The General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) has deliberately withheld information from the Assessment Committee for Deployment of Powers (TIB). As a result, the regulator has “very probably” given the secret service unjustified access to far-reaching powers, says chairman Mariëtte Moussault in a conversation with NU.nl on Tuesday.
The TIB was launched in 2018 with the introduction of the new Intelligence and Security Services Act (ISF). The supervisor checks whether a minister has rightly approved a far-reaching power, such as hacking computers or eavesdropping on telephone traffic. The AIVD is not allowed to do this without the permission of the TIB.
As of mid-2018, several such requests for GISS came to the TIB for assessment. When the AIVD requested an extension of the powers in August 2019, the AIVD wrote that previous requests regarding that operation had “wrongfully” withheld information.
“Then the alarm bells rang for us,” says Moussault. “Why? And it happened more often? This was relevant information that we should have known in the previous requests. With this information it would have been a very different kind of request.”
The TIB chairman cannot give much detail about the case because it is information from the secret services. It does, however, say that it is “very likely” that the TIB wrongly gave “at least one of the powers” surrounding the operation. “That request should have been unlawful rather than lawful.”
After the TIB had requested clarification from GISS, the supervisory authority rejected the request in question. “That was partly due to the fact that we did have the correct information at the time,” says Moussault.
AIVD: Now aligned with TIB
The AIVD said in a response that the decision not to share the information in question with the TIB was taken at the time to comply with ISS in good conscience. In the meantime, the intelligence service has agreed with the TIB on the interpretation of the intelligence law. The AIVD makes no further substantive statements about the case.
The TIB subsequently discussed the AIVD’s service management. “They informed us about how and what happened,” says Moussault. “We are pleased that openness has been given. That is the end for us. It should not happen again.”
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