Expert on American in Nuuk: It's amateurish and completely off

At least two people have told Sermitsiaq that they were offered $200,000 to be paid at the beginning of the new year for a signature that Greenland should become part of the United States. According to the witnesses, it was an elderly American man named Cliff, who had a stack of papers on him, where a vote could be cast.

Given this information, associate professor at the Danish Defense Academy Peter Viggo Jakobsen calls the séance amateurish and "completely off".

– From the outside, it's so amateurish that you'd almost think that it was something that the Danish intelligence service had set up to discredit the Americans. Of course, I don't think for a second that it is. But it's completely off, is the immediate assessment.

No legal weight

According to Peter Viggo Jakobsen, the transaction - a signature for 200,000 dollars - does not make much sense, and has no legal weight either.

– First of all, why would anyone believe that you ever got a penny if you signed anything at all. It might have made sense if it was a direct transaction where you got some money the moment you signed, but here it makes no sense. How many people do you think you can entice to sign? Unless it's a very large part of the population, you can't use it for anything. In addition, it has no legal weight in relation to secession or anything else. And the US can't use it for anything either.

A kick in the gut for the USA

Peter Viggo Jakobsen believes that it is clear that the case will become a media story that will end up putting the Americans in an incredibly bad light, and which will probably increase the dislike of the USA in Greenland even further.

– So it seems like a kick in the gut if it is the Americans who are behind it, says Peter Viggo Jakobsen, who points out that the discrediting of the USA may also be the whole point of the séance.

– It could also be someone who wants to harm the USA with this.

An individual with a case

According to Peter Viggo Jakobsen, it could also be an individual who is doing a stunt like the German comedian who tried to raise the American flag in Nuuk.

– Because there is so much media attention in Greenland, there are also people who are attracted to get attention. It is difficult to know exactly what is going on when there have only been two cases so far, says Peter Viggo Jakobsen, who can understand that it has brought minds to a boil in Greenland.

– There is constant pressure on the population. There is exercise activity and media attention, and you don't know whether you have been bought or sold. As long as Trump continues to live in the White House, the insecurity will be in Greenland.

Sermitsiaq has asked the US consulate and the US embassy if they are aware of the man's activities in Greenland, to which the response is: "The person described, who may/may not be a US citizen, is not a representative of the US government."