Danish Defence Intelligence Service

The Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) (Danish: Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste, short FE (often but incorrectly: FET)), is a Danish intelligence agency, responsible for Denmark’s foreign intelligence, as well as being the Danish military intelligence service. DDIS is a department under the Ministry of Defence and works under the responsibility of the Defence Minister of Denmark. It is housed at Kastellet in Copenhagen.

The DDIS gathers, analyses, and disseminates information concerning conditions of importance to Denmark’s security, and to the security of Danish military units deployed on international missions. Intelligence activities include collection of information of political, financial, scientific and military interest.

DDIS works closely with the Danish Security Intelligence Service, which is the intelligence arm of the Danish police, and the signals intelligence unit of the Danish signal regiment.

History
The current name and basic organization dates from October 1, 1967, when Forsvarsstabens Efterretningsafdeling, the Intelligence Section or the Intelligence Department of the General Staff, was detached from Forsvarsstaben by decree of the Ministry of Defence, as a separate authority of its own, located directly under the Ministry of Defence.

The origin can be traced back to Generalstabens Efterretningssektion (created 1911) and Marinestabens Efterretningssektion (created 1920s). During the reconstruction of the Danish military following Denmark’s joining of NATO, these two intelligence services were merged October 1, 1950 as Forsvarsstabens Efterretningsafdeling as a department under the newly erected combined military staff, the Forsvarsstab.

The origins of the Danish military intelligence is uncertain. The year 1911 appears in one of the few histories of the Danish military intelligence: William Christmas-Møller's Obersten og Kommandøren: Efterretningstjeneste, sikkerhedspolitik og socialdemokrati 1945-55. Gyldendal, 1995 p. 25. and p. 29.

However in Underbilag A. til bilag 247 in: Dokumentfortegnelse og særlige Bilag. Kommissionen til Undersøgelse og Overvejelse af Hæren og Flaadens fremtidige Ordning / the report from the Danish Defence Commission of 1922. Copenhagen,. J. H. Schultz, 1922. - 306 pp. ; p. 299 suggests the year of the establishing the military intelligence to be 1903.

During the cold war the military intelligence as well as the intelligence section of the police spied against and recorded the activities of the Danish left wing, communists and pacifists, among the later organisations and personalieties in the Danish chapter of the War Resisters' International / Aldrig mere Krig, the Danish Campaign against Nuclear Weapons / Kampagnen mod Atomvåben and the Conscientious Objecters' Union / Militærnægterforeningen. This is documented in: Forsvarets Auditørkorps / The Danish Judge Advocate General's Corps: Rapport i anledning af undersøgelsen ved auditør af visse forhold vedrørende Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste og Militærnægterforeningen mv. i perioden 1970-1978, 1999.

Supervision and oversight
Four organizations, independent of each other, does various auditing of FE for unauthorised conduct.

The service is directly responsible to the Defence Minister, which on behalf of the Government of Denmark supervises the overall actives and conduct of the service. The DDIS is, as Danish Security Intelligence Service is, subject to regularly control by the Wamberg committee (Wamberg-udvalget), established in 1964, which is controlled by the Ministry of Justice. It is also subject to Folketingets control committee, which was established by law no. 378 of July 6, 1988. And finally, as all Danish government agencies, FE is subject to control by Rigsrevisionen (Government audit committee), to ensure that the money granted to the institution is really spent as Folketinget has decided.