Surveillance Detection Unit
Surveillance Detection Units are organizations belonging to the US government that have conducted secret surveillance that potentially broke national laws in various European countries. The SDUs were publicly discussed in Congress in 2000 and the Norwegian broadcaster TV 2 first publicly reported the existence of the network of SDUs, on 3 November 2010.
Description
In the year 2000, at least 22 United States embassies and consulates around the world operated the US Department of State's "worldwide surveillance detection program", which " quasi-covert operations and information gathering." The SDU operates under the authority of the RSO and stores the collected data in a system called Security Incident Management Analysis System.Norway
Since 2000, former leaders of the police force of Oslo, the Norwegian Police Security Service, and the National Criminal Investigation Service have been recruited to conduct secret surveillance of Norwegians in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the U.S. Embassy and the residence of the U.S. Ambassador. The unit consists of 15–20 people that were based on the sixth floor of the building Handelsbygningen at Solli Plass, several hundred metres from the embassy at Henrik Ibsens Gate, until the November 2010 controversy. Its leader, Olaf Johansen, was a former anti-terrorism chief before being recruited for the American unit. Knut Storberget, Norway's Minister of Justice, initially claimed the government was unaware of the program and that there would be an investigation, but later presented updated information to the Norwegian parliament after the U.S. Embassy stated that notification had been made.Norway television channel TV 2 claimed that the SDU's surveillance of Norwegian citizens was illegal. The head of the Norwegian surveillance agency, Datatilsynet, Bjørn Erik Thon, said that the operation was unprecedented, stating "I think it's very serious that something like this can be conducted on Norwegian territory and that it's Norwegian citizens carrying out the work." Thon stated that the SDU violated the Norwegian privacy law Personopplysningsloven. He said that he was disturbed "that the Norwegians employed by the embassy to, for example, take photos of persons engaging in political demonstrations, apparently have felt they can avoid the law because they were working for a foreign employer."
Parliamentary reactions ranged from "To the degree true, it's frightening information" from Conservative Party parliamentarian André Oktay Dahl to a "scandal" for Socialist Left Party parliamentarians. Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre took up the surveillance issue with State Secretary Hillary Clinton in a meeting on 7 December.