Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.07.2013, Síða 32

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32The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 10 — 2013
“Wire-tapping has commenced,” stated a front-page head-
line in socialist newspaper Þjóðviljinn (“The People’s Will”)
on March 27, 1949. The paper claimed to possess confirmed
intelligence proving extensive tapping of the newspaper’s of-
fice phones, as well as the home phones of individuals con-
sidered “dangerous” by the coalition government of Sjálf-
stæðisflokkur, Framsóknarflokkur and Alþýðuflokkur. The
reason for said surveillance was reportedly a demonstration
scheduled to take place on March 30, when the parliamentary
majority would vote in favour of joining the recently estab-
lished North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The protest even-
tually turned into momentous riots on the parliament square,
Austurvöllur, where a “furious mob attacked Alþingi,” ac-
cording to conservative newspaper Morgunblaðið, whereas
Þjóðviljinn stated that “treason was perpetrated” inside
the parliament while “violent and barbarian attacks against
peaceful civilians” took place outside the building.
A lONG AND COMPlICATED STORY
Like every report of state surveillance against Icelandic so-
cialists during the Cold War, these particular accusations
were unconfirmed until May 21, 2006, when historian Guðni
Th. Jóhannesson presented the results of his research into
the matter at the Third Icelandic History Forum, and more
extensively in his book ʻÓvinir ríkisinsʻ (“Enemies Of The
State”) later that year.
In an introduction to the book, Guðni explains that in 2003,
while studying history in the UK, his attention was brought
to a few documents at The National Archives in Britain—the
secrecy of which had just been lifted—mentioning a system-
atic gathering of information about Icelandic communists. In
the archives of former US President Dwight Eisenhower, he
furthermore stumbled upon documents regarding “internal
security in Iceland,” which talked about a card index of “com-
munists and their supporters.” This lead Guðni on a quest for
bulletproof evidence, as well as vocal testimonies by people
possibly involved in the matter—communists and establish-
ment figures alike.
To shorten and simplify a long and complicated story,
he finally managed—via the National Archives of Iceland—
to acquire theretofore inaccessible documents from the
then dissolved Criminal Court of Reykjavík. The documents
confirmed that 32 homes of army-base opponents and so-
cialists—some of whom had been parliamentarians at the
time—had indeed been tapped, as well as socialist parties
and newspapers, trade unions, and various political and
cultural associations. Guðni was able to put his finger on
six confirmed examples of this, during the period from the
above-mentioned NATO conflict in 1949 to a NATO foreign
affairs ministerial meeting in Reykjavík in June 1968. Among
other occasions was the 1951 visit of Dwight D. Eisenhow-
er—then Supreme Commander of NATO and later US Presi-
dent—and that of then US Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson
in 1963.
As no information collected by the wire-taps was ever
used as evidence in court, many wondered what sort of in-
formation the authorities gained by the acts of surveillance,
to which Guðni replied at the History Forum: “Most likely, we
will never get to know anything about that. All documents
concerning these police operations were apparently elimi-
nated no later than in 1977.” This elimination was quite a
spectacle indeed, as according to historian Þór Whitehead,
most of the documents were burned to ashes in an oil barrel
just outside Reykjavík by the summer cabin of police chief
Sigurjón Sigurðsson, who saw the bonfire as a necessary
step on his way to a post at Iceland's Supreme Court.
NO APOlOGIES
The 2006 revelation immediately brought forth strong re-
sponses that—not surprisingly—pretty much followed the
same old Cold War lines. Former socialist MP Ragnar Ar-
nalds called the affair a scandal, and told newspaper Frét-
tablaðið that he believed the information presented by the
historian only to be the tip of the Iceberg. Interviewed by
Morgunblaðið, Ragnar referred to the tapping as “political
espionage” and “an attack on democracy and parliamentary
government.” Morgunblaðið's editor Styrmir Gunnarsson,
however, justified the operations, stating that in view of the
political situation back then, “it's actually remarkable that
wire-tapping wasn't used more extensively.”
Among the main arguments of those justifying the espio-
nage—one of them being Björn Bjarnason, then-Minister of
Justice—was that it had been legally executed, i.e. by a court
ruling, and due to a considerable threat to state security. But
as another former socialist MP, Kjartan Ólafsson, noted in a
Morgunblaðið article in May 2008, the requests sent to the
judges by the Minister of Justice—who usually was Björn's
father Bjarni Benediktsson—didn't really include any well-
grounded reasoning, save some vague mentioning of poten-
tial risk of turbulence. Additionally, only in two out of the six
mentioned incidents were the requests supported by actual
paragraphs of law.
At the end of his article, parallel to which the names of
those spied upon were published for the first time, Kjartan
called for an official apology from the Iceland state, an idea
supported by many on the left. Björn Bjarnason, however, de-
fended his father's inheritance, stating that judiciary authori-
ties should never apologise for a judge's verdict. Referring
to collapse of the Soviet Union, Björn concluded by locating
himself—and his political brothers in arms—on the side of
what he called the “verdict of history,” maintaining that “the
Icelandic State doesn't have to apologise to anybody be-
cause of this verdict.”
Cold War Espionage
In Iceland
Big Brother’s been listening in for quite a while
Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson