Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is hitting back at the Wall Street Journal after they published an exclusive report claiming the U.S. has ordered its intelligence agencies to “step up spying on Greenland.”
In a statement to the outlet, Gabbard said, “The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the President by politicizing and leaking classified information. They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy.”
The journal quoted multiple sources in their report.
They also spoke with one former intelligence official who said, “Intelligence collection resources are inherently limited,” and these resources are typically directed to pay attention to “perceived threats, not allied countries.”
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Since his first term, President Donald Trump has emphasized his determination to purchase, annex, or conquer Greenland.
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it,” Trump said in a joint address to Congress in March. “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
More recently, in an interview with NBC News, Trump said, “We need Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security.”
Greenland was essential to the United States during World War II.
After Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, Greenland, which was a Danish colony at the time, served as a place for the U.S. to hold military operations and gave access to key shipping routes.
According to the Journal, “The island is home to substantial deposits of rare-earth minerals necessary for the production of everything from electric vehicles to wind turbines, as well as untapped oil and natural-gas reserves.”
However, mining those underground assets has proven difficult.