US Oslo embassy spy case goes cold

[Magda Hassan]

Mmmmm..... what a waste of money and time given they didn't find Breivik and co. But I doubt that was the purpose.

The case of closet surveillance by the American Embassy in Oslo seems to have been quietly dropped almost a year following the WikiLeaks revelations.

US Embassy, Oslo
Photo: © 2009 Kjetil Ree/Wikimedia Commons

Since the announcement of the spying scandal nothing more appears to have happened.
Reports that the US embassy systematically spied on Norwegian citizens broke in November after the controversial website WikiLeaks published secret American diplomatic cables.
The round-the-clock surveillance operation by the group of up to 20 SDU (Surveillance Detection Unit) agents, consisting of former police, defence, and private security staff, started in the spring of 2000.
It was set up to monitor Norwegian citizens whom the US embassy alleged acted suspiciously. Surveillance took place from the sixth floor of the Handelsbygningen building, several hundred metres west of the embassy.
SDU personnel collected detailed information about individuals, including video footage. The information was passed on to US embassy staff, where it was disseminated and subsequently stored in the worldwide anti-terror SIMAS database.
Last year, Justice Minister Knut Storberget announced a public inquiry into the matter, after facing considerable pressure from politicians and diplomats alike.
Following the revelations, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) Director Kristian Berg Harpviken said, "The matter could be extremely delicate for US-Norwegian relations if embassy documents refer to its surveillance operation."
Nevertheless, the US embassy was insistent that it followed all Norwegian laws in allowing the SDU to operate on Norwegian soil.
"We cooperate with authorities in the host country to do everything we can to protect our embassies [from terrorist attacks], including Norway" said Philip J. Crowley, assistant press secretary to the US State Department in Washington.
Shortly afterwards it emerged that the Americans may even have been armed and carrying concealed weapons around Norwegian streets, though Vegard Valter Hansen, senior adviser at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) believed this would have been "In high threat level situations or exceptional circumstances, providing the embassy and the host nation granted them permission."
The US embassy denied that its Oslo personnel were routinely armed, however.
"They only have to keep an eye on things and observe, so why should they be armed?" asked Timothy Moore, spokesman for the US embassy in Oslo. "SDU members are just regular U.S. embassy employees [and] are paid the same way. Some of them work full-time, others part-time."
Norwegian police had a difficult time investigating the matter, as none of those involved could be questioned before Washington revoked their oath of silence earlier this year.
US Oslo embassy spokesperson Patrick C. Geraghty told The Foreigner at the time that "After a thorough review of the international legal principles involved, the US government is pleased to advise that it will permit SDU members to provide information about their day-to-day activities and responsibilities."
"We regret the delay in responding, but note that it was due to the complexity of the international legal issues involved. It required extensive consultation by legal experts within the U.S. Government."
"We believe that we have found a way forward, serving the public interest while protecting the legal rights of the United States under the Vienna Convention."
Although American embassy staff had reportedly informed Oslo police of their surveillance activities, the official enquiry found that no laws had been broken, meaning there was nothing that the Norwegian authorities could do about the scandal.
Norway's Prosecuting Authority now says the matter has been dropped.
http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/us-osl...goes-cold/

[Jan Klimkowski]

Reports that the US embassy systematically spied on Norwegian citizens broke in November after the controversial website WikiLeaks published secret American diplomatic cables.
The round-the-clock surveillance operation by the group of up to 20 SDU (Surveillance Detection Unit) agents, consisting of former police, defence, and private security staff, started in the spring of 2000.
It was set up to monitor Norwegian citizens whom the US embassy alleged acted suspiciously. Surveillance took place from the sixth floor of the Handelsbygningen building, several hundred metres west of the embassy.
SDU personnel collected detailed information about individuals, including video footage. The information was passed on to US embassy staff, where it was disseminated and subsequently stored in the worldwide anti-terror SIMAS database.

That looks like pretty cut and dried illegal, criminal, behaviour by Americans in a sovereign European country.

Um. Perhaps not.

the official enquiry found that no laws had been broken, meaning there was nothing that the Norwegian authorities could do about the scandal.
Norway's Prosecuting Authority now says the matter has been dropped.

So, the global Volkland Security apparatus operating under draconian War on Terror legislation now trumps national sovereignty.

Follow the bouncing ball
Repeat after me
I will do as I am Told....

[Jan Klimkowski]

Intriguing speculation from Webster Tarpley that the SIMAS Surveillance Detection Units are in fact the infrastructure for the C21st Gladio:

State Department Complained of Norway's "Lack of Commitment" to Libyan Adventure

The Norwegian decision to stop waging war against Libya, the first of its kind by any member of the Atlantic alliance, has attracted the attention of diplomatic observers, one of whom commented that the current government in Oslo has advocated "a distinctly more peaceful approach to global policies by the Norwegian government…. [despite] recent pressure from the US on Norway to contribute more in Libya military campaign. Norway has been resisting that pressure and pushing for a more peaceful approach to the US-led NATO attacks on Libya and refused to provide weapons to NATO, finally announcing last month that Norway would quit its military role in Libya by August 1. In March, as the US was rallying unilateral support to invade Libya, Norway's minister of foreign affairs Jonas Gahr Støre was one of the few nations to warn the US against armed intervention in Libya. Norway initially supplied six fighter jets for Libya operations and has carried out about 10% of the Libya strikes since 19 March. However, US officials singled out Norway and Denmark for their lack of commitment' to the mission to oust Gaddafi… Other Norway-Libya links include Norway's major oil- and fertilizer-related interests in Libya: the Norwegian state-owned Statoil, which has about 30 employees at its Tripoli offices….[Norway's] businesses have conducted major business operations in Libya, in co-operation with Qaddafi's regime."6

At the present stage of the inquiry, the best estimate of a motive for the Norwegian attacks is to punish the country for its independent and pro-Arab foreign policy in general, and for its repudiation of the NATO bombing coalition arrayed against Libya in particular.

Are SIMAS Surveillance Detection Units the New Gladio for Norway?

US and NATO intelligence have been shown to possess extraordinary capabilities inside Norway, many of which may be operating outside of the control of the Norwegian government. In early November 2010, the Oslo television channel TV2 exposed the existence of an extensive network of paid assets and informants of US intelligence recruited from the ranks of retired police and other officials. The ostensible goal of this program was the surveillance of Norwegians who were taking part in demonstrations and other activities critical of the United States and its policies. One of the Norwegians recruited was the former chief of the anti-terror section of the Oslo police.7 Although the goal was supposedly merely surveillance, it is possible to imagine some other and far more sinister activities that could be carried out by such a network of retired cops, including the identification and subversion of rotten apples on the active-duty police force. Some of the capabilities of a network of this type would not be totally alien to the sort of events that have just occurred in Norway.

The official name for the type of espionage cell which the United States was creating in Norway is Surveillance Detection Unit (SDU). The SDUs in turn operate within the framework of the Security Incident Management Analysis System (SIMAS). SIMAS is known to be used for spying and surveillance by US Embassies not just in the Nordic bloc of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, but worldwide. The terror events also raise the question of whether SIMAS has an operational dimension. Could this apparatus represents a modern version of the Cold War stay behind networks set up in all NATO countries and best-known under the name of the Italian branch, Gladio?

The Norwegian government needs to find out. Thus far Norwegian ministers have asserted that they never approved the SIMAS network of SDUs. "We never knew about it," claimed Norway's Justice Minister Knut Storberget and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in chorus. Hillary Clinton stated instead that the Norwegians had been informed.