Defense Minister Bramsen suspended five FE leaders responsible. Under pressure from several political parties, and most likely the U.S., she reinstated them in different jobs at the same pay.

I wrote about this unconstitutional and anti-democratic policy of aiding and abetting the United States against Europe last December. Outposts of the U.S. Surveillance Empire: Denmark and Beyond – CovertAction Magazine

”Denmark’s military allows the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on the nation’s Finance Ministry, Foreign Ministry, private weapons company Terma, the entire Danish population, and Denmark’s closest neighbors: Sweden, Norway, France, Germany and the Netherlands (NL).”

Information the NSA acquired with the aid of Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service was used to convince its government to buy Lockheed-Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter F-35 capable of carrying nuclear weapons, albeit Denmark forbids the possession of nuclear weapons on its territory.

“NSA and FE signed an agreement in 2008 that enables NSA to tap huge amounts of data sourced from Danish fiber-optic communication cables passing through Denmark. This metadata is stored by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service in a center built with NSA guidance and technical assistance on the small Danish island of Sandagergaard to which the NSA has access.

“Sandagergaard is one of three Danish military-intelligence ‘listening posts’ which trawls through and analyzes global internet data, seeking information, for example, on what Terma, Denmark’s largest weapons firm, has. This is clearly an intrusion on capitalism’s basic principle and need for free-market competition.”

On September 24, DR published articles (and broadcasted) exposed more illegal activity.

”FE may have violated one of the clear rules that apply to the Danish military and foreign intelligence service: FE is only set in the world to protect Denmark from external threats and to safeguard Danish interests abroad. FE may therefore only come into possession of Danish information by chance.”

Smug Defense Minister Trine Bramsen at ”flag day” ceremony for warring soldiers. Veteraner og udsendte soldater blev hyldet: Se fotos af flagdag og kranselæggelse på Kastellet. – politiken.dk

“Fiber optic cables suck up and copy metadata, sms, chat, telephone calls, emails. The cables fetch data over Danish internet traffic, tapping into Russian communication, as well as German and other European countries’ internet world. Whatever this new equipment is, it probably is similar to or more advanced than XKEYSCORE, which Denmark also possesses….Besides land-based electronic surveillance, there are hundreds of transoceanic submarine cables carrying information between many countries. For decades, Denmark has had a key European cable connected to the U.S., which NSA taps into. In addition, there are new submarine commercial cables.”

A military whistleblower first reported on illegal espionage to the military leadership in May 2015. His reports to superiors were ignored. He waited four years before he revealed illegal spying to the Danish Intelligence Oversight Committee. This undermanned five-person civilian oversight committee, founded in 2014, has only eight employees and a pauper’s budget of $1.3 million. It has no power to interrogate or even to see secret documents the FE wishes to hide.

The Defense Intelligence Service’s 2020 budget was $160 million. How the funds are used is secret, and no oversight committee knows how the money is used nor can they determine its usage.

NSA with FE “are deep inside and digging into some Danish industrial secrets, which is usually what we accuse the Chinese of doing all the time [Huawei],” Tobias Liebetrau, intelligence researcher for the Center for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen, told DR.”

Prime Minister Frederiksen and President Trump at NATO meeting in London. She said about her talk with Trump, “We swing well.” Mette Frederiksen ved mødet med Donald Trump. I venstre side ses Trine Bramsen og Jeppe Kofod.Shealah Craighead/The White House/Ritzau Scanpix

Colleague Finian Cunningham explains what European “allies” mean in “real politics”.

“What this clearly demonstrates beyond any equivocation is that the European governments are quislings and vassals under Washington’s control. They are not ‘allies’ as that word implies a mutual partnership of equals. They are abject lackeys to American power who cheat on themselves. Talk about treacherous!

“This explains why Russia and China have both seen their relations with Europe deteriorate so badly. Under the prevailing EU governments, it is virtually impossible for Moscow or Beijing to conduct productive relations with Europe. That would require the European Union to have a modicum of independence and autonomy. As it is, however, the Europeans are mere subordinates to Washington’s diktat. And so, America’s renewed Cold War hostility towards Russia and China is reflected unquestioningly by the European bloc. Because the Europeans are nothing but satellites of the US imperium.” US Spying on EU Lackeys – Sputnik International (sputniknews.com)

Conclusion

There are ironies in these matters. First is the betrayal of Denmark’s long-standing friendly association with European countries and its leaders. Also, it has been Social Democrat women feminist leaders who started these spying activities since 2013 when the first SD woman PM was elected, Helle Thorning Schmidt. Following Snowden’s revelations, she embraced her “comrade” Chancellor Angela Merkel assuring her that Denmark was not and would not be involved. All the while she was lying. Then the next Social Democrat woman prime minister, Merete Frederiksen, and her feminist war minister, Trine Bramsen, went deeper into NSA’s spying activities.

These so-called “social democrats”, who are usually referred to as “socialists” by the likes of wishy washy Bernie Sanders, even “communists” by the likes of Donald Trump and other Republicans, are the most endearing Danish politician lap dogs, even more so than the more honest bourgeois politician hawks, who openly swear never-ending loyalty to the United States no matter what.

Another irony is that Denmark’s media, both DR and daily newspapers, did not even cover the extradition trial of Julian Assange in England—nor do they support him. Apparently, Danish media is afraid to back up an active publisher who reveals how the U.S. spies upon any and all, as well as conducting aggressive wars for self-interest profiteering. Yet DR has published a Danish whistleblower’s expose of its own government spying for Big Daddy.

Following DR’s first FE/NSA expose, I spoke on the telephone with DR foreign affairs editor Niels Kvale about the U.S. government threat to all journalists who reveal its “national security secrets”. I told him that DR reporters could be prosecuted in the U.S. just as they seek to do with Julian Assange. Kvale replied: “I was not aware of that. This sounds interesting. Send me your article and I will inform our journalists.”

(1) Dunhammer in English means cattails or bulrush, which grow in bogs. “One particular famous story involving bulrushes is that of the ark of bulrushes in the Book of Exodus. In this story, it is said that the infant Moses was found in a boat made of bulrushes. Within the context of the story, this is probably paper reed (Cyperus papyrus).

When fish make beds over bulrush, they sweep away the sand, exposing the roots. This dense region of roots provides excellent cover for young fish.” Bulrush – Wikipedia.

So Operation Dunhammer could be Danish military intelligence spies’ metaphor for covering up its treachery against its own neighbor allies. Denmark is one of the U.S.’s closest Eyes, “9 Eyes”, which also includes Norway and France, and “14 Eyes”, which includes German and Sweden. That means that Denmark is U.S.’s lead Eye against allies Germany, France, Norway and Sweden. The Nordic countries have the same language and cultural roots, including having been the warring Vikings. Norway and Sweden were also under Danish colonial control for centuries. Outposts of the U.S. Surveillance Empire: Denmark and Beyond – CovertAction Magazine

Early in the “coronavirus-19” — subsequently called “Covid-19” — pandemic, Denmark and Sweden were often being compared with one-another because both are Scandinavian countries, but on 13 March 2020, Denmark had started a lockdown and imposed strict recommendations for businesses and personal behavior, whereas Sweden did nothing of the sort, and so the two countries were considered to be especially suitable to serve as being an almost controlled experiment in what the results would be of socialism versus libertarianism in social policy (regulations) regarding a communicable disease.

On 26 March 2020, EuroNews headlined “Neighbours Denmark and Sweden miles apart on coronavirus confinement”. Whereas both countries had socialized healthcare, and were also otherwise generally considered to be similar, Sweden was pursuing Europe’s most libertarian policies on coronavirus or Covid-19, and yet Denmark had a 15% higher percentage of its population who had come down with that disease. On 29 June 2020, I headlined “‘Herd Immunity’ Is a Failed Response to Coronavirus: Comparing Denmark versus Sweden on Coronavirus,” and reported that in early April Sweden’s population-percentage who had the disease had switched (increased so fast as) to become 14% higher there than Denmark’s population-percentage who had Covid-19, and that Sweden’s percentage was also increasing much more quickly than Denmark’s. And, so, at that time, as of 28 June 2020, Sweden had 2.5 times as high a percentage of its population who had contracted the disease, as compared with Denmark’s percentage. There were 131 reader-comments to that news-report, at Reddit, and they were overwhelmingly in denial, and pro-libertarian, anti-socialist, though each comment had a different excuse for their reality-denial.

CNN headlined on 28 May 2020 “Sweden says its coronavirus approach has worked. The numbers suggest a different story” and made clear that, at least up till that moment in time, Sweden’s approach was a failure, not only in competition as compared to Denmark’s, but globally.

Then, on 12 May 2020, Foreign Affairs, the prestigious journal of America’s Council on Foreign Relations, bannered “Sweden’s Coronavirus Strategy Will Soon Be the World’s: Herd Immunity Is the Only Realistic Option—the Question Is How to Get There Safely”, and presented the standard libertarian argument: “There are good reasons for countries to begin easing their restrictions. It will take several years to tally the total number of deaths, bankruptcies, layoffs, suicides, mental health problems, losses to GDP and investments, and other costs attributable not just to the virus but to the measures used to fight it. It should already be obvious, however, that the economic and social costs of lockdowns are enormous.” In other words: the best “regulation” is to let nature rule, not to impose any human-imposed regulations, but just “the free market” should reign.

On 7 January 2021, the Scandinavian Journal of Public health headlined “A comparison of COVID-19 epidemiological indicators in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland” and reported that:

Compared with its Nordic peers, Sweden had a higher incidence rate across all ages, a higher COVID-19-related death rate only partially explained by population demographics, a higher death rate in seniors’ care, and higher all-cause mortality. Sweden had approximately half as much mobility change as its Nordic neighbours until April and followed similar rates as its neighbours from April to July. Denmark led its Nordic peers in testing rates, while Sweden had the highest cumulative test-positivity rate continuously from mid-March. …

Looser government restrictions at the beginning of the outbreak are likely to have played a role in the impact of COVID-19 in Sweden. In an effort to improve epidemic control, Sweden has increased testing rates, implemented more restrictive prevention measures, and increased their intensive care unit bed capacity.

Here are the figures as-of 30 April 2021:

Denmark cases per million = 43,282

Sweden cases per million = 95,909

Denmark deaths per million = 428

Sweden deaths per million = 1,384

Denmark March unemployment rate = 4.5%

Sweden unemployment rate = 10.0%

But Denmark versus Sweden aren’t, by any means, the only indicators that libertarianism was failing on Covid-19.

On 1 August 2020, I headlined “India and Brazil Are Now the Global Worst Coronavirus Nations”, and that statement was forward-looking, predictive, and not referring only to the numbers at that time but to where the various nations were heading, and it was referring only to medium-sized and large nations (for example, not to the worst performer of all, Andorra, which currently has 171,029 cases per million and a population of only 77,367 people). (Andorra has had a total of 13,232 cases, which is 17.1% of its entire population. The only country that has a population of over 10 million and which is among the 9 worst — and America scores as being absolutely the world’s 10th-worst — is Czechia, the Czech Republic, which has 152,046 cases per million. At the end of this article, Czechia will be discussed.)

As-of 30 April 2021, the following are the world’s only nations that have had more than 6,000,000,000 Covid-19 cases:

USA = 33,044,872

India = 18,881,587

Brazil = 14,592,886.

Those are now the Covid-19 giants (the worst-performing major countries), which, back on August 1st, is what I was expecting them to be, by the present time. Ultimately, I expect Brazil and India to be scoring even worse than the United States. All three countries have been exceedingly lax in their anti-Covid-19 policies, extraordinarily libertarian regarding this.

On 20 September 2020, I headlined “All 8 of America’s Worst-Hit Coronavirus States Are Now in the South.” That reported “the worst 11 states … are: Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Iowa, Arkansas, and Texas” — and all 11 of them had voted for Donald Trump, the more-libertarian (and losing) candidate, in 2020. The United States therefore provides overwhelming evidence of the failure of libertarianism regarding coronavirus-policies.

On 14 March 2021, I headlined “Republican States Have Higher Covid Rates than Democratic States” and — ranking all from the best (#1) to the worst (#51) — reported that the average state which had voted for Trump scored 33.3 or two-thirds of the way down the list of the 51 states + DC, and that the average state which had voted for Biden scored 19.5 out of the 51.

The more corrupt a country is, the more libertarian it is, and on 5 May 2020, I headlined “America’s Design Causes It to Fail the COVID-19 Challenge” and reported that because America is an extraordinarily corrupt country (very libertarian, as compared to other nations), “America is designed so as to fail the coronavirus-19 challenge. The power of big-money (concentrated wealth) is destroying this country. It controls both Parties and their respective media, so the public don’t know (and certainly cannot understand) the types of realities that are being reported (and linked-to) here.”

India and Brazil are nipping at America’s heels on this, but, still, the record up till the present moment shows America as still retaining its title as being the worst of all major nations on coronavirus-performance.

Finally, here, will be considered what might be the strongest exception to the general principle that libertarian policies are inferior to socialistic policies in order to control and limit a pandemic: Czechia. Wikipedia’s article “COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic” says:

The Czech Republic was the first^[11] European country to make the wearing of face masks mandatory from 19 March onwards.^[12] COVID-19 testing was made widely available with drive-through locations from 14 March,^[13] and from 27 March anyone with a fever, dry cough or shortness of breath was eligible for a free test.^[14] From 13 April onwards, COVID-19 testing capacity significantly surpassed demand.^[15] Contact tracing in the country also included voluntary disclosure of mobile phone position and debit card payments data for previous days and the quarantining of identified contacts.^[16] By 1 May 2020, altogether 257 COVID-19-related deaths were identified in the Czech Republic compared to 2,719 in similarly populous Sweden, which did not impose a full lockdown. However, Belgium, also with a similar population, had suffered 7,866 deaths at that time, despite having implemented an early and strict lockdown. …

By April 2021, the Czech Republic has recorded the highest confirmed death rate in the world after Hungary. There are some root causes speculated.

None of those proposed explanations of this is any sort of scientific explanation for it. A great deal remains that is important to know but that is currently unknown about Covid-19. Obviously, Czechia is the most challenging case, not because it is the worst, but because it has been a leader in adherence to international guidelines but has nonetheless disastrously failed on this virus. If that’s not a warning for the world to do lots more research on the Covid-19 problem, then nothing is.

After two weeks of suspended use of AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine due to unusual blood clots and some deaths perhaps linked to the vaccine, Denmark’s health agencies extended suspension for three more weeks. Norway and Sweden, the co-maker with England of AZ, followed suit. Four Norwegians and two Danes have died from cerebral blood clots shortly following vaccination.

Protestors at Astra Zeneca. Creative Commons photo.

At its March 25 news conference, Danish Medicines Agency spokesperson Tanja Erichsen said it was necessary to continue evaluating a possible connection between the vaccine and several dozens of vaccinated persons who developed blood clots with some deaths.

“We maintain that AstraZeneca is safe and effective…[However] it can’t be ruled out that there is a connection between the vaccines and the very rare blood clot cases,” Erichsen stated.

Health Authority Director Soeren Brostroem said, “We are still concerned” about possible links between the vaccine and many serious side effects. He added that although European Medicines Agency (EMA) regulators have cleared the vaccine for use, the Agency is still investigating data. EMA, however, has not recommended any suspension.

Denmark’s government announced on March 11, exactly one year from the first lockdown, that the AstraZeneca vaccine is temporarily suspended.

South Africa was the first to suspend the AZ vaccine, on February 8, because the trial of “about 2000 people, found such a low efficacy against mild and moderate disease, under 25%, that it would not meet minimal international standards for emergency use. But scientists are hopeful it might still prevent severe disease and death…”

When Denmark first suspended its use for two weeks, Norway, Iceland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Italy followed suit. Some suspended use of batches but not all of their AZ doses.

The countries that produce AZ vaccine, England and Sweden, did not suspend its use. After some days, however, Sweden joined in. As of this writing, most of the score of countries that had suspended AZ are again using it, because EMA still maintains that it is safe. Sweden resumed using AZ on March 25 but only for seniors over 65 given that serious side effects have not occurred in older people.  Finland and Iceland have taken the same position whereas Norway has followed Denmark’s extension for three more weeks.

Since the Danish suspension, 2000 reports of side effects have been made. Health workers will use these three weeks to explore causes.

“Many may wonder whether we are overcautious. You can say that…we have added precautionary principles, because the Danish people trust their health care system and we must live up to their trust,” Health Authority Director Soeren Brostroem said. “We are still concerned” about possible links between the vaccine and many serious side effects. He added that although European Medicines Agency (EMA) regulators have cleared the vaccine for use, the Agency is still investigating data. EMA, however, has not recommended any suspension.

All who wish to be vaccinated, including about 140,000 Danes who have taken the first dose of AstraZeneca, will get another vaccine if they wish, even if AZ is placed back in use. If AZ does not meet health safety requirements, the calendar for completing vaccinating all those who wish it might be put off by two to four weeks. The date for completion at this point is July 25.

Most of the 16% of Danes who have had one or both doses of vaccines have taken Pfizer or Moderna. At present, there are about one million AZ doses stored in refrigerators.

As of March 16, AstraZeneca said there had been 37 cases of blood clots related to the vaccine—“15 all of these cases have been diagnosed as deep vein thrombosis, while there have been 22 cases of pulmonary embolism so far”.

At that time, about 20 million Europeans, the majority Englanders, had taken one or two doses of the vaccine. It has been reported that at least seven people taking the AZ vaccine have died within a two-week period following injection.

EMA authorized AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease, on January 29, 2021. “This is a safe and effective vaccine. Its benefits in protecting people from COVID-19 with the associated risks of death and hospitalization outweigh the possible risks,” Emer Cooke, the EMA executive director, said at a news conference, March 18.

EMA’s new investigation uncovered a few “rare and unusual but very serious clotting disorders” that the committee is probing more closely, Cooke said. These include conditions such as disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), in which clots form extensively throughout the body, and cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), a rare form of stroke.

EMA took only a few days to conclude again that AZ is safe enough, yet the agency has still not concluded its evaluation of the Sputnik V vaccine, which Russia sent data for approval on January 20. EMA began a preliminary “rolling review” on March 4.

While AZ is tested at 60-62% efficacy, The Lancet reported, on February 20, that Sputnik V is safe and efficacy is at 91.6%.

I asked EMA press office personnel in Amsterdam why it is taking so long for Sputnik V to be approved and what its thought are about the U.S. not using it. A medical media employee (who wished not to be quoted) replied that the EMA “does not speculate on considerations of the US FDA regarding the authorization of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.”

Regarding Sputnik V, the EMA press office person wrote that “EMA is assessing the vaccine’s compliance with the usual EU standards for efficacy, safety and quality. EMA is evaluating data as they become available to decide if the benefits outweigh the risks. The rolling review will continue until enough evidence is available for a formal marketing authorization application.”

It did not take long for EU to approve a vaccine by a totally unknown vaccine producer (Johnson & Johnson), which it did on March 11. J&J applied on February 15.

“The European Union approved the single-shot Johnson & Johnson [J&J] coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, the fourth jab to get the green light for the 27-nation bloc.”

“More safe and effective vaccines are coming to the market,’ EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a tweet.”

“How is it that a drug and household health product company, with no prior history in vaccine development, can develop and rush to market its first vaccine against a viral strain that was only identified 14 months ago?” wrote Children’s Health Defense the day following EMA approval of J&J vaccine.

“A review of J&J’s rap sheet over the past three decades presents a dire and contrary image that should lead us to question the company’s claims about its COVID-19 vaccine given the lucrative market the pandemic has created for the most aggressive medical corporations.”

“Similar to its equally over-sized competitors Glaxo, Merck and Pfizer, J&J too has had to pay out billions of dollars over the decades for civil settlements and criminal activities.  As the pharmaceutical giant receives applause across the mainstream media for the release and Emergency Use Authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine, Brazil’s Public Prosecution Service started an investigation into J&J’s antitrust activities under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for, “possible improper payments in its medical device industry.”

A quick review of how much J&J money has been sentenced to pay in fines, instead of jail sentences, and in restitution to customers for faulty products in the past three decades runs around $30 billion. One leading employee did receive a year imprisonment for corruption.

New research points to link between AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots in young people

Vaccine Deaths.com is a fact-based public education website published by Vaccine Deaths Features.LLC. Its news editors wrote on March 23: “Researchers at the Greifswald teaching hospital in northern Germany said Friday they’ve discovered how the Astra Zeneca vaccine could cause blood clots that could lead to rare thrombosis in the brain, public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported.”

Greinacher’s team analyzed 13 cases of cerebral blood clots in Germany. Twelve were women, almost all under the age of 55. “In four of the 12 patients, the team was able to isolate and identify the specific antibodies that provoked the immune reaction leading to the cerebral blood clots.”

While researchers are studying cases in Germany, a team at Oslo University Hospital, is investigating three cases of post-vaccination blood clots in Norway that occurred in healthcare workers under the age of 50. Chief physician Pål Andre Holme said they had likely identified antibodies triggered by the vaccine that caused an overreaction of the immune system leading to blood clots.

“Our theory is that this is a strong immune response that most likely comes after the vaccine,” Holme said. “There is no other thing than the vaccine that can explain this immune response.” This is the same theory that Greinacher and his colleagues have put forward in Germany.

Some U.S. vaccine experts remain cautious about the antibody theory and said high publicity of events could be causing more clinicians to report the condition than normal, making it appear related to the vaccine, according to Reuters.

“The U.S. experts also question why such events would occur only at increased rates with the AstraZeneca vaccine and not the vaccines by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc, Johnson & Johnson and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine—all of which are intended to produce antibodies aimed at the ‘spike’ portion of the coronavirus that it uses to enter cells,” wrote Reuters, March 20.

The next day, Italian prosecutors reported they were opening an investigation for “manslaughter” “following the death of a music teacher one day after receiving his shot of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine”.

Is EMA and Denmark Stalling on Russia’s Sputnik V Under U.S. Orders?

317 Sputnik V Photos – Free & Royalty-Free Stock Photos from Dreamstime

The United States and some allies are “engaged in efforts to malign the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and to promote the more expensive mRNA vaccines produced by ‘western’ companies.”

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office of Global Affairs, “used diplomatic relations in the Americas region to mitigate efforts by states, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia…dissuade countries in the region from accepting aid from these ill-intentioned states. Examples including using OGA’s Health Attaché office to persuade Brazil to reject the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, and offering CDC technical assistance in lieu of Panama accepting an offer of Cuban doctors.”

The U.S. “Health and Human Services” wrote the above on page 47 of its 2020 annual report.

Russia does not discriminate in who gets to buy its vaccines. In fact, the investor and producer offer all countries to buy a license for its Sputnik V, which they can produce on their territory. Russia has also donated two million doses to Palestinians in the Gaza.

Sputnik V is based on a safe and tested human adenovirus vector platform. Using two different human adenoviral vectors is a unique approach that boosts the immune response and provides long lasting immunity. It does not need to be frozen for storage. It costs $10 per dose. Pfizer and Moderna cost twice to thrice that and need to be frozen. AZ has the advantage of simple refrigeration and costs less than the other vaccines.

“On January 18, 2021 mass vaccination of the citizens began in Russia…the first country in the world in which three of its own vaccines are registered and being used,” reported the Russian embassy in Copenhagen.

“Moreover, the vaccine protects 100 % against moderate or severe forms of the disease. To date, the vaccine has already been registered in 50 countries…The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which promotes the vaccine, has applied for registration of Sputnik V in the EU.

“Vaccination is being carried out in all 85 regions of [Russia]. Over four thousand vaccination points have been opened…at least 45% of Russians over 60 were vaccinated” [early March].

“The head of the European Bureau of the World Health Organization (WHO), Hans Kluge has welcomed the results of the third phase of clinical examination of the ‘Sputnik V’.”

“There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.”

Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told DR [Denmark Public Broadcasting company], February 25, that the corona virus could last for up to a decade. Denmark, she said, is “dependent on AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna delivering as agreed…It is problematic that the Americans, the British and the Israelis have vaccinated more.”

Why did Frederiksen then travel to Israel instead of travelling or phoning Moscow for direct aid? Israel does not produce vaccines, but Frederiksen returned from Israel stating there might be a possibility of starting a production of vaccines between the Zionist state, Austria and Denmark sometime in the future.

In Denmark (and generally in the EU), Sputnik V has been ignored or maligned. I have watched every one of the dozen news conference during this long period, as well as special news analysis program, and not once has any journalist, health agency spokesperson or government leader, including the prime minister, even mentioned Sputnik V.

Ironically, the right-wing Hungarian government is the first European country to break ranks and bought Sputnik V. It also uses China’s Sinopharm, as well as the three Western produced vaccines. Two other former Eastern European countries are doing the same, Slovakia and Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina). As of this writing, 55 nations are buying Russia’s Sputnik vaccine, and four of the heavies (Italy, France, Spain and even Germany) are discussing deals with the Russian producer.

Germany’s vaccination program director, Thomas Meretens, praised Sputnik V, despite the fact that EU commission president, Germany’s former defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, casts dispersions about Sputnik V.

On March 14, Mertens told Rheinische Post, “Russian scientists are very experienced in vaccines. Sputnik V is a very clever construct. As with AstraZeneca, we are talking about a viral vector vaccine, which is based on an adenovirus. But unlike AstraZeneca it uses two different viral vectors for the first and second doses. That’s very clever, because that way you can prevent a possible loss of efficacy that might arise through the immune response against the vector.”

On March 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Covid-19 vaccine producers are struggling for the global vaccine market. “We see how competitors behave in the global vaccine market worth $100 billion. They come, sell a small batch of their vaccine at a discount, on the condition that everything else will be purchased only from this producer,” President Putin said. Some producers compete unfairly, sell a small batch of vaccines at a lower price on the condition to be an exclusive supplier, Putin continued.

Strategic-Culture Foundation March 12 editorial stated: “The longer the delay in vaccinating the European population the greater the danger of new variants emerging, and hence the longer the delay in returning societies to pre-pandemic normalcy. Populations are becoming restive over protracted lockdowns. Economies and livelihoods have been wrecked by the pandemic. Millions of jobs have been lost.”

A viral pandemic has no ideology. It cannot succumb by practicing sinister nationalism, by making Russia or China the bogeymen who we all must fear and attempt to overturn by hook and crook. Russiaphobia practiced by U.S./allies is counterproductive and will backfire on us all.

A score of blood clots experienced by persons vaccinated with Astra-Zeneca product against the corona virus in some countries recently have caused suspension of its use in several lands. Two women have died—a 60 year-old Danish woman and a 49 year-old Austrian female nurse.

Denmark’s government announced yesterday, March 11, exactly one year from the first lockdown, that the AstraZeneca vaccine is temporarily suspended. Brostrøm om AstraZeneca-vaccinen: Yngre og umiddelbart raske mennesker ramt af mulige bivirkninger | Indland | DR

Norway, Iceland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Italy followed suit. They “suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine over concerns about patients developing post-jab blood clots, as the manufacturer and Europe’s medicines watchdog insisted the vaccine was safe”. Some suspended use of batches but not all of their AZ doses.

Three European countries suspend use of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine (livemint.com)

The countries that produced the AZ vaccine, England and Sweden, have not suspended its use.

Austria announced, on March 8, that it had ceased using a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after the nurse died of “severe blood coagulation problems” days after receiving an anti-Covid shot. Another nurse developed pulmonary embolism.

On March 11, DR (Danish Public Broadcasting Station) evening news reported that three other Austrians died of blood clot after taking AZ vaccine.

South Africa suspended using the AZ vaccine last month, because the trial of “about 2000 people, found such a low efficacy against mild and moderate disease, under 25%, that it would not meet minimal international standards for emergency use. But scientists are hopeful it might still prevent severe disease and death…” South Africa suspends use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after it fails to clearly stop virus variant | Science | AAAS (sciencemag.org)

Of the nearly 800,000 Danes vaccinated once or twice (about 14% of the population) as of this writing, 142,000 persons have taken the AZ vaccine. The others have had Pfizer and Moderna—95% and 94% efficacy.

In a DR interview with Soeren Brostroem, director of Denmark’s Health Agency, he stated: “The European Medicines Agency has looked at reports from several EU countries – including Austria and Denmark – with younger and basically healthy people who were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, and who then had large blood clots in many different parts of the body in both the large and small blood vessels. So these are very serious blood clot diseases – and unfortunately also in some cases with fatal outcome.”

Brostroem said that all Danes who have had this vaccine will receive a letter from the Health Agency to be aware of adverse reactions, such severe colds or flu symptoms, pain in various parts of the body, paralysis in one or the other side, difficulty in breathing, or inability to speak.

AZ had been under suspicion before this. Danish medical authorities were doubtful about using it for people over 65 years of age. Just 10 days before the first death due to blood clotting, Denmark’s health agency authorized the vaccine for all Danes.

European health experts will have 14 days to study whether the vaccine should be used in the future or not. For Denmark, the calendar for vaccinating all those 16 years old and over, who wish to partake, is set back from mid-July to mid-August. All three vaccines bought by Denmark have been late with promised deliveries, because of prioritizing the Big 3 (US/UK/Israel). Denmark’s original calendar to finish vaccinations was set for mid-June. Brostroem said that if AZ is found unreliable, the calendar could be extended into September.

Astra Zeneca and Sputnik Covid-19 Vaccines

According to Astra-Zeneca, clinical trials found that the vaccine had “an efficacy of 82.4 percent when two doses were given 12 weeks apart. Despite some uncertainty over trial results, Britain authorized the vaccine for emergency use in December 2020.”  How the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine Works – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

The Lancet March 6 article shows, however, overall efficacy to be 70.4% after one dose, and 62.1% after a booster four weeks later. This is based on studies in UK, Brazil and South Africa. Single-dose Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine followed by a 12-week booster – The Lancet

Danish TV2 reported in January that AZ is only 60% effective. EU godkender AstraZeneca-vaccine – TV 2

I listened to the main Danish radio news during the day, March 11, and to all four hours of DR TV news and analysis programs about the AZ crisis and the year-long fight against corona virus. Not one word was spoken about Russia’s effective vaccines. Sputnik V is judged by The Lancet study to be 91.6% effective. This important fact was not even brought out on the “Doctor’s Table” program, in which Danish medical experts placed AZ at 61% effective. Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6% effective against symptomatic covid-19 | New Scientist; Safety and immunogenicity of S-Trimer (SCB-2019), a protein subunit vaccine candidate for COVID-19 in healthy adults: a phase 1, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial – The Lancet

In Denmark, and generally in the EU, except Hungary, Sputnik V is ignored. Ironically, the right-wing Hungarian government is using the three Western produced vaccines that Denmark uses, as well as Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited Israel last week to help “find a solution for the lack of vaccines”. Israel does not produce any vaccines against corona. Her trip was met with some critique, because her visit can be seen as aiding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus during an electoral campaign. He is facing a court case on charges of corruption. Netanyahus is also responsible for persistent abuses of Palestinians human rights, theft of their territory and housing, encaging children who resist, and aggressively warring against several Middle Eastern nations.

Nevertheless, PM Frederiksen met with Netanyahus and Austria’s foreign minister, Sebastian Kurtz in Jerusalem. These politicians decided to start a fond for research and possible production of future vaccines—not of any use for the immediate pandemic.

Sputnik V has many advantages over most Western vaccines.

Developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Sputnik V was registered by the Ministry of Health of Russia—the world’s first registered vaccine against coronavirus.

Sputnik V is based on a safe and tested human adenovirus vector platform. Using two different human adenoviral vectors is a unique approach that boosts the immune response and provides long lasting immunity. It does not need to be frozen for storage. It costs $10 per dose. Pfizer and Moderna cost twice to thrice that and need to be frozen. AZ has the advantage of simple refrigeration and costs less than the other vaccines.

“On January 18, 2021 mass vaccination of the citizens began in Russia…the first country in the world in which three of its own vaccines are registered and being used,” reported the Russian embassy in Copenhagen. (See also:

Russian Direct Investment Fund, direct investment funds in russia, fund of direct investments, direct investment fund of the russian federation, venture fund of direct investments, mutual funds of direct investments, investmen in russia, russian investors (rdif.ru) )

“Moreover, the vaccine protects 100 % against moderate or severe forms of the disease. To date, the vaccine has already been registered in 50 countries…The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which promotes the vaccine, has applied for registration of Sputnik V in the EU.

“Today, vaccination is being carried out in all 85 regions of [Russia]. Over four thousand vaccination points have been opened. More than 3 million citizens have already received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine…at least 45% of Russians over 60 were vaccinated [March].

“The head of the European Bureau of the World Health Organization (WHO), Hans Kluge has welcomed the results of the third phase of clinical examination of the ‘Sputnik V’.”

“There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.”

The embassy’s second secretary, Konstantin Akimenko, concluded his March 11 message, “At the current stage Denmark hasn’t made any requests for purchasing the Russian vaccine.”

Russia Sanctioned for Opposing a Fascistic Coup in Ukraine

Three generations ago, Russian and United States troops met in Torgau, Germany by the Elbe River to celebrate brotherhood in their common fight to defeat fascism. That day, April 26, 1945, these freedom-fighting soldiers promised eternal friendship.

In an arranged photo commemorating the meeting of the Soviet and American armies, 2nd Lt. William Robertson (U.S. Army) and Lt. Alexander Silvashko (Red Army) stand facing one another with hands clasped and arms around each other’s shoulders. In the background are two flags and a poster. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain. Elbe Day – Wikipedia

Not long after WWII, the U.S./U.K. decided to reject friendship and start the Cold War. They rejected diplomacy, preferring violence, threats of war, and crippling sanctions against the Soviet Union, and later against the Russian Federation when President Vladimir Putin decided to recapture Russian sovereignty following the disastrous decade of Boris Yeltsin. (World Bank Document)

The U.S. demands that its allies adhere to their fatal ideology: divide and conquer for eternal profiteering. Since the late 1980s, all Danish governments have complied. Denmark established sanctions against Russia for refusing to support the U.S.-prepared coup against Ukraine’s democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, in February 2014. The U.S. prepared for his replacement with a neo-fascist coalition, supportive of Stepan Bandera, a Waffen SS Nazi collaborator, who was co-responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of Ukrainians, many of them Jews. CIA: Undermining and Nazifying Ukraine Since 1953, by Wayne Madsen (voltairenet.org)

While these sanctions prohibit some trade with Crimea, and armaments and fossil fuels, they do not include medicines. Nevertheless, U.S./UK/EU attitude is not to trade with Russia generally. Now that Joe Biden is president that is not likely to change. When vice-president, Barak Obama put Biden in charge of conducting the Ukrainian “regime change”. Biden’s point envoy to arrange the coup was Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

On December 13, 2013, Nuland told the US-Ukrainian Foundation that since 1991 the United States had spent $5 billion to teach Ukrainians “democratic skills”.

A leaked taped telephone conversation between Nuland and U.S. Ambassador Goeffrey Pyatt proves how the U.S. got what it paid for. On February 4, 2014, just three weeks before the coup, Nuland told Pyatt who should sit in the new government, and they then arranged for that to happen.

When Ambassador Pyatt suggests that the heavyweight champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko [Klitsch] is the most popular candidate for prime minister, Nuland corrects him and states that the more politically savvy “Fatherland” party leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk [Yats] should be prime minister. She also thinks that the fascist Svobada leader Oleh Tyahnybok should be in the government but more on the outside ring. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

Nuland:   “I don’t think Klitsch should go into government. I don’t think it’s necessary. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Pyatt:    “yeah…I mean I guess.  You think…what…in terms of him not going into the government,   just let him sort of stay out and do his political homework and stuff.   I’m just thinking in terms of   the process moving ahead, we want to keep the moderate democrats together.  The problem is going to be Tyahnybok and his guys [that is, the fascists].  I’m sure that’s what Yanukoyvch is calculating on all this.”

Nuland:   “I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience.  What he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside and he needs to be talking to them four times a week…I think with Klitsch going in at that level working for Yats, it’s not going to work.”

Nuland:   “My understanding is that the big three [Yatsenyuk, Klitsch and Tyahnybok] were going in to their own meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a three plus one conversation with you.”

Pyatt:  “That’s what he proposed but knowing the dynamic that’s been with them where  Klitsch has been top dog;  he’s going to take a while to show up at a meeting, he’s probably talking to his guys at this point so I think you reaching out to him will help with the personality management among the three and gives us a chance to move fast on all this stuff and put us behind it before they all sit down and he explains why he doesn’t like it.”

Nuland:  …“when I talked to Jeff Feltman [U.S. diplomat in UN] this morning, he had a new name for the UN  guy …Robert Serry  – he’s now gotten both Serry [Dutch diplomat in UN] and Ban ki Moon [U.S.’s South Korean choice for UN General Secretary until 2016] to agree that Serry could come in Monday or Tuesday… so that would be great I think  to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it and you know fuck the EU.

The Guardian reported, February 6, 2014, that State Department spokeswoman “Jen Psaki said that Nuland, ‘has been in contact with her EU counterparts and of course has apologized for these reported comments’” about fucking the EU. The fact that she picked a so-called sovereign state’s next government leaders was not relevant enough to discuss or apologize for.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/06/us-ukraine-russia-eu-victoria-nuland

On February 21, 2014, fascists shot at President Yanukovych as he was driven away from his office. He fled to Russia as the coup-makers were killing scores of pro-democratic protestors.

On February 23, coup-makers issued an arrest warrant for the legitimate President Yanukovych, and pro-Russian Crimeans seized government buildings at Crimea’s capital in Simferopol.

Russia refused to cow-tow to U.S. dictates especially in this vital country bordering on its territory. Several millions of Ukrainians and Russians died or were wounded in the Ukraine during WWII. Many were killed by fascist or nationalist Ukrainians, whose political descendants conducted the 2014 coup.

On March 11, the Crimean parliament declares independence from Ukraine: 78 in favor and 22 against secession.

March 16 referendum results of 1,274,096 voters (83% of potential): 1,233,002 for integration into Russian Federation (96.8%); 32,000 for remaining in Ukraine (2.5%). There were no charges of rigged voting. https://www.rt.com/news/crimea-referendum-results-official-250/

March 17, Crimea parliament recognizes the results and applies to become an independent state within the Russian Federation.

March 18, President Vladimir Putin Russia accepts the application, and recognizes the prime minister, Sergey Aksyonov, and parliament. Ten other states recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, while Ukraine continues to claim Crimea as an integral part of its territory. supported by most foreign governments and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/262.

Associated Press’ Moscow reporter Vladimir Isachenkov wrote:  “With a sweep of his pen, President Vladimir Putin added Crimea to the map of Russia on Tuesday, describing the move as correcting a past injustice and responding to what he called Western encroachment upon Russia’s vital interests. While his actions were met with cheers in Crimea and Russia, Ukraine’s new government called Putin a threat to the whole world and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned that the U.S. and Europe will impose further sanctions against Moscow.”

One year after the “illegal” referendum, the very capitalist Forbes magazine wrote: “The U.S. and European Union may want to save Crimeans from themselves. But the Crimeans are happy right where they are. One year after the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea, poll after poll shows that the locals there—be they Ukrainians, ethnic Russians or Tatars are mostly all in agreement: life with Russia is better than life with Ukraine.”

The links for this article, published on March 30, 2015, no longer exist.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/03/20/one-year-after-russia-annexed-crimea-locals-prefer-moscow-to-kiev/?sh=4743512b510d

“Sanctions in relation to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/03/30/one-year-later-in-crimea-polls-dont-tell-the-whole-story/?sh=4d0c38ae5b24

Denmark: Buy Sputnik V

PM Frederiksen told DR, February 25, that the corona virus could last for up to a decade. Denmark, she said, is “dependent on AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna delivering as agreed…It is problematic that the Americans, the British and the Israelis have vaccinated more.”

Why did Frederiksen then travel to Israel instead of travelling or phoning Moscow for direct aid?

Fifty countries are now buying Sputnik V. Russia is also solidarity oriented in that it has given millions of doses free to people in Gaza when Jerusalem hordes the Western produced vaccines mostly for Jews and not Muslims. Russia also grants its license for countries to produce their own vaccine. Sputnik V: Why hasn’t the EU approved Russia’s COVID vaccine yet? | Euronews

Another country that could aid Denmark (and all Europe) is Cuba, which has an effective medicine helpful to curtailing coronavirus developments. Scores of countries, including Italy, are using its Interferon Alpha 2-B Recombinant, which was developed 40 years ago to assist patients with HIV and Hepatitis. Since the United States has twice invaded that country, and maintains a strict blockade banning trade, Denmark’s governments and mass media are silent about this important medicine. Nevertheless, a major Establishment weekly news magazine, Newsweek, published a positive article about Cuba’s medicine.  Cuba Uses ‘Wonder Drug’ to Fight Coronavirus Around World Despite U.S. Sanctions (newsweek.com)

Denmark needs medicines and vaccines that are reliable, that are not expensive, that can easily and inexpensively be stored. Sputnik V is such. Although Danish sanctions against Russia do not include medicines, it is no secret that the U.S. doesn’t want any benefits for Russia. If some Danes die due to not having the best of vaccines, so be it—all is fair in global domination.

Denmark has been fighting with U.S. wars since the 1991 invasion of Iraq. It has sent troops into Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans, Libya, and Syria—fighting a bloody Second Cold War.

“We perceive it as natural that once again we are on the way to war, part of our every day,” says Vibeke Schou Tjalve, researcher at Danish Institute for International Studies. “People believe that if the U.S. says it is wise, so it is wise for us to be with them … We have broken our hymen.”

Tjalve explained that, since at least October 2, 2014, practically every military researcher at universities and military think tanks agree that “Denmark is at war to please America.”^[1]

At the time of Tjalve’s statement, Denmark announced that it had sent four F-16 war jets and 300 mercenaries to the Baltic States and Poland in response to the U.S.-led coup against Ukraine’s democratically elected government. Sanctions against Russia followed. ^[2]

New Cold War against Russia

Denmark is not the only vassal state adhering to the U.S. Military Empire. All 27 members of the European Union and all 30 NATO members, follow suit to varying degrees. Denmark, however, has earned a sit in the front row.

Russia is now under sanctions by the EU, because 97% of Crimeans (1,274,096) voted to join Russia, while 2.5% (32,000) voted to remain with the neo-fascist-led coup government of Ukraine. Eighty-three percent of those eligible voted. A year later, the very capitalist Forbes magazine wrote:

The U.S. and European Union may want to save Crimeans from themselves, but the Crimeans are happy right where they are. One year after the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea, poll after poll shows that the locals there—be they Ukrainians, ethnic Russians or Tatars—are mostly all in agreement: life with Russia is better than life with Ukraine.

President Putin with representatives of Crimean Tartars

Member-states rallied behind the sanctions despite traditional worshipping “free market trading.”

Economists from Kiel and Hong Kong calculated in 2019 that $4 billion in trade each month would be lost due to anti-Russian sanctions. Of these export losses, $1.8 billion, or 45%, are borne by authorizing countries, 55% by Russia.

The EU originally introduced sanctions on July 31, 2014, for one year in response to Russia’s actions of “destabilizing the situation in Ukraine,” and extends the sanctions periodically. A double standard is apparent in that Russia is targeted while other countries engaged in real human rights violations are not sanctioned. Examples: Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Colombia, and Israel, whose right-wing governments routinely seize Palestinian land and homes, encage children, and kill others. The U.S. wages wars of aggression and backs coups in scores of countries for two centuries.

Denmark allows its banks to whitewash money that come from drug and arms smuggling, and refuses to plug loopholes so that the rich can claim refunds from taxes they have not paid. These matters have been news for years, yet when a corporation sells jet fuel to Russia, which it uses to destroy IS terrorist enclaves in Syria, Denmark calls this criminal.

172,000 tons of jet fuel! That is what Dan-Bunkering in Denmark sold to Russia in the decisive years of 2015-17. According to Mikkel Storm Jensen, a military analyst for the Defense Academy, “Without Russian flying would Assad not have won the civil war?”

Does this mean that Establishment military analysts mean the preferred victors should have been the IS terrorists, al-Qaeda and other “milder” U.S.-armed opposition groups?

In November 2020, the government charged Dan-Bunkering with violating EU sanction rules and is seeking not only a fine, which is the most the government seeks for some corporate crimes, but also imprisonment for those responsible.

Dan-Bunkering CEO Keld Demant faces potential jail time for selling jet fuel to Russia. He says that the company had no knowledge that the jet fuel might end up in Syria.

DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) wrote that it was U.S. documentation and “sources” (read: NSA/CIA) that showed Denmark this “criminal” behavior on the part of Dan-Bunkering. The company purportedly earned about $3 billion from free market trading.

“Authoritarian” Russia was eliminating real terrorists who cut off heads for any “sinful” behavior or simply for being born in the wrong family. The “democratic” CIA and Pentagon back different terrorist groups fighting against the Syrian government army while also fighting one another.

The Los Angeles Times reported, on March 27, 2016, that Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other. In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from Kurdish-controlled areas to the east. A fighter with the Suqour Al-Jabal brigade, a group with links to the CIA, said intelligence officers of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State know their group has clashed with the Pentagon-trained militias.

Fursan al Haq sometimes is with al-Qaeda’s Syrian group, Al-Nusra, The CIA operates inside Turkey where it directs aid “to rebel groups in Syria, providing them with TOW antitank missiles from Saudi Arabian weapons stockpiles.”

Russia backs governments in Syria, Iran, Crimea, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba, which the U.S. and allies consider illegitimate and criminal. On top of sanctions, more war weaponry stares at Russians on their borders, and war exercises take place in anticipation of a “Russian attack.”^[3]

In 2018, 500,000 NATO troops, 250 aircraft, 65 warship and 500 war vehicles crossed into Denmark from Germany on their way to Norway to conduct maneuvers against a Russian invasion.

Danish Foreign Policy Post-WW11 History

Denmark accepted Nazi Germany’s occupation immediately as its tanks rolled in, April 9, 1940. Its government led by Social Democrats turned over Danish resistance fighters to the Nazis, sometimes even more than asked for. It allowed fascist Danes to fight with German Nazis.

The last two years of the war, Danish underground resistance became quite effective and that convinced the allies to accept Denmark as an ally after the war.

When British troops marched into Denmark on liberation day May 5, 1945, Danish politicians eagerly embraced them, and then decided to follow the lead of the United States. The economy was rebuilt with Marshall Plan funding. Much of that repaid in Danish currency once the economy grew.

Denmark had no conflicts with the Soviet Union after it left the Danish island of Bornholm a few months after ousting Nazi occupiers at the end of the war. Nevertheless, Denmark swore alliance to the UK-USA Cold War started by Winston Churchill and Harry Truman.

Denmark was one of the first dozen nations to form NATO in 1949 and established a clandestine Gladio army, created to stop an alleged forthcoming Communist invasion.

Nevertheless, Denmark did not participate in U.S. wars and coups, and most Danes were adamantly against the war in Southeast Asia. Many Danish youth and left-wing parties were peace activists.

Social Democrat Prime Minister Anker Joergensen led the Danish government most of the time between 1972 and 1982. Having been a union activist and warehouse worker, he argued that Denmark should be neutral in the Cold War and that NATO warships should be barred from carrying nuclear arms in Danish waters.

Joergensen also opposed the Vietnam War. When Vietnam retook its land from the invaders, PM Joergensen expressed support for its liberation, adding that the U.S.’s foreign policy has a “false ideological foundation.”

Peace organizations and left-wing parties, including Social Democrats at that time, opposed NATO’s fascination with escalating the Cold War with more nuclear missiles. A majority of parliament adopted a “footnote” policy that prohibited Denmark supporting Pershing and Cruise middle-range missiles not only on its territory but throughout Europe.

As the U.S. installed their new deadly ware, millions of Europeans resisted. In September 1981, tens of thousands demonstrated in Berlin against visiting U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig. They were indignant that Haig had said during his confirmation hearings earlier in 1981, “There are more important things than peace, things which we Americans must be willing to fight for.”

The largest hand-linking demonstration, more than 100 kilometers long, stretched from Ulm to Stuttgart where I stood amongst 200,000 people. Organizers had hoped for half that number, which would have connected in one line the two cities and a U.S. military base where Pershing missiles were to be deployed. We were so many that we had to make a snaking formation. At precisely noon, all traffic stopped, not a word spoken. Our hands were literally electrified in a brotherly sensation as we melted into one spirit.

Our persistent actions connecting hands and hearts across the continents of North America and Europe, West and East, laid the foundation for the largest international peace conference since February 1972 when 1,200 delegates from 84 nations met at Versailles to plan actions against the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. In October 1986, twice that many delegates—2,200 from 2,468 organizations in 136 countries—met in Copenhagen at the World Peace Congress.

As a peace activist-journalist, I reported in print and radio from Stuttgart, from the Versailles conference, and from Copenhagen’s conference as co-chair of the journalist workshop. We were 254 journalists, who pledged to uphold the Helsinki Accords of August 1975 regarding the use of information in the context of “strengthening peace and understanding among peoples; to cooperate irrespective of their economic and social conditions.”

The conferees’ main goal was to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to dismantle those that existed. UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, India PM Rajiv Gandhi, and U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy sent greetings.

The World Peace Council, the Soviet Union’s peace organization, was present. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had declared the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons. Unlike U.S. leaders, Gorbachev did not think economic and political systems led by elites were more important than peace. In the minds of the owners and editors of mass media, however, if Russians wanted peace there must be something fishy about it.

Despite the mass media’s reluctance to support world peace efforts, peoples’ resistance movements, coupled with de-escalation efforts by Gorbachev, led to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

In January 1986, Gorbachev had publicly proposed a three-stage program for abolishing all nuclear weapons. He convinced Reagan to meet in Reykjavik to discuss de-escalating as we met in Copenhagen. Reagan refused to go as far as Gorbachev but within months Gorbachev’s actions de-escalating nuclear weaponry could not be dismissed—the SU reduced its long-range nuclear missiles by half. On December 8, 1987, the INF treaty was signed, passed by the U.S. Senate on May 27, 1988, and ratified by both world leaders, on June 1.

The INF Treaty banned all of the two nations’ land-based ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile launchers with ranges of 500–1,000 kilometers, and 1,000–5,500 km. By May 1991, the nations had eliminated 2,692 missiles, followed by 10 years of on-site verification inspections.

However, a majority of voters put right-wing/center parties in the government in the 1980s, they changed the “footnote” foreign policy of no support for more nuclear weapons and war escalation with an “active” one.

Presidents Gorbachev and Reagan

Denmark’s subservience to U.S./NATO became a greater priority than the threat of nuclear war. The first war Denmark participated in was Bush I’s 1991 invasion of Iraq.

Modern Danish Viking warriors got their feet wet during the Gulf War (August 1990-February 1991) by invading Iraq, because it had a dispute with Kuwait about oil pricing and production.

On August 2, 1990, Denmark sent a corvette to blockade Iraq and relieve U.S. and UK warships.

The world’s largest shipping owner, A.P. Moeller-Maersk (APMM), was disappointed that the Danish government had offered so little to help the U.S.-led war that he demanded and received direct contact with the U.S. military. He sent dozens of ships to transport a half-million U.S. troops and armaments free of charge. This bought him future war contracts worth billions of dollars.

One of Maersk’s shipping lines, Maersk Line Limited, is based in Norfolk, Virginia. His 56 ships there fly the U.S. stars and stripes; 22 of them are used directly by the U.S. for military operations.

The company offer of ships and expertise brought the Danish government into the picture. APMM ships were contracted to sail parts from around the world to Lockheed Martin’s factory in Fort Worth, Texas. When Lockheed Martin received a contract for building 1,763 F-35 super jets following the September 11, 2001, attacks, Moeller-Maersk was right there.

During the 1990s, Denmark assisted in breaking up Yugoslavia. This ended the socialist-led state replaced by five separate capitalist states. On November 8, 1992, Denmark sent 170 soldiers and observers to Bosnia. Denmark was under UN “peace-keeping” missions and later under NATO fighting missions until March 1995.

In October 1998, the first 875 of many thousands of Danish mercenaries were sent to fight beside the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Nine F-16s accompanied them. The KLA was a drug-smuggling band and was on U.S. and European terrorist lists. When the KLA attacked socialist-led Serbian forces, it became an ally. Denmark still occupies Bosnia and Kosovo. Hashim Thaçi resigned the presidency on November 5, 2020, after being indicted in June 2020 on ten counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In December 2001, Denmark joined the U.S. in its invasion of Afghanistan, for allegedly giving refuge to al-Qaeda forces perhaps responsible for the terrorist attacks September 11. The U.S. refused to offer the Taliban government, which it had helped to gain power, any proof that those Saudi al-Qaeda forces were responsible for the terrorist actions.

What Danes, and U.S. Americans, forget, or wish to ignore, is that President Vladimir Putin, just elected following Boris Yeltsin’s decade-long betrayal to Russian sovereignty, complied with President George W. Bush request for assistance in his war against Afghanistan’s Taliban government. President Putin offered intelligence support, use of its military base in Kyrgyzstan, and even proposed a broader NATO with Russia as a member. For Putin’s pains of cooperation, Bush allowed the CIA to infiltrate terrorists in areas of Russian interests in the Caucasus, including in Baku, intending to create separatism and feuds between neighbors (Georgia, Chechnya, North and South Ossetia) and Russia. Bush also withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. (See The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert, chapters 13 and 14).

Russia and China are accused of being anti-democratic, authoritarian, even totalitarian states. Yet Anders Wivel and Rasmus Mariager’s 2019 book, Krigsudredningen (The War Investigation), shows how “Denmark’s military engagement [is] driven by Danish politicians’ decision-making will to accommodate American desire for military contribution.”

The decision about going to war is “not what one fights for, but with whom we fight.” “What is lacking is any systematic discussion of goals, means, expected affect, resources, risk, time plan…alternatives and consequence. Elections are not determined by foreign policy… Denmark’s alliances and world goals are decided by politicians,” wrote Information’s editor about the book. By implication, the people have no say especially about foreign policy, i.e., who to murder or not.

Danish soldier in Iraq

Denmark has flown more than 1,000 F-16 missions, used helicopters, transport aircraft, tanks, and thousands of machine guns. It has spent more money there than any other invader in Afghanistan other than the U.S.—three billion dollars between 2002-2015, and still counting. They plan to remain in Afghanistan as long as the U.S. is there.

On March 21, 2003, Denmark became the only government to actually declare war on Iraq. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s public posture was that Iraq possessed weapons of massive destruction, as if that were an international crime warranting “regime change.” It was later proven that Rasmussen had lied. No such weapons existed and he knew it from his own intelligence service. However, such weapons do exist in the U.S. and some of its allies’ territory.

On March 18, 2011, the Danish parliament voted unanimously to create a no fly zone to prevent Libya’s government from protecting itself, in effect warring against Libya. The parties voting included the Peoples Socialist party (SF) and Red/Green (Enhedslisten). Denmark sent six F-16s, allegedly to prevent President Muammar Gaddafi from “crushing civilian opposition” armed in Benghazi, something that groups associated with al-Qaeda claimed would soon happen.

Denmark dropped one thousand bombs. The “brave pilots,” as the media called them, had no risk as Libya’s air force was crushed. Not one Danish invader was killed, but hundreds of Libyan civilians were. Denmark spent more than $100 million helping destroy schools, hospitals, homes, and soldiers protecting their sovereign nation. Western “humanitarian” forces watched as its “rebel opposition” captured President Gaddafi and tortured him to a painful death.

“WE CAME, WE SAW, HE DIED” chortled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on CBS news.

In April 2014, Danish ships transported 1,300 tons of chemical weaponry from Syria’s government into the hands of the U.S., the country with the most chemical and biological weaponry. Denmark also sent F-16s on missions inside Syria against all laws of sovereignty.

In January 2017, Denmark sent 60 Special Forces to Syria to assist terrorist groups fighting the Syrian government. Denmark has focused on donating tax money to “opposition” “humanitarian” groups, such as “White Helmets” embedded with IS in its captured territory, and “friendly” militia fighters against the government.

The same month, Denmark flew four F-16s to aid Estonia from being “invaded by Russia”. This action was linked to supporting the neo-fascist Ukrainian coup government, which the U.S. set in. Denmark continues its “peace-keeping mission” in the Baltics.

Greenland Not For Sale, or What?

U.S. Homeland Security official Miles Taylor was with President Donald Trump in Puerto Rico, in August 2018. After he resigned, Taylor recounted: “Not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico…Could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland because, in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor?”

Trump didn’t bother to ask Puerto Ricans or Greenlanders. He raised it with Denmark’s new PM Mette Frederiksen. Denmark’s prime ministers do not have the authority to make such a deal. Frederiksen made the error of telling Danish media that the notion was “absurd.” This term injured Trump’s vanity. He cancelled his planned trip to Denmark on September 2, 2019. About 1,000 of us gathered to demonstrate against him and Denmark’s cozy relationship with Trump anyway.

Donald Trump does not give up easily, as the 2020 election clearly shows. He tried buying “good will” so that Greenlanders would allow the United States to use their land for more war machinery. In April 2020, Trump sent $12 million “to enhance Greenland’s growth.”

Mette Frederiksen smiled and said the $12 million was a wonderful gift.

Trump’s ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, wrote, “Unlike Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China], America’s vision for the Arctic area is based on transparency, cooperation and democratic values.”

Sands also wrote that this money would screen Greenlanders from “malicious influence and extortion by Russia and China.” She encouraged Denmark to spend more to protect Greenland, i.e., buy more F-35s. The 27 already contracted will increase its war aircraft fleet by 40% along with General Dynamics F-16s.

The Russian ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir V. Barbin, replied that the U.S. rejects dialogue and cooperation, preferring “confrontation politics” oriented “to achieve domination.”

Unlimited consumerism is causing the melting of all the Arctic’s glaciers within a few years. The territories and countries around it (Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, China, Russia) should see the need to cooperate to help save its glaciers and not remove oil and mineral wealth beneath them. Nor should they put every human in the area in threat of diseases from radioactive chemicals, or entire elimination from nuclear accidents or nuclear war.

Greenlanders remember what most others do not about how dangerous flying around with nuclear weapons can be. On January 21, 1968, a B-52 carrying four nuclear bombs caught on fire and crashed into ice nearby Thule Air Force Base.

Thule Air Force Base Greenland

Denmark has had a no-nuclear policy since 1957.

The U.S. had moved Greenlanders from Thule village during WWII to build the base. Denmark unwillingly gave the U.S. eternal use of Greenland. It agreed to never inspect what the U.S. brought. After the war, the enemy was again the Soviet Union, and the U.S. brought nuclear weapons to Thule. Since then, the U.S. flies and sails nuclear missiles anywhere regardless of any nation’s laws. Danish politicians faithfully cover up the fact that the U.S. has nuclear weaponry on its territory.

Following the crash, teams of Danes and U.S. Americans conducted as much clean-up of nuclear waste and plutonium as they said they could. The whole matter was hushed up, but a report revealed that only 90% of dangerous material was recovered; 10% was sunken below the seabed at North Star Bay, contaminating plants and fish.

Of the 1,500 Danish workers, 450 died from radiation cancer. There is no information available about how many Greenlanders fell ill and died. In 1995, Danish survivors of the clean-up (“Operation Chrome Dome”) sued for compensation.

Survivors received the grand total of $6,000 each for their pain. Neither the American workers nor native Greenlanders in the area received anything. The Association of Former Thule Workers called it a “cover-up.”

Cover-up is what the Danish governments’ Defense Department has been doing for years, and has led to illegally spying on its residents and European neighbors, a Danish weapons firm, Terma, even the Ministry of Finance, all to please NSA and Lockheed Martin.

Social Democrats Embrace the New Cold War with Relish

In the autumn of 2019, the new Social Democrat government leaders wet their skirts scrambling to convince the most narcissistic president in U.S. history that they are his most loyal of all lackeys. Great Britain move over.

Mette Frederiksen and her war minister, Trine Bramsen, felt the need to make up for not being able to sell Greenland to Donald Trump’s government, something he felt was a condition for his scheduled September 2019 visit.

Frederiksen pledged even closer U.S.-Danish cooperation in efforts to control the Arctic, whose melting ice has increased competition with Russia over oil and minerals. Frederiksen made further offerings to assist the United States Military Empire:

1. The same day that Trump would have walked beside PM Frederiksen, she instructed her war minister to send four F-16s to Lithuania just in case Russia decided to invade there.
2. The same day, Frederiksen-Bramsen announced they were buying top-notch sonar so it could help search for Russian submarines.
3. To offset Trump’s criticism that Denmark as a wealthy country should pay more for its military, Frederiksen-Bramsen pledged millions for NATO.
4. Bramsen assured us that her elite corps (comparable to Navy Seals and Frogmen) will be used as protection against Russia. She did not tell us what the threat was but emphasized that the elite corps would be “effective when there is need for it.”
5. September 6, the PM, Secretary of State and War Minister stood together as they announced sending 500 more soldiers to various vulnerable parts of the globe. They will sail Denmark’s largest vessel, a frigate, alongside U.S. aircraft carriers to patrol the waters close to Russia and Iran. (A Danish frigate with helicopters and 155 sailors sailed in a France-led surveillance mission in Hormuz Strait beginning in December 2019.)
6. September 27, the largest military exercise on Danish soil in 15 years engaged in maneuvers against a hypothetical Russian invading force. Operation Brave Lion confronted the invisible Brown Bears with two thousand men and women (women now comprise 20% of the military).

Danish soldiers in Combined Resolve 111 military exercises

Kristian Soeby Kristensen, senior researcher at the Institute for Military Studies, Copenhagen University, told DR, “Russia constitutes a potential military threat to Europe…so it is decisive that European countries also equip themselves and pose with more powerful forces.”

The “threat” from this huge country is frightening for those who refuse to see how ridiculous it is to claim that 145 million Russians will take on 900 million people in 30 NATO countries.

Denmark and the EU are also increasing the demonization of Russia by following U.S.’s lead in denying that the Soviet Union/Russia played an important role in winning WWII.

On Victory Day, May 4, 75 years after Germany surrendered in Denmark, Danish politicians gave no credit to the fact that the Soviet Union played a central role in liberating Europe from the Nazis. Twenty-seven million Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed (13% of its people), compared to 450,000 in the UK (1%), and 420,000 Americans (0.32%).  

Denmark has also come up with reasons to sanction Russia’s ally, China. Denmark’s largest telecommunications company (TDC) worked with Huawei and was satisfied. No one could find any spying capabilities with Huawei products. Trump, however, just as all U.S. presidents tied with Wall Street, must have enemies. They serve for weapon-industry profiteering and as diversions from internal problems. With sanctions against Huawei, TDC switched to Ericsson, a Swedish company.

Mette Swinging with Trump

Following the tense situation about who should control Greenland, Mette Frederiksen met with Donald Trump in London during the December 2019 NATO meeting.

She told the media, “I have a good and positive impression of the president.” “We can count on one another and we can trust one another.” “We swing well.”

To prove how well she swings with her big partner, Frederiksen increased Denmark’s military support over what she had offered just two months before. This support includes:

• More military focus and money in Greenland’s Arctic area for “national security.”
• Double Denmark’s aircraft for NATO from four to eight in honor of its 70th birthday.

Key features of Denmark’s military might for its 5.7 million inhabitants include:

• $3 billion military budget (3% of 2019 Financial Budget), a 20% increase in military spending over a six-year period.
• Mercenaries in Afghanistan (160) plus Danish police instructors; $50 million for what is admittedly Afghanistan’s corrupt police corps; aircraft and war vehicles come and go.
• Mercenaries in Iraq (150). Denmark sent 50 more as it takes charge of the remaining NATO countries’ 500 “advisers.” This is Denmark’s third mission in Iraq. Its first 2003-7 aimed at crushing Saddam Hussein’s government and resistance forces. Denmark also has 14 operators at a United Arab Emirates airbase as part of its mission in Iraq.
• Mercenaries in the Baltic (200-300). The Danes are there officially to keep “Putin’s troops away.” The three Baltic countries are in NATO and the EU making it ludicrous to believe the Russians would invade.
• Mercenaries in Bosnia (400) and Kosovo (three dozen).

Denmark’s Wars: The Toll

Thirty thousand troops and mercenaries sent 67,371 times to war between 1990-2017 (and running) as an aggressor in half-a-dozen countries, either as part of NATO or part of the “coalition of the willing.” Danish troops have also been in two dozen countries as part of UN peacekeeping forces.

Danes killed: 64; wounded, approximately 300; 47 suicides in 300 attempts between 1992-2013 (and running). No figures are kept of how many human beings Denmark has murdered!

1. Balkans=33,691 Danes; 12 Danes killed; 35 wounded. 1992-today.
2. Afghanistan=20,000 Danes; 43 killed; 214 wounded. 2002-today
3. Iraq=9,605 troops; 8 killed; 19 wounded. 2003-today
4. Libya=629 pilots+, none killed or wounded. 2011
5. Lebanon=1,551; one killed; no wounded.
6. Gulf of Aden=3,149 sailors/military; none killed or wounded.
7. Syria=738 air force and special forces; none killed or wounded

Conclusion: Why are Danes so obedient to the United States Military Empire?

Profiteering from the weapons industry and wars is always one answer, usually the main answer. Nevertheless, with the exception of a handful of capitalists (A.P. Moeller Maersk, Terma) income from weapons and war is negligible in Denmark.

Demonizing President Vladimir Putin is the key ideological reason. Copying the United States Military Empire goes hand-in-hand with that.

Can Danes really believe that the Russians would invade them if the U.S. wasn’t behind them militarily? Would the U.S. drop its support if Denmark refused to fight the Yankees’ wars? No. If it did, it would have serious problems with several current vassal states.

Not all 30 NATO countries and the 27 in the EU are so obedient as are the Danes. Danes want to be first in line. In fact, “shoulder to shoulder” was how Social Democrat Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen expressed Danes support for U.S. wars following 9/11 attacks.

In summary, this is what Danes have told me about their complacency over the decades.

1. We had to do what the U.S. wanted of us so we could come in out of the cold, and get Marshall Plan benefits.
2. Danes profited from colonialism/slavery. Much of Denmark’s wealth has come from being oppressors. Danes don’t want to confront that past, clearly seen on many monuments/statues/street names, and Greenland is still a colony.
3. Danes now see themselves as just a “little land” needing “security” from a big land.
4. Danish culture has long been passive, authoritarian faithful, conflict-adverse and indifferent.

END

^[1] Denmark does not even have a large profiteering weapons industry, not yet. Most of its war profits come from supplying advanced radar and communication apparatuses for satellites and jets, measurements of heat, dust, sounds, and drones. Before Denmark began its warring era, there were less than a handful of such firms. Since 1996, the Defense and Aerospace industry has grown to 73 members (2014). Its exports in 2008 (latest figures provided) were some $3 billion. It has recently reorganized its production from delivery of components to entire systems for such warring giants as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, as well as NASA. It sells war materials to the Balkans and to the Baltic States, pressing Russia on its western borders. (See Outposts of the U.S. Surveillance Empire: Denmark and Beyond, CovertAction Magazine for information on Denmark’s largest weapons firm, Terma, and the Defense Intelligence Service (FE).

^[2] Mercenary because if Denmark has not declared war or is not under attack, no soldier is forced to take to foreign war missions without volunteering, and do so with greater pay. Denmark’s war in Iraq began in March 2003 as George W. Bush invaded the cradle of civilization, murdering hundreds of thousands of human beings while destroying and stealing much of its ancient and modern works. Tjalve pointed out that the so-called “red” social democratic government was then even more willing to continue warring in Iraq—this time against IS instead of the defeated forces of Saddam Hussein—than was the majority in the U.S. The 2014 mission was not official war, rather part of the “anti-terror” mission against IS. Danish soldiers were not ordered to fight in other countries where Denmark had not declared war. They went voluntarily, and are thus mercenaries.

^[3] One must bear in mind that the combined military forces of U.S./NATO/EU/Israel are ten-fold what Russia has. The U.S. has about 800 military bases outside (plus 4,154 on its soil); NATO has 30; Russia has a dozen, and China one. See William Blum books. Blum documented that since WWII the U.S. has attempted to overthrow 50 governments, most of them democratically elected, and been successful about half the time. See also my book, The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert, chapter 18. Amazon.com: The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert eBook: Ridenour, Ron: Kindle Store

Thomas NEWDICK

The earliest popular ideological debate regarding coronavirus-policy was between advocates of Denmark’s socialistic approach, versus neighboring Sweden’s laissez-fair approach. EuroNews headlined on March 26th “Neighbours Denmark and Sweden miles apart on coronavirus confinement”, and reported that “when it comes to handling the coronavirus crisis, they are on very different trajectories,” which were Denmark’s socialism, versus Sweden’s libertarianism.

At that time, there was no clear indication, yet, as to which approach would win out. For example, on April 19th, Denmark had 1,275 Covid-19 cases per million, whereas Sweden had 1,424. So: per million inhabitants, they were about the same.

Even as late as 12 May 2020, three libertarian co-authors at the prestigious U.S. neoliberal and neoconservative Council on Foreign Relations’s journal Foreign Affairs headlined, confidently, that libertarianism would win out: “Sweden’s Coronavirus Strategy Will Soon Be the World’s: Herd Immunity Is the Only Realistic Option—the Question Is How to Get There Safely”.

But, by the time of June 29th, the data had become clear to the exact contrary, and so I headlined “‘Herd Immunity’ Is a Failed Response to Coronavirus”, and reported the subsequent increases in each of these two countries’ numbers.

On April 22nd:

DENMARK = 1,329 (up 4%)

SWEDEN = 1,517 (up 7%)

On May 10th:

DENMARK = 1,782 (up 34%)

SWEDEN = 2,567 (up 69%)

On June 17th:

DENMARK = 2,123 (up another 19%)

SWEDEN = 5,404 ( up another 111%)

And here it is as of June 28th:

DENMARK = 2,188 (up another 3%)

SWEDEN = 5,450 (up another 1%)

And, finally, on 22 August:

DENMARK = 2,783 (up another 27%)

SWEDEN = 8,515 (up another 56%)

Furthermore, one of the leading libertarian arguments against taking action has been that supposedly the economy will perform better if there are no coronavirus-restrictions placed by the Government. However, Sweden’s unemployment-rate has been hit at least as hard by coronavirus as Denmark’s has:

Denmark’s unemployment-rate was 4.1% in March, 5.4% in April, 5.6% in May, and 5.5% in June.

Sweden’s unemployment-rate was 7.1% in March, 8.2% in April, 9% in May, and 9.8% in June.

So, on that day, August 22nd, I sent to an influential libertarian website (not as influential as Foreign Affairs, but more populist — not funded by billionaires like the CFR is), which has come to specialize on coronavirus, the following article for them to consider, since it discredits their many libertarian articles about coronavirus:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2251615-is-swedens-coronavirus-strategy-a-cautionary-tale-or-a-success-story/

and the response from them three hours later was:

I appreciate you’re willingness to engage on this topic, but your choice of source is poor. The logic is bad, and whole areas of policy are ignored.

Firstly, comparing Sweden only to Denmark and Norway is absurd. Sweden imposed no lockdown, yet fared far better than many countries which did so (Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Spain and Italy). This alone is a perfectly strong argument that lockdowns are totally ineffective for their stated aims.

Secondly, it at no point talks about deaths caused by lockdowns, which is a huge factor (accounting for nearly half the excess deaths in the UK).

Thirdly, it mentions GDP but doesn’t discuss that the economy is MORE than that. A suffering economy is not about money or finance, it is about well-being for the working class. Good wages, affordable rent and the freedom to run your own small business. All of which have been destroyed by the lockdown policy, which Sweden shows was (at best) pointless.

I promptly replied:

The Belgian policy-response was unclear, unfocused, and such a mess that nothing has even been generally reported regarding their contact-tracing (which is such a crucial aspect of effective policy-response to the virus).

None of the countries with good results have achieved them via an expectation of ‘herd immunity’. No country is anywhere near the 70%-infection-rate that produces herd-immunity. It’s a myth; it’s just a lie.

For example, though the imperialistic libertarian country United States warns travelers that the coronavirus risk is exceptionally high in Uganda (warning “Level 3,” which is their highest), Uganda is actually one of the world’s lowest coronavirus-risk countries, and they achieved it by stringent policies, which is exactly what you reject. Whereas U.S. now has 17,587 cases per million, Uganda has 47. The country that has a 374 times higher percentage of its population coronavirus-infected, warns its suckers to stay away from the country that has 1/374th of the risk.

Why is [your site] feeding into this deception of its readers, instead of exposing it to them? Have you switched to being pro-imperialistic (pro-neoconservative, which is a variety of neoliberal or “libertarian”)? All of a sudden, the neoliberal countries, such as U.S., Brazil, and India, which are or have been the world’s worst on coronavirus-performance, are the ones to emulate? Why? Or else: which countries ARE the ones to emulate on this? Say it. Prove it. The statistical data by now are certainly sufficient to do this. Why don’t you do it, instead of continue to deceive readers? Why do you deceive readers so that they would support, instead of condemn, the imperialistic U.S. Government’s alleging that Uganda is more coronavirus-dangerous than the U.S. itself is? It’s a lie, but how would your readers be able to know this?

I don’t get it. You seem stuck in your existing false beliefs. Please explain so that I will become able to understand. Right now, I don’t.

I received a reply that said I should “apologise” because “We have never expressed any support for the US or its Imperial policies in any way, shape or form,” and “the statistics speak for themselves — the virus is harmless to the vast majority of people, and in no way justifies any of the draconian or authoritarian laws being imposed opportunistically in many countries around the world (including the United States).” In other words: the U.S. under Trump isn’t being sufficiently laissez-faire about this matter. The evidence that I had cited was ignored, not discussed, by him.

Subsequently, I checked a few of the other nations that are among the best on coronavirus-performance. For example, there’s China. It has 59 coronavirus-19 cases per million population, and the U.S. has 298 times as many cases per million, but the U.S. Government rates China also in the highest-risk category, “Level 3,” for Americans to visit, on account of its supposedly higher-than-U.S. danger of becoming infected with that virus.

Then, there’s Vietnam, which the U.S. Government had tried to conquer but couldn’t. Vietnam has only 10 coronavirus cases per million inhabitants. America has 17,587 per million; so, obviously, that’s 1,759 times as many. Vietnam also is rated “Level 3” — the worst, most coronavirus-dangerous, category. The Government of Americans is warning Americans to avoid visiting Vietnam because it’s just too dangerous a coronavirus-risk for an American, whose country has 17,587 cases per million. Obviously, no intelligent person trusts a government such as this. (No more than such a person would trust the Government that had promised it was certain that WMD existed in Iraq in 2002, or that Syria had gassed people on 7 April 2018, or that the overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected President in 2014 was a ‘democratic revolution’ instead of a U.S. coup — or on, and on, such as about “Russiagate”.)

Then, there’s Myanmar, which has only 8 cases per million inhabitants — 1 divided by 2,198 times as many cases-per-million as the U.S. does — and the U.S. Government refuses even to call that nation “Myanmar,” but instead calls it by what the British did when they had it as a colony, which is “Burma,” and the U.S. regime’s travel-advisory rating of “Burma,” for ‘Burma’s would-be now U.S. imperial masters, is likewise exactly the same as they rate Uganda: “Warning — Level 3”. The U.S. regime is telling its citizens that a country which is 2,198 times safer on the coronavirus danger than the U.S. itself is, is instead too unsafe on coronavirus for Americans to travel to. They care so much about the safety of their own citizens, as to warn them against visiting a country that’s thousands of times safer. How sincere is that? But some people still respect the lie, and the liars (serial-liars), as if they weren’t.

Perhaps people who are in denial about coronavirus are simply in denial about reality — the broader, global, reality.

On coronavirus-19 — this pandemic — the best data regarding the international reality is this, which is the constantly up-to-date listings of all countries and their respective numbers. To see the rankings there of all countries on the crucial outcome-variable of “Tot Cases/1M pop” just click onto that column’s heading and countries will be ranked that way. Same for the other crucial outcome-variable “Deaths/1M pop,” and for the far less-crucial process-variables (such as “Tests/1M pop”). Two successive clicks onto the given column-heading will reverse the ordering of the countries regarding that variable. You’ll be seeing there the existing rankings, as of that given moment. To see the trends within any given country, just click onto the name of that country, and then scroll down to the charts “Daily New Cases” and “Daily New Deaths” (tracking both of the crucial outcome-variables)

However, people who are in denial about coronavirus-reality avoid those numbers like the plague. Perhaps they do that because, to their libertarian ideology, these numbers are “the plague.”