SLOVENE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY IN CRISIS

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 LJUBLJANA 000439

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/15/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINR SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY IN CRISIS

Classified By: COM Thomas B. Robertsons for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (U) Summary. The Slovene Intelligence and Security Agency
(SOVA) has come under close scrutiny recently by a Government
of Slovenia (GOS) task force specially formed to investigate
alleged irregularities in SOVA's performance. What was
intended to be a confidential investigation was leaked to the
press in its early stages and has continued to provide
Slovenia's "investigative" reporters with sensational
material. The investigation has implicated the former Chief
of Intelligence, Iztok Podbregar in wrong doing and has also
insinuated misuse of funds by President Drnovsek.
Additionally, the official investigation and subsequent
reporting has revealed the details of a cooperative program
between SOVA and the German intelligence agency (which had
been quickly terminated by the Germans upon learning of the
investigation). Opposition parties have cried foul claiming
this is all just a witch hunt aimed at discrediting SOVA so
the current government will have sufficient reason to shut it
down and create a new agency more in line with its own
values. The GOS maintains that SOVA has developed rogue
tendencies and must be brought under control. Ultimately, the
entire episode (which continues to unfold) has done serious
damage to Slovenia's reputation as a reliable intelligence
partner in the region. End Summary.

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Investigative Task Force Finds Irregularities
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2. (U) In February of this year the GOS created a
confidential Task Force for the evaluation of the work of

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SOVA, and in March information of its existence leaked to the
public resulting in a demand for more information by the
Parliamentary Intelligence Committee, which is led by an
opposition law maker. In late March, the GOS released the
names of the Task Force members: Minister of Justice Lovro
Sturm, Minister of Education, Milan Zver, Minister of
Environment, Janez Podobnik, Minister of Defense Karl
Erjavec, Vinko Gorenak, State Secretary in the Prime
Ministers office with intelligence responsibilities, Tone
Jerovsek, former Constitutional Court Judge and professor of
law, Milko Mikola, Undersecretary at Ministry of Justice,
Branko Cvelbar, Deputy Director of SOVA, Peter Jesovnik,
Deputy Head of the GOS Office for EU Affairs, and Sleksander
Lavrih, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister.


3. (U) To date, there have been three reports from the Task
Force. The first was released to the public in April 2007.
It cited SOVA for failure to send files from its Yugoslav
predecessor the Office of National Security (SDV) to the
National Archives within a year of the passage of the law
requiring this in 1999. The Task Force further noted that a
paper shredder was located in SOVA's archives, which it
believed to be inappropriate. It has since been removed.


4. (U) The second intermediate report came out in early May.
It concluded that SOVA had improperly received and used funds
from foreign security and intelligence agencies. hese
so-called "black funds" were received contrry to Slovene
legislation which states SOVA may receive funds only from the
GOS budget. In this rport, the Task Force further revealed
that some f these funds were used to purchase an air ticket
for a foreign citizen and for an unknown purpose. TV
reporting later revealed that the ticket was purchased for
the use of an Indian national involved in homeopathic healing
to visit with Slovenia's President, Janez Drnvosek. Drnovsek
suffers from cancer, currently in remission, and has been
very public about his rejection of modern Western medicine.
Despite his quirks, Drnovsek still enjoys wide respect and
loyalty from the Slovene public, and at this point, the media
began reporting on a possible motivation of the GOS for
conducting this investigation being a way to discredit
Drnovsek.


5. (U) The third Task Force report released in late May
revealed the SOVA had illegally established a private
internet company known as WEBS d.o.o. for the purpose of
supporting SOVA surveillance activities. The project had
been established in April 2004 and was supported by outside
funding (non-GOS) through June 2005. The Task Force
determined that the GOS had not been informed about the
activities related to this company. The then Director of
SOVA, Iztok Podbregar is currently a advisor to President
Drnovsek.


6. (U) In late May, PM Jansa held a press conference to

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address the contents of the three reports, saying through
this investigation, the GOS had successfully checked the
illegal activities being carried out by SOVA. He stated that
SOVA did not have the authority to manage extra-budgetary
funds, retain archived material from pre-independence times,
or to surveille Slovene citizens, all of which it had been
doing in the last several years.

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GOS Stung by Public Reactions
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7. (U) President Drnovsek, who initially had not reacted to
the accusations against him, later stated that he had been
unaware that "black-funds" had been used to bring the Indian
healer to Slovenia. He said he relied on his staff, including
Podbregar, SOVA director at the time, to handle this
properly. Perhaps sensing an opportunity to put to rest a
public squabble that could do more damage than good, Jansa
agreed that Drnovsek most likely was unaware of the source of
funding for the travel of his guest.


8. (U) Milan Kucan, Drnovsek's predecessor as President of
Slovenia, uncharacteristically chose to weigh in publicly on
this issue, though he was never implicated in any reports.
Commenting on the fact that the GOS had recently handed its
findings to the State Prosecutor's office to begin legal
proceedings, Kucan accused PM Jansa of wanting to subordinate
the "last independent institution in Slovenia: the
Judiciary." Kucan accused the GOS of taking this public in
order to put pressure on the Judiciary to ensure a certain
outcome - the destruction of SOVA through slander and
unsubstantiated charges or malfeasance. Jansa responding by
assuring the public all the findings were supportable by
facts and evidence. (Comment: Kucan was President of the
League of Communists of Slovenia when Jansa was jailed in the
"80's and some say he could have secured Jansa's release, and
even might have been able to prevent his detention. End
Comment).


9. (U) Annoyed that it had not been made aware in advance of
the establishment of the Task Force, and in a tit-for-tat and
not entirely logical move, the Parliamentarian Commission for
the Control of the Intelligence and Security Agencies led by
opposition parliamentarian Dusan Kumer, concluded in late May
a report on the activities of SOVA since March 1, 2007. This
report concluded the law on Confidentiality of Information
may have been violated when letters revealing the existence
of "black funds" were sent Minister of Finance Andrej Bajuk.
These letters are widely believed to have instigated the
establishment of the Task Force. The Commission also
reproached the GOS for its lack of respect of Parliament's
control of the intelligence agencies.


10. (U) Media and other public reaction to the SOVA affair
have been generally critical of PM Jansa and his government.
The public objected to the handling of President Drnovsek and
the consensus seemed to be critical of the way the
information was revealed to the public. Some criticized the
Task Force for compromising methods and sources. This has
had a net negative effect in the polls for the GOS. In one
poll, popularity has plunged by 14 percent. More recent
media reaction has discussed the damage this had done to
Slovenia's reputation internationally citing the disclosure
of a joint operation with the Germans which was summarily
shut down when the investigations began.

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Former PM Talks to Press
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11. (U) In late June former Prime Minister Anton Rop, who
held the office from 2002-2004, confirmed a press report that
SOVA had overheard Jansa and Croatian PM Sanader discussing
creating disturbances in Piran Bay prior to the 2004
Parliamentary elections in Slovenia. Both Jansa and Sanader
have vehemently denied this, with Jansa threatening Rop with
a defamation of character law suit if Rop does not offer a
public apology.


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Comment
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12. (S/NF) Speculation on Jansa's motives for going after
SOVA usually come back to the perception that he desires to

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control all aspects of the government. SOVA is still staffed
by many holdovers from the SDV which was responsible for
jailing Jansa in the '80s. He has little reason to trust the
agency and appears to be taking revenge. In the process, he
is also clearing out a handful of senior-level, retrograde
holdovers from the Yugoslav era and bringing the work of the
intelligence agency into line with more modern European
practices. However, this has been handled very clumsily, and
in the short run at least, he has paid a heavy political
price in the process. The exposure of specific SOVA
operations and targets will severely undermine the service's
credibility with western Balkans intelligence services.


13. (S/NF) Slovenia serves as the main interlocutor with
other Balkan countries on the EU evaluation committee to
determine the suitability of those countries for NATO and EU
membership; SOVA was to serve as the lead agency to judge and
ensure the professionalism of those countries' intelligence
and security services. The exposure of SOVA activities and
the political infighting has caused significant blowback for
the service among its international partners and for its
ongoing intelligence collection operations. Once viewed as a
premier Eastern European intelligence service, SOVA's
intelligence service partners increasingly consider SOVA
stagnant and ineffective.
ROBERTSON