Swedish military feared linked to Estonia ferry disaster
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 For those interested in intelligence, munitions smuggling by authorities and so on - a few words concerning military smuggling of munitions on the Estonia, feared to have played a part in the sinking and killings of 852 people on Sept 28, 1994, when the ferry M/S Estonia sinked during a journey from Estonia to Sweden. It has been rumoured for a long time that there were some kind of smuggling of sensitive material taking place on Estonia and that Russian authorities did not like this, needless to say. The very stressed and hasty investigation performed by the involved nations also raised suspicions amongst a lot of people. On top of all this the Swedish social democratic government did all they could to hinder future investigations of the wreckage by trying to cover it with stones and concrete. First some other related info. The reader should know that the Swedish social democratic party is notorious for acting in undemocratic and deceitful manners against the Swedish people. Two of the most infamous affairs being the "IB affair" and the "Catalina affair". In the IB affair it was shown that the social democratic party had founded a secret and unlawful military intelligence bureau as the party's own private spy organization to spy on other politcal adversaries, a Swedish version of Watergate if you will, but it went far beyond that. Hundreds of thousands of people were targeted during a number of years. Even Olof Palme himself knew about break-ins that the intelligence officers performed in other countries embassies in Stockholm, one of them was Egypt's embassy. One major characteristic is that the Swedish way of doing things means sweeping things under the carpet and not letting the public know the truths, this is shown in every "affair" known in resent years, including the Estonia disaster. In all of these affairs it's the social democrats that has been the most responsible party and the party almost in constant power in Sweden historically speaking. The magazine breaking the news in 1973 today has a web site about the affair, http://www.fib.se/IB/ In the Catalina affair it was very recently shown actually, after the planes was discovered east of the island Gotland in the Baltic Sea, that they were both indeed gunned down, as had been suspected for decades. On June 13 1952 the DC3 plane Hugin disappeared and the only thing found was a trashed rescue raft. Three days later the rescure plane of type "Catalina" was also gunned down and forced to emergency landing. It's today also known however that the Swedish (social democratic) governments have all been maliciously and intentionally lying all along about the Hugin's purpose to both the Swedish people as well as the families. Hugin was in fact gathering intelligence very close (some say on the wrong side even) of the Russian border and was relaying all this signal intelligence directly to the Americans. USA was amongst other things interested in Russias capacity to fight the B-47. This was well known for the Russians and this was the direct cause of the attacks in 1952. It is believed that the Swedish FRA, standing for "Fvrsvarets RadioAnstalt", translating to "The Defence's Radio Institution", which is Swedens NSA, signed secret treaties with the US some three years prior to the assult on these planes. The FRA had 5 employees on the Hugin when it was gunned down. It wasn't until 1991 that the families knew what happened, that was when the Russians admitted a Mig-15 gunned them down. When the recon plane was found in June 2004 it was situated far east of the earlier officially declared crash site which further fules the speculation that Hugin was indeed flying where it shouldn't have been, conducting its sigint operations and that the Swedish governments knew this all along. The Hugin was found June 10, 2003. I'm not sure how much of these affairs is known outside Sweden, but it's interesting read that's for sure and I just may get back to these things and others like them later on. Back to other things now. This was published today in Sweden, along with a tv show of one hour:
INRIKES Publicerad 30 november
"Krigsmateriel fraktades pe Estonia"
Estonia hade veckorna fvre fvrlisning- en vid tve tillfdllen krigsmateriel fren Baltikum i lasten. Enligt kvdll- ens Uppdrag granskning i SVT rvrde det sig om rysk elektronik som svenska fvrsvaret tog in fvr att studera.
Lars Borgnds som gjort programmet sdger att avslvjandet belyser hur svenska myndigheter hanterat kata- strofen. -Man har t.ex. inte undersvkt bilddck, sdger han till SVT Text.
Den pensionerade tullintendenten Lennart Henriksson uppger att han fett order om att sldppa igenom bilarna pe begdran av fvrsvarsmakten. Lds mer pe svt.se/nyheter
Which translates into something like this: DOMESTIC Published November 30 "War material was freighted on the Estonia" The weeks before the sinking the Estonia had at least at two different occasions war material in its cargo. According to tonight's Uppdrag Granskning(*) in the Swedish state television the equipment was russian electronics that the Swedish military brought in for studies. Lars Borgnds who did the show says that the revelations shows how the authorities have handled the situation. - One example is the failure to examine the car deck, he says to SVT. The retired former head of customs at the port of Stockholm Lennart Henriksson says he was given direct orders to let the cars through and that the order came from the military. (*) The name of the tv show sent on Nov 30, featuring Wallraff styled recordings of swedish officials verifying the smuggling of war material on the direct order from the swedish military commander in chief Owe Viktorin. It was showed in the show that Owe Viktorin personally asked the chief of the swedish customs to order their workers to let specific cars through customs without questions. And so they did. The "KSI" mentioned below is perhaps the most secret Swedish military intelligence organization (we know of) today. The abbreviation stands for "Kontoret fvr Sdrskild Inhdmtning", which translated into something like "The office for special intelligence gatherings". They are known to conduct regular espionage operations on foreign soil and have been deeply involved in the smuggling of intelligence and the recruiting of spies on the ground from Russia for quite some time. They are more or less "not existing", you cannot phone MUST and ask for KSI or someone you know working at KSI, they will not acknowledge anything or anyone, although KSI is known to exist and is also mentioned (briefly) in some official documents. KSI is part of MUST, which stands for "Militdra Underdttelse och Sdkerhetstjdnsten", translating to "The military intelligence and security service" and is the Swedish version of CIA so essentially KSI is like a bureau within CIA with some black bag types of jobs in their resume as well. MUST, http://www.hkv.mil.se/article.php?id=35 FRA, http://www.fra.se MUST's annual report 2003 http://www.hkv.mil.se/attachments/sak_ar03_sv.pdf MUST's annual report 2002 http://www.hkv.mil.se/attachments/sak_ar02_s5_sv.pdf SVT Program homepage http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=2232 This is an english text present at the svt.se site. http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=13038&a=293822 - --------------------------------------- In english: War materials smuggled on Estonia Ten years after the Estonia ferry disaster, a former head of customs in Stockholm has confirmed what has been the subject of much speculation - the ferry was being used for smuggling across the Baltic Sea. This secret cargo comprised Russian war materials that had been let through customs on orders from the highest instance. The person that has now chosen to tell all is Lennart Henriksson. He was employed by the customs office in Stockholm for 38 years and was customs inspector and head of the sea customs. Ive been walking around thinking about what happened for ten years. Each time Estonias name came up Ive thought the little I know should be brought into the light of day. I want to clear my conscience, he says. His revelation has put a new light on the Estonia disaster and how it has been handled by politicians and authorities. And its something that has been unknown to the Accident Investigation Board that investigated the disaster. The evening before Lennart Henriksson got in touch with Uppdrag Granskning, hed seen our report on what was happening ten years after the Estonia disaster. The report took up the questions surrounding the accident and how the experts in Sweden and abroad wanted to carry out the investigation. Also in the report were the rumours and speculation about the ferry carrying smuggled goods and that it was the object of sabotage or an explosion. We also told of some relatives to the deceased who suspected that the truth behind the accident has not been uncovered. And that the authorities have colluded and lied. For ten years, Lennart Henriksson has borne this knowledge alone, despite being personally acquainted with people who died when Estonia went down on the night between the 27 and 28 September 1994. Not long before the accident, something happened that he had never experienced before during his many years in the customs. Some time in the middle of September, I now know it was around the 12th or 13th, I went to my boss who said we were called to a meeting with the director of customs. We went up there and the director said that a vehicle would be arriving on the Estonia that shouldnt be searched. He also gave me a licence number, Lennart Henriksson told us. He asked directly why it shouldnt be searched. He said it was an order. 'But from where? I wondered. From the highest quarters he answered, says Henriksson. Normally, customs searched all the vehicles from Estonia, as smuggling was rife. Lennart Henriksson had never experienced anything like this before - that a vehicle was being let through without a search. When the ferry finally arrived, he went down to the ferry quay and spoke to the driver, who was registered as Frank Larsson. The vehicle was a Volvo 745 estate car. I said the customs were carrying out inspections and he gave me a look but I said the search would be faked. We opened a few boxes and as far as I could see it was military electronics in them. What did you base that on? Anyone whos done their military service knows what it looks like. But I dont know how old it was or what condition it was in. The person that gave him the order, says Lennart Henriksson, was the head of the Eastern customs region Inge Lindunger. Lennart Henrikssons immediate superior, who was present when Lindunger gave the order and who was also on the quay when the Volvo arrived, was Superintendent Stig Sandelin. Who this was that was bringing what looked like military electronics into the country, Lennart Henriksson didnt know but he was curious and made a note of the car's licence number. Later that day, he found out who the car was registered to. He still has that document. The registered owner was Ericsson Access AB, a company that at this time was part of the Ericsson group of companies. But today, they say they know nothing about the incident. Not long afterwards, it happened again. The ferry was schedule to arrive on 20 September - and again there was a transport that was waved through without inspection. This time it was a van and Lennart Henriksson looked through the boxes again. It was the same stuff in this vehicle as well: military electronics. I looked into a few boxes but not too closely. What were you thinking this second time? I thought it was a strange procedure. But orders are orders and you dont reflect too much on why. But what was it in those vehicles and who was bringing it in? And perhaps the most important question: was there anything like it on board Estonia on the night of the accident? When Uppdrag Granskning spoke with customs superintendent Stig Sandelin, he remains silent and refers to classified information and national security. On the other hand he does confirm the transports took place - and that he saw the materials being shipped to Sweden. But was there a similar cargo on the night of the accident? He says he doesnt know. Ive no idea. I dont know what was on board when she went down, says Sandelin. In a recorded conversation between Lennart Henriksson and Stig Sandelin, he's more open. According to Stig Sandelin, there was an agreement between the Commissioner of the Swedish Customs at the time, Ulf Larsson, and Ove Wictorin, who was then Supreme Commander of the Swedish armed forces, that Sandelin was to handle the customs clearance when the materials arrived. During the conversation, Lennart Henriksson asked if he knew who the materials were for. Yes, its the military. I dont know what they saw in it but then it was exciting for them to get hold of old Russian stuff. Thats history now, says Sandelin. In other words, Lennart Henrikssons belief that it was military material being brought in on the Estonia on 14 and 20 September was correct. Stig Sandelin had confirmed it. It was Russian materials, the Swedish defence was mixed up in it and it all took place in great secrecy - that is still the case today. Uppdrag Granskning has also received confirmation that the boxes Lennart Henriksson looked inside contained military electronics, not weapons or explosives. But we dont know what was in the boxes Henriksson didnt look inside. The international Accident Investigation Board, which had investigated the accident for three years, never knew that the Estonia passenger ferry was used to transport secret war materials shortly before the accident. But why was the Swedish defence smuggling war materials from Estonia? It was 1994 and five years had passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, leaving the Baltic States free. The Soviet bases were pulled down and all the materials were taken to Russia. Svren Lindman was the Swedish defence attachi in the three Baltic countries at that time. It was his task to observe the military break-up in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on behalf of the Swedish defence. According to Lindman, the Russians had already shipped home the most interesting materials from the Baltic with just a few exceptions. There was not much left. On the other hand, there was a lot of advanced equipment in the nearby Leningrad area inside Russia. Svren Lindman took military materials back with him from the Baltic himself occasionally. With his diplomatic passport he could easily pass through the controls. Alexander Einseln, Estonias first Supreme Commander, confirms the situation: Everything was for sale and anything was available if you could pay for it", he says. Was the situation in Estonia such that it was possible to smuggle equipment on board the ferry? "Yes, without doubt. There were no controls at all", says Einseln. Svren Lindman has no knowledge of the transports that Lennart Henriksson is talking about - on the 14 and 20 September 1994. In his opinion, as he didn't know about them, they might have involved the most secret section of Swedish defence - KSI, the Office of Special Intelligence. In other words the Swedish secret service. It would be a dereliction of duty if KSI hadnt been in the Baltic digging up whatever they could after the collapse of the Soviet Union, says Lindman. We have confirmation from Lennart Henriksson and Stig Sandelin that covert transport of Russian war materials on Estonia took place on 14 and 20 September. But now when we contact people higher up in the customs and military organisations to obtain more information it seems their memories fail them. Uppdrag Granskning asked Lennart Henriksson to phone director of customs Inge Lindunger, who had given him the order to let the first car through. He says he doesnt remember now either. Whatever it was, its a thing of the past now", says Inge Lindunger. The Commissioner of the Swedish Customs at the time Ulf Larsson answers likewise: It doesnt ring any bells", he says. We get the same response from the Supreme Commander of the day Ove Wictorin: it's nothing he remembers. Then can KSI, the secret service organisation, have acted independently without the knowledge of the Supreme Commander? Officially, KSI is part of the military's intelligence and security service MUST but is such a secret organisation that nothing is said about it and very few know how and where it operates or who works there. The head of MUST at this time was Erik Rossander. Of course the intelligence service is interested in the material standard of other powers. Thats one of the assignments. But Im not saying how you get it, states Rossander. Otherwise, he wouldnt comment on the issue. Everything we did is covered by the secrets act and that still applies. The heads of customs had slight recollections or none at all; the Supreme Commander and the head of Ericsson Access said they had no knowledge of the covert transport of war materials on Estonia. And yet we know they took place on the 14 and 20 September. The question is, was there a cargo like it on the car deck when the ferry sank on the 28th? The former Supreme Commander of Estonia, Alexander Einseln, believes that if there was a military cargo on the night of the accident, it could explain, in his view, the extraordinary way in which the Estonia disaster was handled. It's unusually suspicious that a democratic country like Sweden should react so quickly to cover the wreck and keep everyone away. I saw the same behaviour from the Finns and the Estonians and thats what has made me question whether something had to be concealed. Why such a hurry? wonders Einseln. What do you think should be done now? The ship must be lifted and inspected. But I wouldnt let the three countries involved be part of it. Countries without any national interests to protect should be asked to help, he says. REPORTER: Lars Borgnds - --------------------------------------- Links about the Estonia disaster http://www.estoniasamlingen.se/ http://www.seainfo.se http://user.tninet.se/~uht674g http://www.estonia.kajen.com http://w1.316.telia.com/~u31612930 http://www.multi.fi/~stigb/Estonia http://www.titanicnorden.com/skepp/estonia.html http://factgroup.nu http://heiwaco.tripod.com http://axelnelson.com/skepp/Estonia.html http://susning.nu/Estonia http://www.elaestonia.org Yours Berra (Verification may not work due to high bit characters) - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: PGP Universal 1.2.2 mQGiBEGtw28RBADoYtPEDQY0ViYkoOXftj/1KNoKugHwp1CMkKArBStmEegcwju/ IqrWLYA63iXG7zFXenNx77c+MEMHVzyx6aioDypa331pBOBwHN7fpqJZLExR/sQG hEPOlPLlr37xSx41PXbtK7kV7t9UjW5i0Rub60haQ/7iWC6tU6MopvHECwCg/yrf 9MNwngloM9IC9ZBhtg2JRrMEAJEin9BlPM9nht6+G2K6ZF7LYeBwEnH0SHTKGhwW FvEo4Ii0MjEPdvGmMqkiqiYDE09Ke3jPWVib7AkWxj7atUB+FhY6gGb6lvSnViWp R8fLgnd+jJh699g/0xJuD0eca15gmGr95TAK3+MSMhw0tuwbjAi7ItVhnHzxJ2HN xYtIA/461lGfJxxlJS4ZMjnlgb5ANq445dcbFoc5Vic21Uugvi+y+5pGrJf5/i1K KDROJ3TvW/xCmvFWNF29qPs7AqEGIN1uC27z1EP592bSggH1IwEkdWyWYihI6T5w xiSZ1AR5d8X9bbYaTjclIzzxD3DbsvbQlXmqIO+Af57PSsz10bQFQmVycmGJAFUE EBECABUFAkGtw28FCQIIwIAFCwkCAwECGQEACgkQ4zSiVHY/CRb1dQCcDj+2d8Hz bQWKc5Ey4Sb7D9gj2g0AoOMLhkwW6k23v7a2BvOZSgNTQO+DuQQNBEGtw3AQEAD5 GKB+WgZhekOQldwFbIeG7GHszUUfDtjgo3nGydx6C6zkP+NGlLYwSlPXfAIWSIC1 FeUpmamfB3TT/+OhxZYgTphluNgN7hBdq7YXHFHYUMoiV0MpvpXoVis4eFwL2/hM TdXjqkbM+84X6CqdFGHjhKlP0YOEqHm274+nQ0YIxswdd1ckOErixPDojhNnl06S E2H22+slDhf99pj3yHx5sHIdOHX79sFzxIMRJitDYMPj6NYK/aEoJguuqa6zZQ+i AFMBoHzWq6MSHvoPKs4fdIRPyvMX86RA6dfSd7ZCLQI2wSbLaF6dfJgJCo1+Le3k XXn11JJPmxiO/CqnS3wy9kJXtwh/CBdyorrWqULzBej5UxE5T7bxbrlLOCDaAadW oxTpj0BV89AHxstDqZSt90xkhkn4DIO9ZekX1KHTUPj1WV/cdlJPPT2N286Z4VeS Wc39uK50T8X8dryDxUcwYc58yWb/Ffm7/ZFexwGq01uejaClcjrUGvC/RgBYK+X0 iP1YTknbzSC0neSRBzZrM2w4DUUdD3yIsxx8Wy2O9vPJI8BD8KVbGI2Ou1WMuF04 0zT9fBdXQ6MdGGzeMyEstSr/POGxKUAYEY18hKcKctaGxAMZyAcpesqVDNmWn6vQ ClCbAkbTCD1mpF1Bn5x8vYlLIhkmuquiXsNV6z3WFwACAhAA18ulprxi8SmHLuEN hc3c5gaGBNYOTxZpc2S5FEnKw7yMLTVs30xOvG0K3QdcZpFY24aMeXDy1Qf6sHy+ ZxQA2axKrQfNmRYCVO2lpcqB8f/onavSy1KpUpWcdbmSAOxank0kak2ZTqFx6WYA MqAwfFeg5id3bdajEVGW4wsmijtecFcHNInJE81sPVm/pUtcDHCCqO2iToNFPL5r kFNxJ6CrRfW2Ba8iKlPqohsEymzheRjt/5OXPpljjJn3xjr2IUT0EBFFebS0RI7N Rya3/yHlyLelQfeZSSBDc1I9p0DaLg/SauWdoP/mOMJ9MEJSnkL3DfNFabHXhz9K Ao2uO9+uXjQFRDB8kE2eRVbHQF9zUZ/Ag++MoR+lCNYkKLRAkuaPnrBnjOJMe/3q Y8Dlsu1pl8a5n0G4p0SnLBZW20QYUbU/xXNwatFwQ0+YgqaLEil0U9BKGEjKYmtk 9FxmL8xZSZ6JQRLJBHz/bP41UxqXmbKlP/XC+b5PgGDRNfIHLpZmS5D+mdeQzOhl 8oMetLocABZyR9LKP9VlWLlBLsH8dVqZGHZSGeQ4tnPdRJTrmkC0QBTrTvuHWz7o rGDp3ccMfBxq73FPXCaSGrR5razGrYXzeAHK7YvQiXWzS40WPwrb0ZgDAgb6wlII TAkj+aK6X92Fitr39NdGHIg/Tp6JAEwEGBECAAwFAkGtw3AFCQIIwIAACgkQ4zSi VHY/CRZwmQCg6KkE2F1ULfpRNThRh93nMOwwoOAAn0G9rZfuJH6Vc3uWCtLjNAmO C6rv =NRCZ - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP Universal 1.2.2 iQA/AwUBQa3Ej+M0olR2PwkWEQK2jwCfVTs4mwxmI5l10xj2u2KyGA0ZGrAAoLEr og8Y//1k/FvLjQTXw3lNvQ4Z =dML3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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