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Whistle-blower on Dutch security service.

01 March 1991

For the first time a former agent of the Dutch secret service has given an account of recent operations to the press. Mr. S. Bos, former chief of the PID Zaanstad (a local branch of the Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst BVD) told Nieuwe Revu magazine (6-12-1990) in detail why he felt the security service was "a state in the state". Mr Bos retired in 1983 after 11 years of PID service. He gave details on illegal operations like burglaries, tampering with mail, unauthorized telephone tappings, providing confidential data on personnel to major companies and other offences which he claims are common practice. Also he confirmed gloomy views held so far only by leftists as to the range of interest of the service. Members of political parties trade unions social-cultural organizations and various action groups were spied upon. The former PID chief feels that successive ministers of the interior had been most naive in taking everything the BVD directorate told them for granted. However, all PID personnel knew that any responsibility would be denied by their superiors should any illegal activities ever be discovered. The basic intelligence law still holds: do what needs to be done but don't get caught. Mr Bos gives details on how the BVD arranged an informer in a most sensitive position as research assistant to the parliamentary fraction of the (moderate) communist party. Also an informer in the South Moluccan ethnic minority was paid a total of $25 000 for mostly useless information and several political refugees were put under great pressure to spy on their friends in exchange for which they were given legal status in Holland. All questions on these matters in parliament have so far been referred to the in camera parliamentary committee by minister Mrs Ien Dales.