“A growing number of Belgian political representatives want to see the state disintegrate in favor of the regions. And those who want to put an end to Belgium naturally seek to weaken its secret services.”
Serge Lipszyc — Chairman of the intelligence services monitoring committee
October 27 2021 — Serge Lipszyc currently serves as the Chairman of the Belgian intelligence services oversight committee. In a very unusual move, Lipszyc publicly revealed a series of highly disturbing facts regarding the state of espionage and foreign influence in the capital of Europe. Amazingly, no one seems to care… Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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“Belgium may seem an unlikely destination for a Chinese agent. In fact, it’s a den of spies, according to domestic intelligence agency State Security (VSSE). It says the number of operatives is at least as high as during the Cold War, and Brussels is their chessboard.”
How Belgium Became Europe’s Den of Spies and a Gateway for China — Bloomberg (November 28 2019)
First thing first. Serge Lipszyc reminds everyone that the Belgian intelligence services are understaffed.
As a result, they follow a very small percentage of their current dossiers. Nothing new here. This has been the case for at least the last two decades.
RELATED POST: Brussels — Report : “Intelligence Agencies are dysfunctional”
However… Lipszyc accuses some politicians of intentionally weakening the Intelligence Services in order to pave the way to the “regionalization” of this competence.
He claims that the Flanders government is hiring officers away from the Intelligence Services to monitor mosques.
Serge Lipszyc accuses the entire political ‘elite’ of being completely ignorant on intelligence matters.
Why? These people have no interest for this subject because the necessary secrecy does not provide them with an opportunity to promote themselves in the media.
In the interview with Wilfried, the president of Committee R also takes a long look at the Jürgen Conings affair, this far-right soldier classified at level 3 of the threat by the OCAM and never seriously followed by his hierarchy.
“There are other far-right soldiers who pose a more direct threat. I think that there are structures within Defense itself that cultivate extremist soldiers.
If Jürgen Conings had been called Mustafa, I think things would have turned out differently.
A certain number of elements lead us to believe that in the different strata of the Belgian state, there is a desire to promote extremist movements, in particular of the extreme right. (…)
When you see the means that have been deployed to find him, without being successful… What is curious is that the SGRS was participating in the search. So the SGRS and Defense have invested heavily. It reinforces in me this unpleasant feeling…
Weren’t there people within the very structure of the state who had an interest in him never being found? (…) Jürgen Conings was perhaps the instrument of an anti-democratic, anti-Belgium ideology.”
And then it gets worse! Lipszyc stated that some foreign states put pressure on Belgian officials from the same country and on the community of origin, without any response from the Belgian political class.
“A country monitors and threatens a diaspora installed on our territory, but we do nothing,” he said.
Last but not least, the Chairman of the Belgian intelligence services oversight committee revealed that the Chinese services use call girls and the lure of money to influence Belgian politicians.
And by the way… Serge Lipszyc also revealed that his cell phone has been hacked. The culprits are not known.
“Stuff happens in Belgium. From the inside, it is chaos, to the point that a tooled-up anti-lockdown terrorist nicknamed ‘Belgian Rambo’ roaming the woods seems par for the course. In Belgium responsibility is shared between so many layers that ultimately no one is in charge.”
The Economist (July 2021)
REFERENCES
How Belgium Became Europe’s Den of Spies and a Gateway for China — Bloomberg Cyber security
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Brussels, Den of Spies — Intel Committee Chairman : “Politicians Under Chinese Influence”
Intel Today 