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CENTRUM FÖR RÄTTVISA v. SWEDEN JUDGMENT
shall include information about 1) the issuing authority, 2) the part of the
Government’s annual tasking directive it concerns, 3) the phenomenon or
situation intended to be covered, and 4) the need for intelligence on that
phenomenon or situation (section 2a).
B. Scope of application of signals intelligence
12. The purposes for which electronic signals may be collected as part of
foreign intelligence are specified in the Signals Intelligence Act which
provides that signals intelligence may be conducted only to survey
1) external military threats to the country, 2) conditions for Swedish
participation in international peacekeeping or humanitarian missions or
threats to the safety of Swedish interests in the performance of such
operations, 3) strategic circumstances concerning international terrorism or
other serious cross-border crimes that may threaten essential national
interests, 4) the development and proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, military equipment and other similar specified products,
5) serious external threats to society’s infrastructure, 6) foreign conflicts
with consequences for international security, 7) foreign intelligence
operations against Swedish interests, and 8) the actions or intentions of a
foreign power that are of substantial importance for Swedish foreign,
security or defence policy (section 1(2)).
13. These eight purposes are further elaborated upon in the preparatory
works to the legislation (prop. 2008/09:201, pp. 108-109):
“The purposes for which permits to conduct signals intelligence may be granted are
listed in eight points. The first point concerns external military threats to the country.
Military threats include not only imminent threats, such as threats of invasion, but also
phenomena that may in the long term develop into security threats. Consequently, the
wording covers the surveying of military capabilities and capacities in our vicinity.
The second point comprises both surveying necessary to provide an adequate basis
for a decision whether to participate in international peacekeeping or humanitarian
missions and surveying performed during ongoing missions concerning threats to
Swedish personnel or other Swedish interests.
The third point refers to strategic surveying of international terrorism or other
serious cross-border crime, such as drug or human trafficking of such severity that it
may threaten significant national interests. The task of signals intelligence in relation
to such activities is to survey them from a foreign and security policy perspective; the
intelligence needed to combat the criminal activity operatively is primarily the
responsibility of the police.
The fourth point addresses the need to use signals intelligence to follow, among
other things, activities relevant to Sweden’s commitments in regard to nonproliferation and export control, even in cases where the activity does not constitute a
crime or contravenes international conventions.
The fifth point includes, among other things, serious IT-related threats emanating
from abroad. That the threats should be of a serious nature means that they, for