Security & Intelligence - in brief (3)
01 January 2000
Europe: Europe doubles its intelligence capability: Europe's capability to gather space-based intelligence was effectively doubled on 3 December when the tri-nation Helios 1B military observation satellite was launched into orbit from the Kourou space centre in French Guyana. Helios 1A was launched in July 1995 by France, Italy and Spain. The Helios program lessens Europe's dependency on the USA to provide satellite images of conflict zones or early warning of ballistic missile launches. However the capability is limited because Helios cannot operate at night or through cloud cover. Only the Helios 2, due to be launched in 2003 has a infrared capability to take images at night or during bad weather. The Helios 1 project, involving two satellites and three ground stations has cost a total of US $1.5 billion and was 78.9% financed by France, 14.1% by Italy and 7% by Spain. The Helios 2 project is to cost $1.7 billion and France has up to now failed to find European partners to help fund it. Jane's Defence Weekly 15.12.99.
Sweden: Human rights committee rejects "bugging" proposals: Swedish government proposals to extend police powers on bugging, telephone tapping and other forms of surveillance have been opposed in a report by the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. The Committee finds serious defects in current legislation and practices, some of which are used regularly by the police despite legal restrictions. Every year hundreds of citizens are subjected to these intrusions with no legal recourse. Those subjected to phone tapping or surveillance have no legal right to complain or appeal, and are often ignorant of the interference in their family and private lives. Accountability is practically non-existent. The measures are supposed to combat crime but in at least 50% of cases they have no impact whatsoever, the report found. "Buggning och hemlig kameraovervakning. Statliga tvangsingrepp i privatlivet" [Bugging and secret camera surveillance. Government intrusion in private life]. Available on internet: www.ihf-hr.org/shc (in Swedish).
Sweden: Registration Board: The annual report of the Swedish Security Police, the so called Registration Board, consists of nine pages. The Board had 23 meetings last year. The number of vetting checks continued to fall: in 1997 there were 68,135 (excluding special terrorist checks because of the enforcement of the Schengen agreement), in 1998 57,723 and in 1999 45,003. In only around 6% of all checks was information held on police registers. Before the Registration Board started work in July 1996 the National Police Board handled the question of whether a file on the vetted person found in the register of the Security Police was to be handed out. In 70-95% of cases the files were given to the authority/company which had requested the vetting. Since the Registration Board started these figures have changed dramatically. In 1997 only in 9.92% of cases where there was a file on the vetted person were handed out. In 1998 the percentage was 9.13% and 1999 only 4.80%. Before 1996 the content of the files was never given to the vetted person. In 1999 all the vetted people except nine were given the contents of the file before the Board took a decision to handed it out or not. On 14 February the Supreme Administration Court ruled that people who want to see their files in the register of the Security Police do not have this right - even though the law was changed on 1 April 1999.