IB affair
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IB was a secret Swedish intelligence agency within the Swedish Armed Forces. Its two main purposes were to handle liaison with foreign intelligence agencies and to gather information about communists and other individuals who were perceived to be a threat to the nation. The exposure of the IB operations came to be known as the IB affair (IB-affären).
In 2002 an extensive public report, named Rikets säkerhet och den personliga integriteten (National security and personal integrity), was published on the operations of IB.
The name IB is often said to be an abbreviation of either Informationsbyrån (The Information Office) or Insamling Birger (Collection Birger, after its chief), but these are journalistic inventions based on speculation and neither name was in general use within the organization.
[edit] The revelation
The key persons leading to the exposure of the IB were journalists Jan Guillou and Peter Bratt and their original main source Håkan Isacsson[1]. The two reporters revealed their findings in the magazine Folket i Bild/Kulturfront on May 3, 1973. The story was immediately picked up by many leading Swedish dailies[2], although Bratt and Guillou had expected that it would be hushed down by the mainstream media.
Their revelations were that:
- There was a secret intelligence agency in Sweden called IB, without official status. Its director Birger Elmér was reporting directly to select key persons at cabinet level, most likely defence minister Sven Andersson and Prime minister Olof Palme.
- That the Swedish riksdag (parliament) was unaware of its existence.
- People with leftist views had been monitored and registered
- IB agents had infiltrated Swedish radical left-wing organisations and sometimes tried to induce them into criminal acts
- There were Swedish spies operating abroad
- IB spies had broken into the Egyptian embassy in Stockholm
- The IB co-operated with the CIA and Shin Bet of Israel
Defense minister Sven Andersson denied that Sweden had spies abroad. He also denied that IB was involved in burglaries and documenting citizens' political opinions.
In the following issues of Folket i Bild/Kulturfront the two uncovered further activities of IB and interviewed a man who had infiltrated the Swedish movement supporting the Vietnamese National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam - at this time the FNL support network was a backbone of the radical opinion - and among other things, visited Palestinian guerilla camps in Jordan. The man worked for IB and had composed reports that, it was surmised, IB later passed on to the Israeli security services which resulted in the camps being bombed. Guillou had opened the first article by accusing the boss of IB of murder on these grounds. The same issue exposed a Swedish naval captain who had passed reports about the harbor security of Alexandria (implying, again, that IB were exchanging information with the Israelis); also the story of a woman who had, on the orders of IB, spied out potential bombing targets in Egypt.
The magazine also had information from a previous employee of IB, Håkan Isacsson, who claimed that IB had broken into offices kept by two left-wing organization (the "FNL groups" and KFML) members - a Jordanian citizen and a state-less citizen. A wiretap was installed in the latter case. After this uncovering, the defense minister did admit that IB engaged in espionage outside of Sweden and infiltrated organizations within Sweden, including wiretaps.
Jan Guillou, Peter Bratt, Håkan Isacsson and the photographer Ove Holmqvist were arrested October 22, 1973 by the Swedish Security Service on suspicion of espionage. On January 4, 1974 they were sentenced to 1 year prison each. Bratt and Guillou were each sentenced for espionage; Isacsson was sentenced for espionage and accessory to espionage. After an appeal, Guillou's sentence was lessened to 10 months. The Swedish Supreme Court would not consider the case.
In November 1973, then Swedish prime minister Olof Palme denied any link between IB and the Social Democrats. However, according to the memoir of ex-security service chief P.G Vinges, he claims that Birger Elmer had regular contact with Palme and made his reports regularly to the Social Democratic Party secretary, Sven Andersson.
Evidence was put forth in 1974 that IB had built up a large network of agents in Finland, which included the Finnish foreign minister Väinö Leskinen. This network's main mission was to gather information regarding the Soviet Union. IB had no contacts with the Finnish security police, since it was believed to have been infiltrated by Soviet agents.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman investigated the IB organisation but came to the conclusion that they had not broken any laws. Concerning the break-ins to the leftists' organization, the Ombudsman stated that since the personnel of IB had entered the premises using a key or a lock-pick and had not stolen anything it could not be considered a crime.
