Norway quizzes Sweden on NSA snooping
Richard Orange - [email protected]
Published: 29 Oct, 2013 CET.
Updated: Tue 29 Oct 2013 11:44 CET
Norway's Prime Minister has challenged Sweden to come clean on whether it collects and records Norwegian internet traffic for the US's National Security Agency (NSA).
Erna Solberg told state broadcaster NRK that she had asked Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime Minister to provide details on any surveillance programmes targeting Norwegians when they he was in Oslo for Monday's meeting of Nordic prime ministers. "We discussed this yesterday, and I said that we want to have more information, Solberg said. "The concern is that much of our web traffic goes through Sweden. Therefore, I told Reinfeldt that we want to take this up further." Sweden's controversial 2008 FRA law gives the country the right to monitor mass communications which cross its borders, which includes most of Norway's web traffic. A year ago, Sweden quietly gave both its police and its intelligence agency SAPO access to the information, which was previously only accessible to military intelligence. Fredrik Reinfeldt told NRK said that Norwegian citizens should not worry about Swedish surveillance. "The goal is not to monitor certain countries, but to defend ourselves against terrorism and prevent war and conflict," he said.
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Erna Solberg told state broadcaster NRK that she had asked Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime Minister to provide details on any surveillance programmes targeting Norwegians when they he was in Oslo for Monday's meeting of Nordic prime ministers.
"We discussed this yesterday, and I said that we want to have more information, Solberg said. "The concern is that much of our web traffic goes through Sweden. Therefore, I told Reinfeldt that we want to take this up further."
Sweden's controversial 2008 FRA law gives the country the right to monitor mass communications which cross its borders, which includes most of Norway's web traffic.
A year ago, Sweden quietly gave both its police and its intelligence agency SAPO access to the information, which was previously only accessible to military intelligence.
Fredrik Reinfeldt told NRK said that Norwegian citizens should not worry about Swedish surveillance.
"The goal is not to monitor certain countries, but to defend ourselves against terrorism and prevent war and conflict," he said.
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