Norway not to accept US espionage

Norway is not going to accept US espionage, says an expert, after a TV report accused Washington’s embassy in Oslo of conducting surveillance.

Norway’s TV2 channel said on Thursday that the US embassy in Oslo had employed 15 to 20 people, including police officers, to keep an eye on Norwegians since 2000.

“They [Norwegians] have a long record of objecting very very strongly to foreign countries checking on their residence and behaving with extra-territorial powers. They are not going to accept the US doing that,” Ian Williams, with the Foreign Policy in Focus, New York told Press TV on Friday.

“Norway is a member of NATO, but it is an independent member of NATO, and it is a very wealthy member of NATO… By setting standards, they might send ripples throughout NATO and the rest of the world that you really don’t have to do what the US says all of the time,” he added.

The Norwegian TV2 channel also accused Washington of taking photographs of demonstrators and adding their names to a computer database.

The issue has strained ties between Norway and the United States.

Norwegian Foreign Ministry says it has asked the US embassy for information about the surveillance program.

The US Department of State spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, has confirmed that the operation had taken place, but has also alleged that Norwegian authorities were aware of the situation and were cooperating with the embassy.