Last week, U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, were ordered to intensify espionage activities related to Greenland and the contingent supporting the island’s independence.
According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, intelligence gathering will also focus in part on identifying individuals in Greenland and Denmark who support the Trump administration’s interest in taking over the island.
The effort could include the use of U.S. spy satellites, intercepts of various communications and spies on the ground. “The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed of aiding deep-state actors who seek to undermine the president by politicizing and leaking classified information,” Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, told the paper in response to its reporting. “They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy.”
The intelligence alert marks one of the first major steps taken by the administration to promote the possible conquest of the island, a goal repeatedly urged by President Trump.
During an interview with NBC News over the weekend, Trump explained that Greenland could provide the United States with strategic access to polar waterways and rare minerals, and to counteract the significant investments by Russia and China near the Arctic region. “We need Greenland very badly,” Trump said. “Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security.”
Already during his first term the MAGA leader had set his sights on the island. Greenland, whose population is around 56,000, is a territory rich in natural resources such as gold, silver, copper and uranium, and there is believed to be considerable potential for oil extraction in the surrounding waters.
“The president has been very clear that the U.S. is concerned about the security of Greenland and the Arctic,” National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt told the Journal. However, he added that the White House will not make any further statements regarding intelligence operations.
