Informationsbyrån
Encyclopedia
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).
The meaning of the name IB is not known with certainty. It is often said to be an abbreviation of either Informationsbyrån (The Information Office, Information Bureau) or Insamling Birger ([Information-]Gathering Birger, after its director Birger Elmér). This is, however, speculation, and neither name was in general use within the organization.
and Peter Bratt
and their original main source Håkan Isacsson. The two reporters revealed their findings in the leftist magazine Folket i Bild/Kulturfront
on May 3, 1973. The story was immediately picked up by many leading Swedish dailies. Their revelations were that:
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 Vietnam
ese 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. The man, Gunnar Ekberg, claimed in his interview to have broken with IB, but in fact was still working for the organization. This was exposed in the following editions of FiB/Kulturfront, but by that time, Ekberg had gone underground. Swedish authorities claimed they were unable to locate him to stand trial. In 2009, he released an autobiography of his years in IB, attacking Guillou in particular for having misrepresented facts, been involved with Palestinian militant groups (particularly the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
), and worked for the KGB
; and alleging widespred terrorist ties to the groups and persons monitored by IB. He also confirmed that he had been transferred from IB to the Mossad
, an Israeli intelligence agency, immediately prior to his exposure.
Guillou had opened the first article by accusing the director 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 had information from a previous employee of IB, Håkan Isacsson, who claimed that IB had broken into the offices of two communist organizations: the FNL Groups, a pro-war, pro-North Vietnam
ese organization, and its parent group, the Communist Party of Sweden
, a Maoist
political party. This concerned a Jordanian citizen and a stateless
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.
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 Intelligence Service, since it was believed to have been infiltrated by Soviet agents.
denied any link between IB and the Social Democrats
. However, according to the memoir of ex-security service chief P.G Vinges, Birger Elmer had regular contact with Palme and made his reports regularly to the Social Democratic Party secretary, Sven Andersson
.
Defense minister Sven Andersson
denied that Sweden had spies abroad. He also denied that IB was involved in burglaries and documenting citizens' political opinions.
, 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.
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.
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. This report clarified the details of the case, but it did not have any legal impact.
To date, no member of IB has ever been indicted, nor has any politician or government official, despite the revelation of widespread extra-constitutional and criminal activity.
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
intelligence agency
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
within the Swedish Armed Forces
Swedish Armed Forces
The Swedish Armed Forces is a Swedish Government Agency responsible for the operation of the armed forces of the Realm. The primary task of the agency is to train, organize and to deploy military forces, domestically and abroad, while maintaining the long-term ability to defend the Realm in the...
. Its two main purposes were to handle liaison with foreign intelligence agencies and to gather information about communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
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).
The meaning of the name IB is not known with certainty. It is often said to be an abbreviation of either Informationsbyrån (The Information Office, Information Bureau) or Insamling Birger ([Information-]Gathering Birger, after its director Birger Elmér). This is, however, speculation, and neither name was in general use within the organization.
IB affair
The key persons leading to the exposure of the IB were journalists Jan GuillouJan Guillou
Jan Oskar Sverre Lucien Henri Guillou is a Swedish author and journalist. Among his books are a series of spy fiction novels about a spy named Carl Hamilton, and a trilogy of historical fiction novels about a Knight Templar, Arn Magnusson...
and Peter Bratt
Peter Bratt
Peter Bratt is a Swedish journalist. For many years he worked for the national Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter until he stopped there in 2003. Through he career he has written many critical texts on the Swedish Social Democratic Party....
and their original main source Håkan Isacsson. The two reporters revealed their findings in the leftist magazine Folket i Bild/Kulturfront
Folket i Bild/Kulturfront
Folket i Bild/Kulturfront is a Swedish magazine for reports, art, literature, debate and culture. It is published by the organization of the same name.- Purpose :The stated aims of the magazine are:...
on May 3, 1973. The story was immediately picked up by many leading Swedish dailies. 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 AnderssonSven Andersson (politician)Sven Olof Morgan Andersson was a Swedish Social Democratic politician. He served as Minister for Defence from 1957 to 1973, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1976. Andersson also served as Minister of Communications.- References :...
and Prime minister Olof PalmeOlof PalmeSven Olof Joachim Palme was a Swedish politician. A long-time protegé of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 to his assassination, and was a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden, heading a Privy Council Government from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet...
. - That the parliament of SwedenParliament of SwedenThe Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
was unaware of its activities. - People with leftist views had been monitored and registered.
- IB agents had infiltrated Swedish left-wing organisations and sometimes tried to induce them into criminal acts.
- There were Swedish spies operating abroad.
- IB spies had broken into the EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian embassy in StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. - The IB co-operated extensively with the Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and Shin Bet of IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, in contrast to the official Swedish foreign policy of neutralityNeutrality (international relations)A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
.
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 Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam
National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam
The Vietcong , or National Liberation Front , was a political organization and army in South Vietnam and Cambodia that fought the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War . It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized...
- at this time the FNL support network was a backbone of the radical opinion - and among other things, visited Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
guerilla camps in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
. 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. The man, Gunnar Ekberg, claimed in his interview to have broken with IB, but in fact was still working for the organization. This was exposed in the following editions of FiB/Kulturfront, but by that time, Ekberg had gone underground. Swedish authorities claimed they were unable to locate him to stand trial. In 2009, he released an autobiography of his years in IB, attacking Guillou in particular for having misrepresented facts, been involved with Palestinian militant groups (particularly the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...
and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist, secular political and military organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dimuqratiyah...
), and worked for the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
; and alleging widespred terrorist ties to the groups and persons monitored by IB. He also confirmed that he had been transferred from IB to the Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
, an Israeli intelligence agency, immediately prior to his exposure.
Guillou had opened the first article by accusing the director 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
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
(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
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
The magazine had information from a previous employee of IB, Håkan Isacsson, who claimed that IB had broken into the offices of two communist organizations: the FNL Groups, a pro-war, pro-North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
ese organization, and its parent group, the Communist Party of Sweden
Communist Party of Sweden (1967)
Kommunistiska Förbundet Marxist-Leninisterna was formed at the 1967 party congress of VPK, when a pro-Chinese group left the party.-1967–1980:...
, a Maoist
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
political party. This concerned a Jordanian citizen and a stateless
Statelessness
Statelessness is a legal concept describing the lack of any nationality. It is the absence of a recognized link between an individual and any state....
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.
Evidence was put forth in 1974 that IB had built up a large network of agents in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, which included the Finnish foreign minister Väinö Leskinen
Väinö Leskinen
Väinö Olavi Leskinen was a Finnish politician, minister and a member of the parliament from Social Democratic Party of Finland...
. This network's main mission was to gather information regarding the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. IB had no contacts with the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, since it was believed to have been infiltrated by Soviet agents.
Government response
In November 1973, then Swedish prime minister Olof PalmeOlof Palme
Sven Olof Joachim Palme was a Swedish politician. A long-time protegé of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 to his assassination, and was a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden, heading a Privy Council Government from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet...
denied any link between IB and the Social Democrats
Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, , contesting elections as 'the Workers' Party – the Social Democrats' , or sometimes referred to just as 'the Social Democrats' and most commonly as Sossarna ; is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1889...
. However, according to the memoir of ex-security service chief P.G Vinges, Birger Elmer had regular contact with Palme and made his reports regularly to the Social Democratic Party secretary, Sven Andersson
Sven Andersson
Sven Andersson is a retired Swedish football goalkeeper. Born in Strömstad near the Norwegian border, he began his professional career in Örgryte IS, a club with which he won the Allsvenskan championship in 1985...
.
Defense minister Sven Andersson
Sven Andersson
Sven Andersson is a retired Swedish football goalkeeper. Born in Strömstad near the Norwegian border, he began his professional career in Örgryte IS, a club with which he won the Allsvenskan championship in 1985...
denied that Sweden had spies abroad. He also denied that IB was involved in burglaries and documenting citizens' political opinions.
Legal consequences and investigations
Jan GuillouJan Guillou
Jan Oskar Sverre Lucien Henri Guillou is a Swedish author and journalist. Among his books are a series of spy fiction novels about a spy named Carl Hamilton, and a trilogy of historical fiction novels about a Knight Templar, Arn Magnusson...
, Peter Bratt
Peter Bratt
Peter Bratt is a Swedish journalist. For many years he worked for the national Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter until he stopped there in 2003. Through he career he has written many critical texts on the Swedish Social Democratic Party....
, Håkan Isacsson and the photographer Ove Holmqvist were arrested October 22, 1973 by the Swedish Security Service
Swedish Security Service
The Swedish Security Service , former name Rikspolisstyrelsens säkerhetsavdelning , is the security service of Sweden, belonging to the Swedish National Police Board....
on suspicion of espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
. 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.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman
Parliamentary Ombudsman
The Parliamentary Ombudsman is the principal ombudsman authority in Finland, in Sweden and Iceland, charged with the supervision of the public authorities...
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.
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. This report clarified the details of the case, but it did not have any legal impact.
To date, no member of IB has ever been indicted, nor has any politician or government official, despite the revelation of widespread extra-constitutional and criminal activity.