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(U) Two Perspectives on the Presidential Visit to Denmark
FROM: the Foreign Affairs Digest
Unknown
Run Date: 09/19/2005
(S//SI) The first write-up is from
, SLO (SIGINT Liaison Officer) Copenhagen:
(S//SI) In late May, President Bush accepted Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen's invitation to
visit Denmark prior to Bush's attendance at the July G8 summit. On the day the visit was
announced, NSA's SIGINT Liaison Officer (SLO) in Copenhagen had left Denmark for NSA, to
attend the annual Denmark/US planning conference, but by the time he returned to
Copenhagen, US embassy preparations were going full throttle.
(S//SI) Two weeks prior to the visit, Secret Service personnel arrived and set up shop in CIA
station. They quickly reached out to the embassy offices and took control of security activities including coordination of F6 executive protection support, which was also housed in CIA station
spaces. The SLO and Country Desk Officer (CDO) provided support to the station and Secret
Service by alerting SID to specific security-related reports and expediting their release to Danish
security services.
(U) The US Embassy in Denmark has approximately 50 US and 75 Danish employees. Contrast
that with the President's expected entourage of 500 to 600 people and you can imagine the mild
panic that gripped the embassy community - despite the fact that the President would only be in
Denmark for 17 hours. It was immediately announced that annual leave would be cancelled if it
fell within 10 days of the President's arrival, and some PCSs were delayed, as well.
(S//SI) The 17 hours of the visit were remarkably calm. The President's entourage had been
sharply cut just days before due to a problem with credentials for the G8 summit. Consequently,
many embassy personnel, including the SLO, were deprived of an additional direct role in the
visit. The SLO could only watch the Presidential helicopters and supporting Blackhawks pass
over his house as they flew to and from the President's meeting with Danish Queen Margrethe
(she hosted his 59 th birthday party) and his press session with the Prime Minister. In front of
the US embassy, the SLO also saw the initial gathering of protesters who were responding to the
call for "everyone with a bone to pick with Bush's world order." The embassy closed early as a
precaution but, although this protest was an order of magnitude larger than other such protests,
it was held in the typically peaceful Danish way - and, oddly, started 30 minutes after the
departure of Air Force One.
(S//SI) Denmark has maintained 500 troops in Iraq since nearly the beginning of the conflict
and is preparing for a further deployment to Afghanistan. NSA's SIGINT partner, the Danish
Defense Intelligence Service, Technical Sector (DDIS/T), was thrilled with the visit, which served
as the President's gesture of thanks for Danish support in Global War on Terror. In typically selfeffacing style, DDIS/T's Director expressed sincere pride that the US President would think to
visit Denmark. Given the steadfast support received from Denmark throughout the Cold War, in
Iraq, and in the current GWoT, it is surprising that this was only the second visit by a sitting US
President.
President Bush and Laura Bush, along with Danish
Laura Bush mingles with children of US
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and his wife
embassy staff who came to bid
Anne-Mette Rasmussen, on the steps of Air Force One
farewell to her and President Bush at
upon Bush's arrival in Copenhagen July 5, 2005
Copenhagen Airport, July 6, 2005
(Reuters)
(Reuters)
(S//SI) Here's a second perspective from one of our Danish SIGINT partners with whom he
have a vigorous, daily exchange...
(U) As you might know, Mr. and Mrs. Bush and their daughter Jenna visited Denmark for 17
hours on Tuesday and Wednesday 5 and 6 July. It was a very spectacular visit, and as we work
very close to the airport and many of us also live close to the route to the castle in Northern
Zealand where they were to stay overnight and eat lunch on Wednesday, many of us have been
staring out the windows - at work as well as at home - in a desperate hope of seeing Air Force
One or Marine One or one of the other amazing aircrafts which have been circling around in the
air the past two days. Unfortunately, I didn't see any other aircraft than one of the Danish
military's helicopters!
(U) The visit itself was massively covered by the media - you could hardly avoid it if you wanted
to hear or see something else. On TV, my favorite of all the scenes shown from the visit was
when Mr. Bush had his birthday cake with 59 candles and he tried to blow them all out. He
couldn't - of course - blow them all out at once, so our kind Queen helped him blow out the rest
of the candles.
(U) Now Mr. Bush and his fellow G-8 top leaders are in Scotland to, hopefully, try to solve some
of the poverty problems of the world. And the rest of us can again fully concentrate on work
instead of airplanes.
(U//FOUO) This article is reprinted from the Foreign Affairs Digest, August edition.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108