Netherlands: New intelligence agency
01 May 1999
The Binnenlands Veiligheids Dienst (internal security service, BVD) looks set to be transformed under new proposals introduced by the Dutch government. However, the agencies that will replace it will have massively increased powers, combining the internal security aspects of the BVD with the intelligence gathering powers of the old Inlichtingen Dienst Buitenland (Foreign Intelligence Service, IDB).
The motivation behind the creation of this new agency, which will be called the Algemene Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst (General Intelligence and Security Service, AIV), comes from the need to create a new legislative framework for the intelligence services. A series of scandals led to the winding up of the IDB in 1994. Furthermore, revelations following a break-in by the anti-militarist group Onkruit in 1984 led to the Netherlands being condemned by the European Court of Human Rights, which decided that current legislation did not guarantee the individual's right to privacy. The Home Affairs ministry has decided to give the agency enhanced powers whilst further reducing access to information.
* The new services and their aims: The first major increase in the powers of the new AIV is suggested by the name change. The old BVD was a security service empowered to act when there was a question of a "subversive threat" either to the government or to strategic industries. The new service will continue to have that role, but the new name suggests that the gathering of information on political activists will become an aim in itself rather than an aid to prevent subversion. The AIV will also have a foreign intelligence role, which will allow it to sit at the same table as other intelligence services such as the CIA and MI6. This is in contrast to the old BVD that had no statutory basis for its foreign intelligence work. Finally the new agency will be able to "conduct research" that can be "exploited regarding discoveries indicating threats that have been established following research." "Exploitation" has long been used by the intelligence services to describe covert action.
The old military intelligence counterpart of the BVD, the Militaire Inlichtingen Dienst will be re-named as the Militaire Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst (Military Intelligence and Security Service, MIV). The MIV will also get an increased research role, as well as being allowed to conduct foreign intelligence gathering activities.
* New powers, methods and techniques: In a proposal that is intended to limit the activities of the new services, a check list has been created to limit who they are allowed to place under surveillance. It includes people who arouse suspicion that they "form a threat to the democratic rule of law, for state security or for other important interests of the state". This definition is so vague that it could include anyone who currently attracts the interest of the intelligence services. The right-of-centre Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, which is part of the governing coalition, put it succinctly: "as things stand everything is allowed, even when it isn't allowed". Other procedures that will be legitimised by the proposal are telephone tapping, break-ins, the opening of personal mail and reading e-mail. The opposition Groen links (Green Left) fraction has described the new powers as an "intelligence services wishlist".
* Transparency: The new rights of access to personal files are as restrictive as the new powers are expansive. For instance, the right to see a personal file under the Freedom of Information Act has become a partly discretionary affair for the relevant minister, whilst the right to get a copy of files has been removed completely. Access to general files is completely at the discretion of the minister. Even when security service files are covered by the Freedom of Information Act the length of time that can be allowed to provide a file is considerably longer than for any other government department.