The State Security Service (VSSE) (known in
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
as ''Staatsveiligheid'';
French: ''Sûreté de l'État'') is a
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
intelligence and security agency. Established in 1830, it is the oldest
intelligence service
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives.
Means of informatio ...
except for the Vatican's. The State Security is a civilian agency under the authority of the
Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry.
Lists of current ministries of justice
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia)
* Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan)
* Ministry of Just ...
, while the military intelligence agency, the
General Information and Security Service, operates under the authority of the
Ministry of Defense
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
. The current Administrator-General is Jaak Raes, after his predecessor Alain Winants occupied the position between 2006 and 2014. The VSSE takes part in a number of international intelligence cooperative relationships, such as the
Club de Berne
The Club de Berne is an intelligence sharing forum between the intelligence services of the 27 states of the European Union (EU), Norway and Switzerland, named after the city of Bern. It is an institution based on voluntary exchange of secrets, ...
and the
CTG. It has contacts with over 90 sister services across four continents.
Mission
The main objective of the State Security is the collection, analysis and processing of all intelligence that might prove relevant to the prevention of any activity that might be a threat against the internal or external security of the state, democratic and constitutional order, or international relations, the carrying out of security inquiries, and the performance of tasks in relation to the protection of certain important people. That last mission was transferred to the Belgian Federal Police in 2016. The State Security is also one of the main providers of threat intelligence to Belgium's threat analysis fusion centre, the (CUTA/OCAD/OCAM). In recent years, the State Security's activities have focused on the terror threat emanating from Daesh.
History
19th century
Within days of
Belgian independence
The Belgian Revolution (, ) was the conflict which led to the secession of the southern provinces (mainly the former Southern Netherlands) from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Belgium.
T ...
, an "Administration for Public Safety" (''Administration de la Sûreté Publique'') was installed to protect the fledgling state against attempts by the Dutch king William I to suppress the Belgian rebels. The Public Safety would have two directorates, one being the alien police and the other the security service. As a security service, Public Safety had to protect the Belgian state against Dutch spies and republicans. Intelligence gathering happened only internally: spying abroad was considered a potential breach of the country's
neutrality which was imposed by the other European states as a condition for Belgian independence. The service did initiate contacts with foreign intelligence services almost from the outset, building up tight relationships with other European secret services. After peace with the Netherlands, the service focused on subversive elements, successfully thwarting an attempted republican coup d'état instigated by
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
in 1848. Other successes include the formation of an impromptu foreign intelligence service during the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to support the Belgian Army, which was standing guard for a potential invasion of Belgium.
From the late 1870s and especially during the 1880s, the Public Safety's main concern was the rise of socialist movements. Its freedom from political control - due to the lack of a legal framework and politicians who preferred to keep their secret service at arms' length - led the service to actively engage in provocation operations. In 1886, this led to a scandal when a paid informer was caught planning a bombing attack: the Pourbaix Affair, as it was called, led to a slashing of the Public Safety's budget. Before long, funds had to be increased again however, as a wave of terrorist attacks by Russian anarchists struck Europe. During this time the Belgian intelligence service entered into a very close relationship with the Paris office of the Russian
Okhrana
The Department for Protecting the Public Security and Order (russian: Отделение по охранению общественной безопасности и порядка), usually called Guard Department ( rus, Охранное отд ...
.
20th century
On the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the Administration for Public Safety destroyed its archives to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Nothing is known of its history during the war. At the front, a military intelligence service was founded in 1915 that conducted all intelligence work and coordinated the activity of the resistance. Soon after the end of the war, the rivalry between the Public Safety and its military counterpart, known today as the General Information and Security Service (
ADIV/SGRS), would arise as both services' activities overlapped sometimes. The military intelligence service had been given the counterespionage mission, but after it was suspended in 1923 because of a scandal involving the Belgian occupation of the Rhineland, the Public Safety had to take over again. In 1929, an administrative reform made the alien police an independent department and the Public Safety was given the name it still has today: Security of the State (Veiligheid van de Staat/Sûrete de l'Etat).
In the 1930s, State Security was occupied dealing by left- and right-wing extremis, and a surge in German espionage activity. The German threat caused the Belgian government to reinstate the military intelligence service in 1937. As war became imminent, the two services were briefly brought together under the same ministry. After the
German invasion German invasion may refer to:
Pre-1900s
* German invasion of Hungary (1063)
World War I
* German invasion of Belgium (1914)
* German invasion of Luxembourg (1914)
World War II
* Invasion of Poland
* German invasion of Belgium (1940)
* G ...
, Belgian intelligence followed the
government in exile
A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile us ...
to London to undertake the coordination of the resistance once again. This was impeded by the rift between the government and
King Leopold III
Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasi ...
, who had decided to stay in Belgium and thus fall into the hands of the Nazis. The government, unwilling to trust the military intelligence service because of their loyalty to their commander-in-chief made prisoner of war, favoured the State Security. This greatly exacerbated the rivalry between the two services, whose mutual animosity forced the government to appoint a High Commissioner to coordinate their actions.
In 1944, State Security returned to Belgium with
MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
and the Dutch secret service, which was allowed to install itself in Brussels while waiting for the liberation of the Netherlands. The service would play a substantial part in the tracking and punishing of those who had collaborated with the Germans. Afterwards a severe political crisis ensued, as many Belgians opposed the return from captivity of the discredited Leopold III. The State Security had to monitor the opposing forces, especially the nascent communist movement. The onset of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
shifted the focus almost entirely on communism. The threat of Soviet espionage would take priority when Belgium became the host nation of
NATO headquarters
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is headquartered in a complex in Haren, Belgium, Haren, part of the Brussels (municipality), City of Brussels municipality of Belgium. The staff at the headquarters is composed of national delegation ...
. With British and American help, Belgian intelligence was significantly expanded to meet the surge of
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
spies. As counterespionage required the expenditure of dedication manpower and resources, from the 1970s onward, the spectre of international terrorism would come to haunt Europe again. As a convenient transit country, Belgium would often feature in terrorist activity, giving the State Security a key role in many successful counterterrorism operations. Despite this, starting in 1982, Belgium would fall victim to a surge of violence. The attacks by the communist terror group
Cellulles Combattantes Communistes (CCC) coincided with a number of incidents committed by a band of gangsters (eventually acquiring the name of "Les tueurs du Brabant" or "
Bende van Nijvel
The Brabant killers, also named the Nivelles Gang in Dutch-speaking media ( nl, De Bende van Nijvel), and the mad killers of Brabant in French-speaking media (french: Les Tueurs fous du Brabant), are responsible for a series of violent attacks tha ...
") which gradually intensified in the level of violence used. Whereas the CCC was effectively neutralized within a year, the Brabant killers would continue their bloody activities before disappearing in November 1985 after their most violent raid on a supermarket that claimed 28 fatalities. The case, as well as the identities of the perpetrators, remain unsolved.
In attempts to investigate the traumatic events, the State Security's activities came under scrutiny. Revelations about the ties between certain intelligence officers and right-wing organisations coincided with hints that the Brabant killers were actually linked to the NATO-led ''Stay Behind'' operation, known in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
as
Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies during ...
, and which were coordinated in the participating nations by their secret services. The ensuing parliamentary inquiries found that the Belgian security apparatus was flawed in that it was fragmented and unsupervised. The main recommendation therefore was to provide a legal framework for the intelligence and security services to operate in, and to place them under parliamentary oversight. The State Security entered the post-Cold War era clouded by uncertainty about its future. Despite a widespread demoralisation among the staff because of this, the service continued to successfully counteract the remaining KGB operations in Belgium. Throughout most of the 1990s, the service attempted to reorganise and revitalize itself.
21st century
When in 1998 the Intelligence Services Act came in effect, the State Security finally had a legal framework that determined its remit and competences to fulfill its missions. The sensitivity of intelligence work, after the scandals of the 1980s, had led the lawmakers to postpone the authorisation to use intrusive technical means to collect intelligence. Instead, the Belgian intelligence services were only authorised to work with
human sources (HUMINT). Technical collection of intelligence was not allowed, significantly putting the Belgian intelligence services behind their foreign counterparts in terms of collection and effectiveness. This was changed only in 2010 through the introduction of the Special Intelligence Methods Act (''Bijzondere Inlichtingenmethoden'', 'BIM' see below). Until then, the Belgian police had superior capabilities, having been allowed to use wiretapping and technical surveillance methods in 2003 (it had been the intention to provide the intelligence services with similar competences, but this work was left unfinished until 2009). Naturally, this caused a good deal of discontent with the State Security, which had to cede its place as the international preferred Belgian partner for counterterrorism.
Another cause for frustration was the installation of a threat intelligence fusion centre in 2006, a consequence of a European agreement to establish such centres as a reaction to the terrorist attacks on
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
and
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 2004-2005. Fearing competition and even potential obsolescence, State Security chief Koenraad Dassen actively attempted to harm the establishment of the
Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis
Coordination may refer to:
* Coordination (linguistics), a compound grammatical construction
* Coordination complex, consisting of a central atom or ion and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions
* Coordination number or ligancy of a cent ...
(CUTA). Dassen did however try to lift the State Security's veil of secrecy, by publishing for the first time a public activity report in 2005, the same year the State Security celebrated its 175th anniversary with a conference ana book on its history and activities. However, the service was embarrassed by the escape of a Kurdish terrorist, as VSSE officers had been put to the task of guarding her while under house arrest. Dassen resigned, stating that guarding suspects was not a task fit for intelligence, but a job for the police.
In these years Belgian intelligence was adjusting to being subject to the oversight of the parliamentary review committee
Committee I
The Committee I, or the Standing Intelligence Agencies Review Committee ( nl, Vast Comité van Toezicht op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten (Comité I), french: Comité permanent de contrôle des services de renseignements et de sécurité ...
. Reorganisation and modernisation of the service was happening slowly and a first performance audit by the Committee I found a number of flaws. The root of the problem was however a chronic underfunding and political disinterest in the security services. Substantial reorganisation was needed when the service was finally allowed to conduct technical surveillance operations, requiring not only the equipment to do so, but also the right mindset to meet the demands for proper justification of the use of the methods granted by the 2010 BIM-law.
In the 2010s, the VSSE found espionage to be on the rise as never before, a result of the valuable and sensitive information present in Brussels,
seat of various EU institutions. The CUTA and VSSE were the first security services to warn about the threat of foreign fighters returning to their country in the early days of the
Syrian conflict. As the number of foreign fighters, grew the service quickly became overwhelmed, and requests for additional financial support were not met by the government even after the VSSE provided the information that foiled a terrorist cell in the border town of
Verviers
Verviers (; wa, Vervî) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium.
The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also the ...
planning an attack shortly after the
''Charlie Hebdo'' massacre. The
13-14 November 2015 attack on Paris revealed Belgium to be the centre of terrorist activity, a connection given bloody confirmation on
22 March 2016, with the bombing of the Belgian national airport and a metro carriage in the European quarter. The circumstances that led to the failure to prevent the attacks were investigated by a parliamentary commission that recommended a substantial increase in the security services' manpower and budgets and a better integration of the different actors, as well as improvements of information management and sharing. Since 2016, the VSSE has increased its counterterrorism capabilities, helped by long-awaited financial injections. Cooperation with the other security services is also occurring at previously unseen levels of intensity. To further support public understanding of the work of the intelligence service, the VSSE celebrated the 20th anniversary of its legal framework by launching it
websiteand publishing, for the first time in seven years, an activity report.
In 2022, the VSSE tipped the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
about an Iraqi terrorist. A murder plot targeting former American president
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
was thus foiled.
Directors
The Belgian Security Service has had the following directors (called 'administrateur général'):
*
Isidore Plaisant (1830-1831)
*
Emmanuel François (1831-1839)
*
Alexis Hody Alexis may refer to:
People Mononym
* Alexis (poet) ( – ), a Greek comic poet
* Alexis (sculptor), an ancient Greek artist who lived around the 3rd or 4th century BC
* Alexis (singer) (born 1968), German pop singer
* Alexis (comics) (1946–1977 ...
(1840-1852)
*
Napoleon Joseph Verheyen (1852-1869)
*
Victor Berden
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
(1869-1882)
*
Adolphe Gautier de Rasse
''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illicit ...
(1882-1890)
*
F. C. de Latour (1890-1903)
*
J. B. de Rode (1903-1906)
*
Louis Gonne (1906-1927)
* Alfred Rémy (1927-1929)
*
René Beltjens (1929-1933)
*
Robert de Foy
Robert Herman Alfred de Foy CBE (23 March 1893 in Geraardsbergen – 15 August 1960 in Brussels) was a Belgian magistrate, and head of the Belgian State Security Service, during the occupation of Belgium by the Nazis. This period of his life h ...
(1933-1943)
*
Fernand Lepage
Fernand is a masculine given name of French origin. The feminine form is Fernande.
Fernand may refer to:
People Given name
* Fernand Augereau (1882–1958), French cyclist
* Fernand Auwera (1929–2015), Belgian writer
* Fernand Baldet (1885– ...
(1940 - 1944)
*
Pol Bihin (1944-1947)
*
Robert de Foy
Robert Herman Alfred de Foy CBE (23 March 1893 in Geraardsbergen – 15 August 1960 in Brussels) was a Belgian magistrate, and head of the Belgian State Security Service, during the occupation of Belgium by the Nazis. This period of his life h ...
(1947–1958)
*
Ludovic Caeymaex (1958–1977)
*
Albert Raes (1977 – 1990)
* Stephane Schewebach (1990–1993)
* (1994 – 1999)
* Godelieve Timmermans (2000 – 2002)
* Koenraad Dassen (2002 – 2006)
* Alain Winants (2006 – 2014)
* Jaak Raes (2014–present)
Parliamentary supervision
During the 1980s, a number of incidents including the
Brabant supermarket killings, the activities of terrorist groups such as the
Combatant Communist Cells and the
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
Westland New Post brought attention and criticism to the activities and ineffectiveness of the nation's police and intelligence agencies.
In 1991, following two government enquiries, a permanent parliamentary committee,
Committee I
The Committee I, or the Standing Intelligence Agencies Review Committee ( nl, Vast Comité van Toezicht op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten (Comité I), french: Comité permanent de contrôle des services de renseignements et de sécurité ...
, was established to bring these agencies, not previously subject to any outside control, under the authority of Belgium's federal parliament. Legislation governing the missions and methods of these agencies was put in place in 1998.
Entitlement
The entitlements of the Security Service were granted by the Intelligence Services Act of 30 November 1998. Belgian intelligence does not have policing power and is only able to gather and analyse information. In accordance with the 2010 Special Intelligence Methods Act (''"Wet op de Bijzondere Inlichtingenmethoden"'', BIM) BIM methods make it possible to conduct surveillance with technical means and intercept communications. Their use falls under the strict supervision of the Committee I, during and after the operation, and can be suspended by the supervisory body if the use of the method is deemed unlawful. The most intrusive BIMs have to be approved beforehand by a separate committee of three specially appointed magistrates, called the BIM-Commission, and are again subjected to checks during and after by the Committee I.
The majority of the methods used (between 1500 and 2000 in recent years) concern localisations and identifications of cell phone numbers, in connection with counterterrorism.
See also
*
Belgian stay-behind network
*
Gladio in Belgium
References
Literature and sources
* L. Keunings, ''The Secret Police in nineteenth century Brussels'', in: Intelligence and National Security, 1989.
* C. Carpentier & F. Moser, ''La Sûreté de l'État: histoire d'une déstabilisation'', Ottignies, 1993.
* L. Van Outryve, ''Les services de renseignement et de sécurité'', Bruxelles, Courier du CRISP, 1999.
* F. Caestecker, ''Alien Police in Belgium 1840-1940. The creation of guest workers'', New York - Oxford, 2000.
* M. Cools, K. Dassen, R. Libert, P. Ponsaerts (eds.), ''La Sûreté. Essais sur les 175 ans de la Sûreté de l'État'', Brussels, Politeia, 2005.
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Standing Intelligence Agencies Review Committee
{{authority control
State Security
Counterterrorism
Political history of Belgium
Military history of Belgium
Belgian intelligence agencies