A senior counterintelligence official for the Belgian external intelligence service is under house arrest on charges of sharing documents classified with Russian spies. A Belgian newspaper reports it. In addition, the head of the agency's counterintelligence leadership was excluded from his office while an internal investigation is underway on allegations that he had illegally destroyed government documents. These accusations emerged last Thursday in an important article by De Morgen, a Flemish-language newspaper based in Brussels.
Citing anonymous sources from the General Intelligence and Security Service - the Belgian military intelligence agency - the newspaper said the arrested man has the rank of major in the Intelligence Service. Known as GISS, the agency operates as the Belgian equivalent of the US Central Intelligence Agency or Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6. GISS agents collect information abroad and are not authorized to operate within the borders of Belgium. The man belonging to counterintelligence is suspected of having passed secrets to Russia with the help of a woman who claims to be Serbian, but who is actually believed to be a Russian intelligence agent. It is not known whether the compromised information included secrets concerning the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of which Belgium is a founding member. The unfaithful Belgian agent is also accused of destroying classified government documents without permission. This case is not believed to be related to the alleged Russian penetration.
De Morgen quoted a spokesperson for the Belgian Defense Ministry, who confirmed that an investigation into alleged foreign espionage was being conducted to a GISS employee, but added that "no comment" would be made on the subject in order to "Do not hinder" the investigations. Ironically, the German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag reported last week that the EU diplomatic agency has warned officials in Belgium to keep an eye on "hundreds of spies" from various foreign countries, including Russia and China. The warning issued by the European Union's diplomatic agency, the European External Action Service (EEAS), said that "about 250 Chinese spies and Russian 200s" were operational in Brussels.
