Its predecessor was the 1945–1947 Bureau of National Security on 29 May 2002.
Mission
The AIVD focuses mostly on domestic non-military threats to Dutch national security, whereas the Military Intelligence and Security Service focuses on international threats, specifically military and government-sponsored threats such as espionage. The AIVD is charged with collecting intelligence and assisting in combating domestic and foreign threats to national security.
A review board for the use of special powers by intelligence and security services appointed by the Second Chamber of the States General.
An oversight committee also appointed by the Second Chamber of the States General.
The Committee for the Intelligence and Security Services, comprising the leaders of all political parties represented in the Second Chamber of the States General, although until 2009 the Socialist Party was not and did not want to be part of this committee.
The AIVD publishes an annual report which includes its budget. The published version contains redactions where information is deemed sensitive. The AIVD can be forced by the courts to publish any records held on a private citizen, but it may keep secret information that is relevant to current cases. No information that is less than five years old will be provided under any circumstance to private citizens about their records.
Activities
Its main activities include:
monitoring specific people and groups of people, such as political extremists and Islamic extremists
sourcing intelligence to and from foreign and domestic intelligence services
performing background checks on individuals employed in "positions of trust," specifically public office and higher-up or privileged positions in industry this ironically includes members of parliamentary oversight committees
investigating incidents such as terrorist bombings and threats
giving advice and warning about risks to national security, including advising on the protection of national leadership
Netherlands National Communications Security Agency, advising on communication security for government users
the use of foreign intelligence service liaisons who reside in the Netherlands under a diplomatic status to collect intelligence in excess of the AIVD's authority
The latter is technically the same as sourcing intelligence from a foreign intelligence service; this method has not been confirmed. The AIVD operates in tight concert with the Regional Intelligence Service, to which members of the police are appointed in every police district. It also co-operates with over one hundred intelligence services.
Soon after the arrest of the Dutch businessman Frans van Anraat, who has been convicted of complicity in war crimes for selling raw materials for the production of chemical weapons to Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein, Dutch newspapers reported that van Anraat had been an informer of the Dutch secret service AIVD and has enjoyed AIVD's protection.
not having enough focus and intelligence on political violence or environmental groups, particularly following the murder of Pim Fortuyn by an environmental radical
delivering hand grenades to members of the Hofstadgroep through alleged informer Saleh Bouali
investigating family members of the Queen that had had a family rift, though this was not ordered by the minister of internal affairs, but rather by the Queen's office
losing a laptop and a floppy disk with classified information from a regional office of the AIVD. The disk was found by an employee of a car rental agency, and subsequently given to Dutch crime-journalist Peter R. de Vries. Information on the disks indicated that the service collected information on Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn and members of his party, as well as on left-wing activists. Among other things, the documents accuse Pim Fortuyn of having sex with underage Moroccan boys.
During the Cold War the BVD had a reputation for interviewing potential employers of persons they deemed suspicious for any reason, thereby worrying corporations about the employment of these persons. Reasons for being suspect included leftist ideals, membership of the Dutch Communist Party, or a spotty military record, although no evidence of the latter has ever been produced.
On January 25, 2018 Dutch newspaperde Volkskrant and TV program Nieuwsuur reported that in 2014 the General Intelligence and Security Service successfully infiltrated the computers of Cozy Bear and observed the hacking of the head office of the Democratic National Committee and subsequently The White House and were the first to alert the National Security Agency about the cyber-intrusion.
In popular culture
In the Lair of the Cozy Bear is a translation of the Dutch novel In het hol van de Cozy Bear that relates the story of the infiltration of Cozy Bear told from the perspective of an American liaison officer attached to the AIVD.
