General Intelligence and Security Service - Influence and Results

Influence and Results

Before 2001, the Netherlands had the largest absolute number of wiretaps in the world.

The service's focus on leftist activism is legendary; leftist activists exhibit great measures of paranoia relating to the service's activities, whether real or imaginary. This focus on leftist, rather than right-wing or Islamic organizations, is a legacy from the Cold War and historical threats posed by RaRa, the Red Army Faction, and such. Some substance was lent to such paranoia by the confirmation that the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Netherlands was a fake organization set up and entirely controlled by the security service.

It is likely that the AIVD has significant influence in police and prosecution circles, given recent cases where suspected terrorists were prosecuted (and found not guilty) or successfully extradited (Mullah Krekar) without credible non-secret evidence.

Today the AIVD is believed to be one of the most effective secret services of Europe, although there is little known about the AIVD.

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