Norwegian Lieutenant General Kjell Grandhagen admitted in a news conference that the country has been collecting data on over 33 million phone conversations. This came a day after reports were released by the Norwegian Daily that the NSA were the ones collecting meta-data on the 33 million Norwegian citizens. Akin to the US, the country is justifying the spying for national security reasons.

“This is data collection by Norwegian intelligence to support Norwegian military operations in conflict areas abroad, or connected to the fight against terrorism, also abroad… This was not data collection from Norway against Norway, but Norwegian data collection that is shared with the Americans” said Lieutenant Grahdhagen.

The Norwegian Daily said they were given top secret documents from the whistleblower Edward Snowden and former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald. The documents indicated that the NSA collected meta-data on 33 million Norwegian calls between the periods of December 12 and January 8.

via Russian Today