The Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) or Etterretningstjenesten (E-tjenesten) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

military

intelligence agency 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 informa ...

under the Chief of Defence and the Ministry of Defence.

History

Olav Njølstad Olav Njølstad (born 1 March 1957) is a Norwegian historian, biographer and novelist. He is director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Literary background As a novelist he made his literary debut in 2003 with the thriller ''Mannen med oksehjertet ...

says that the "

stay-behind In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organizations in its own territory, for use in case an enemy occupies that territory. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement or act as sp ...

cooperation with the US and Great Britain represented a milestone in the Norwegian intelligence services' history".Njølstad p.395 Furthermore, through the stay-behind arrangement, the CIA finally conquered their mistrust of the Norwegian intelligence services. An important turning point" was the October–November 1949 secret visit to Norway by

Frank Wisner Frank Gardiner Wisner (June 23, 1909 – October 29, 1965) was one of the founding officers of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and played a major role in CIA operations throughout the 1950s. Wisner began his intelligence career in the Of ...

and

Richard Helms Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 – October 23, 2002) was an American government official and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973. Helms began intelligence work with the Office of Strategic Ser ...

. The purpose of the visit was to discuss stay-behind with those with the top responsibility on the Norway's side. In 1995, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the intelligence service had operated a

service in cooperation with the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and

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 ...

since the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The two ravens on the coat of arms represent Huginn and Muninn ("Thought" and "Mind", the two ravens that bring information to the Norse god Odin. The red flower is thought to be either an Olaf's Rose or a sub rosa reference, perhaps both. The Olaf rose is a national symbol of Norway and sub rosa is a Latin term referring to confidentiality and secrecy.

2013 inspections

On 12 August 2013 the first ever unannounced inspection by Parliament's Intelligence Oversight Committee, was performed at the NIS headquarter at Lutvann in Oslo. This inspection came to be as a result of "a complaint from one or more persons" "who felt they were under surveillance". On 27 August 2013, the Parliament's Intelligence Oversight Committee (the EOS Committee) made an unannounced inspection of the Intelligence Service's facilities at Havnelageret in Oslo. On 29 August 2013 ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...

'' said that according to their sources the Intelligence Service had stored personal information about more than 400 Norwegians—including diplomats and bureaucrats—who either were sources for the intelligence service or people the service wanted to recruit as future sources. The inspection at Havnelageret was followed upNy inspeksjon hos E-tjenesten
"... EOS-utvalget tilbake i lokalene for å følge opp ..." by an announced inspection on 4 September 2013.

Organization

The service has operated, or still operates, the following stations, all of them located north of the Arctic Circle: *

Andøy Andøy is the northernmost municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Vesterålen archipelago. The main island in the municipality is Andøya. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Andenes. Other villages ...

a ( Nordland county): former

SOSUS The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was a submarine detection system based on passive sonar developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet Navy, Soviet submarines. The system's true nature was classified with the name and acronym SOSUS them ...

station, suspected ACINT station * Fauske (Nordland county): suspected FISINT ( TELINT) and

ELINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

station * Kirkenes (

Finnmark Finnmark (; se, Finnmárku ; fkv, Finmarku; fi, Ruija ; russian: Финнмарк) was a county in the northern part of Norway, and it is scheduled to become a county again in 2024. On 1 January 2020, Finnmark was merged with the neighbouri ...

county): suspected

and NUCINT station *

Vardø ( fi, Vuoreija, fkv, Vuorea, se, Várggát) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county in the extreme northeastern part of Norway. Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway, more to the east than Saint Petersburg or Istanbul. The administr ...

(Finnmark county): the

GLOBUS Globus is Latin for ''sphere'' or ''globe''. It may also refer to: Business * Globus Medical, a medical device company in Audubon, PA * Globus (clothing retailer), an Indian clothing retail store * Globus (company), a Swiss department store c ...

radar, suspected

station *

Vadsø Vadsø (; sme, Čáhcesuolu; fkv, Vesisaari) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark County, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vadsø, which was the administrative centre of the former Finnmark county. O ...

(Finnmark county):

SIGINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

(

COMINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

) station Kirkenes, Vardø, and Vadsø are close to the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n border near

Severomorsk Severomorsk (russian: Северомо́рск), known as Vayenga () until April 18, 1951, is a closed town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. Severomorsk is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. The town is located on the coast o ...

in the Murmansk district on the

Kola Peninsula sjd, Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк , image_name= Kola peninsula.png , image_caption= Kola Peninsula as a part of Murmansk Oblast , image_size= 300px , image_alt= , map_image= Murmansk in Russia.svg , map_caption = Location of Murmansk Oblas ...

, the home of the former

Soviet Northern Fleet Severnyy flot , image = Great emblem of the Northern Fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Northern Fleet's great emblem , start_date = June 1, 1733; Sov ...

and now its Russian equivalent. The agency uses at least one

ship—F/S '' Marjata''.

E 14

E 14 (Norway) E 14 (Norwegian: "Seksjon for spesiell innhenting", or E14) was a unit within the Norwegian Intelligence Service. The section was focusing on covert missions abroad. This particular unit was active from 1995 to 2005. The original section consisted ...

(Seksjon for spesiell innhenting) is/was a highly classified section within the Intelligence Service, focusing on covert missions abroad. For a period, the section was led by Ola Kaldager. Agents include the late Trond André Bolle.

Leaders

* Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensønes (3 November 2020–Present) * General

Morten Haga Lunde Morten Haga Lunde (born 20 December 1960) is a Norwegian military officer. He graduated from the Norwegian Air Force Academy in 1987, and from the NATO Defense College in 2002. He was appointed head of Norwegian Joint Headquarters in 2013, with ...

(2016–2020) * General Kjell Grandhagen (2010–2015) * Colonel Johan Berg (1966–?) *

Vilhelm Evang Vilhelm Andreas Wexelsen Evang (9 November 1909 – 5 January 1983) was a Norwegian military officer. He headed the military intelligence in Norway for almost twenty years, from 1946 to 1965. Personal life Evang was born in Aker as the son of ...

(1946–1965)

References

External links

Norwegian Intelligence Service official homepage

ow the E Service wants out of the mysteriousnessbr>
*http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2001/04/25/254089.html {{authority control Military of Norway, Intelligence Service National Intelligence Service