Informationsbyrån

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Informationsbyrån (IB) was a Swedish secret service that operated under the direction of the Swedish Ministry of Defense from 1965 to 1978. Its task was to collect information on people who were classified by those involved as communists or as a security risk to the Swedish state. When journalists Jan Guillou and Peter Bratt informed the public about the existence of the secret service in 1973 , it led to a scandal that was dubbed the IB Affair . A detailed report on the activities of the IB was only published in 2002.

Establishment of the secret service

As early as 1936, when the Swedish Defense Staff was formed, a department was set up with the task of collecting material that was of interest to Sweden's security. In the 1950s, the Swedish Army became increasingly interested in identifying people who could pose a security risk. Furthermore, there was a requirement from the USA to protect imported American weapons technology so that it does not get into the hands of people who would pass it on to the Soviet Union .

Large parts of the Swedish army were dissatisfied with the Police Security Service ( SÄPO ) and their approach to assessing people who they believe could be a security risk. In these army circles it was felt that an organization was needed to research people who might have sympathy for the Soviet Union.

At the same time there was a political struggle between the Swedish Social Democrats and the Communist Party of Sweden over influence over the trade unions. The Social Democrats therefore set up company groups in the larger companies. In order to use the knowledge of these groups, an agreement between the defense staff and high representatives of the social democratic party was concluded. The defense staff should contact people who are willing to work and manage them in a new department. This department was established in 1957 and was merged with an army department in 1965 to form Informationsbyrån, or IB for short.

In addition to gathering information, the secret service also worked on setting up an organization that would provide armed resistance in the event of a military occupation of Sweden. The secret service was also active abroad and maintained contact with other secret services such as the CIA and the Israeli Shin Bet . In 1969 the Swedish parliament passed a law in which a person's registration by the SÄPO security service was excluded solely on the basis of their political views. IB did not feel bound by this new law and continued to operate without the public knowing about it.

In the management of SÄPO, however, they knew what was going on, which led to a strong mistrust between the two organizations. SÄPO later received permission to place two of its employees on the defense staff. So SÄPO had a better insight into the activities of the secret service. But later it turned out that one of these policemen was a Soviet spy who was arrested as a result.

Exposure

On May 3, 1973 the journalists Jan Guillou and Peter Bratt reported crucial details about IB in the newspaper Folket i Bild / Kulturfront . Her publications included:

  • that there was a previously unknown secret service in Sweden
  • that even the Swedish parliament did not know anything about its existence
  • that IB registered left-wing politicians because of their attitude
  • that IB was also active abroad
  • that IB was responsible for a break-in at the Egyptian embassy in Stockholm
  • that IB worked with the Israeli secret service Schin Bet and the American CIA.

The then incumbent Defense Minister Sven Andersson initially denied all allegations. In the following issue of Folket i Bild , a man reported that he had infiltrated the Swedish sympathy movement for the Vietnamese Viet Cong on behalf of IB and also visited a guerrilla camp in Jordan . His reports were passed on to the Israeli secret service Shin Bet, which led to the bombing of targets in Jordan. In the same issue there was an interview with a captain who informed IB about the security measures in the port of Alexandria .

Folket i Bild later published information from Håkan Isacsson, a former IB employee. He claimed he was involved in break-ins at left-wing organizations. The Ministry of Defense confirmed the main allegations. For journalists Jan Guillou and Peter Bratt and their informant Håkan Isacsson, the publication resulted in espionage charges . You were sentenced to one year in prison in January 1974, but Jan Guillou's sentence was reduced to ten months a little later.

In November 1973, Olof Palme contradicted all claims about contacts between IB and the Swedish Social Democratic Party. The former SÄPO boss Per Gunnar Vinge claimed in his memoirs that there had been regular contacts between the head of IB, Birger Elmér, and Olof Palme and that IB had continuously written reports to the responsible defense minister, who was also the social democratic party secretary. Per Gunnar Vinge was fired from SÄPO in 1970 when he persistently and without the slightest clue in 1969 expressed his suspicion to Governor Ragnar Lassinantti that Olof Palme was a KGB agent.

There was evidence in 1974 that IB ran a large network of agents in Finland , including Finnish Foreign Minister Väinö Leskinen . Its main purpose was to obtain information about the Soviet Union . IB had no contact with the Finnish Security Police because it was believed to have been infiltrated by Soviet agents .

After these publications, the secret service continued its activities on a smaller scale until it was finally disbanded in 1978.

Security Service Commission 1999–2002

The Swedish judicial authority set up a security service commission in 1999, which also examined the activities of the IB in more detail. After nearly three years of research, the report, which was over 3,000 pages long with all attachments, was published. The report received strong media coverage in newspapers and commentaries.

literature

  • Klas Åmark: The Swedish secret police - the "information office" - the communists . In: magazine for politics, economy and culture . ISSN  1863-639X , p. 99–116 ( hu-berlin.de [PDF]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lars Gustafsson: Espionage and Reportage. In: time. Zeit Online GmbH, December 7, 1973, accessed April 23, 2018 .