Minister of Internal Affairs, Ronald Plasterk, says that the NSA has admitted to intercept millions of calls in Europe. This has been written in a letter which the NSA sent to several allies, like the Netherlands.

Plasterk who was a guest in Nieuwsuur on Wednesday, said that the calls were checked on meta data. These are things like who calls who? The number of 1.8 million of intercepted calls in the Netherlands is not just a story.

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo published earlier on Monday that the Dutch Intelligence Agency (AIVD) had supplied the information to the NSA. Plaster told his interviewer that they cooperate with the NSA, but the 1.8 million intercepted telephone calls have not, in any way, been delivered by the AIVD. Plasterk says that he didn’t know anything about the intercepted call until he received the letter.

Cooperation with NSA

According to Plasterk the NSA requests on a regular basis if they may monitor the calls of a certain person. “If they have a good reason for that, then I will put my signature under the request and the proper instances will then further evaluate the request. It is a good thing to work together on the fight against terrorism, but it is not acceptable that this is done in our country without permission.”

Plasterk thinks that the NSA is lost when it comes to the balance between privacy and the fight against terrorism. Why should you intercept calls from the pope and Angela Merkel?”

The minister has officially asked if Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s calls have been monitored. The answer was no. “The Netherlands is not a target of the NSA.” Together with other parties from abroad, Plasterk wants to talk with the US about how to deal with each other from now on.