'WHITEWASH' CLAIM IN ESPIONAGE INQUIRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300590013-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: December 8, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release
I
Y 3 Zd -RDP88-01314R0
/hitewash' claim in espionage inuuirv
0
magazine,Iwhoshave accused the From .1L~R1~ GOLDSlII'I'II, Stockholm, Dec. G
Government of conducting ille- the Egyptian Embassy in Stock-
gal espionage activities in viola- holm in 1970, and spied on and
tion of Swedish neutrality, have kept lists of names of thou-
rnicnA ~ ,,,...,.- ----
t-'? The journalists, Peter Bratt
,.,,and Jan Guillou, and a former
intelligence agent, are being
held in custody on suspicion of
spying on the Government and
publishing intelligence secrets
which' have endangered the
national security.
In May in the first of a series
of articles in the ; magazine,
Folket i I3ild-Kulturfront, Bratt
and Guillou revealed the
existence of a secret intelli-
gence agency known as Infor-
mation Bureau (IB) which it
said was collaborating with
American, British, and Israeli
agents. The Government firmly
denied the - charges but no
action was taken.
The magazine then described
IB operations. It said the
agency had carried out
espionage activities against the
Arabs, engineered a break-in at
sands of left-wing activists and
trade unionists in Slveclen The
denial but still no action was
taken against the magazine.
Ti) an attempt to embarrass
the Government into appointing
.a special commission to exa-
mine the charges, Bratt and
Guillou ran a story on IB
agents which included their
names, pictures, and home
addresses. They said TB agents
had carried out espionage acti-
vities in Finland, and published
a list of countries whose codes
had allegedly been cracked by
IB allents. They promised even
more spectacular revelations if
the Government did not act. .
went did act. Police swooped It now appears that the
on the magazine's offices, Prime Minister, Mr Olof Palme,
confiscated documents, and is giving way to demands that
arrested Bratt and Guillou, a a five-party commission, includ-
photographer, and a former IB ing the Communists should be
agent., Haakan Isacsson, who appointed to study the affair
was suspected of' leaking
secrets. -
The police raid raised pro-
tests that continue to grow in
intensity, cutting across party
lines. Earlier this week the first
report on the workings of the
IB was presented by the parlia-
mentary defence committee.
The committee cleared the
agency of charges that it had
kept lists on political activists
and compromised Swedish neu-
trality by collaborating with
Western spy organisations. It
also emphasised the importance
of maintaining an intelligence
network for national security
reasons.,
Left-wingers have called the
investigation a whitewash, argu-
ing that the committee could
hardly produce an unbiased
early' next year. But his trou-+
bles are far from over.
On Tuesday a Conservative
Party member of the defence
committee said his party would
propose that a more extensive
inquiry into the IB affair.
should be launched to investi-
gate charges that the agency
had been used by the Social
Democrats to spy on their poli-
tical opposition.
The incident could not have
collie at a worse time for Mr
Puhne whose Social Democratic
Government has still not reed-
vered from a major setback in
the recent dead heat elections.
This week, while the Foreign
Minister, Mr Spen Andersson,
Was in Helsinki assuring, the
Finns that Sweden had never
spied on Finland or on Russia
from Finnish soil, Mr Palme
was assuring the people and the
press that if investigation
showed there was inadequate
democratic control of intelli-
gence activity, or if ICoM T-
regarding press freed
AT
needed strengthening, he would
see to it.
Approved For Release 2005/01/11 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000300590013-5