Informationsbyrån
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Informationsbyrån (Information Office, IB) was a secret Swedish intelligence agency within the Swedish Army. Its main purpose was 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). An extensive report named Rikets säkerhet och den personliga integriteten (National security and personal integrity) about the IB's operations was published in 2002.
Key persons leading to the exposure of the IB were journalists Jan Guillou and Peter Bratt, who revealed their findings in the magazine Folket i Bild/Kulturfront May 3, 1973:
Their revelations were that:
- There was a secret intelligence agency in Sweden called the IB
- That the Swedish riksdag (parliament) was unaware of its existence
- People with leftist views had been monitored and registered
- IB agents had infiltrated Swedish leftist 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