Netherlands: Wilders followed by AIVD

I believe a political scandal is brewing. I do wonder what the AIVD thought the Israeli embassy was telling Wilders to do. Since this article says they did not place taps in the Israeli embassy, I also wonder if and where they did place them.

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According to newspaper De Telegraaf, Geert Wilders was shadowed for years by the Dutch security service, the AIVD.

The AIVD followed Wilders while he was visiting th Israeli embassy in the Hague. The security service registered his trips there and recorded how long they took.

The AIVD suspected that Wilders was getting instructions about his work in the Dutch parliament from Israeli diplomats. "It greatly frustrated them that they couldn't find out what was said within the embassy building. They really wanted for this reason, to put in tapping equipment, but that was impossible in the Israeli embassy," according to a source of The Telegraaf.

Wilders is furious and demands that prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, after spring recess, would come to the parliament to explain the issue. "Is it a great scandal that the secret service follows a politician during his normal activity and watches him," says Wilders.

"I want to know which ministers were aware of this, because in that case they have a big political problem," according to Wilders, who said that the visits had to do with his work for the VVD party. The Israeli embassy said that the contacts with Wilders related to "the legitimate work of a diplomatic representation". The AIVD refused to comment.

Source: Elsevier (Dutch)

Update

The AIVD denies the accusations, saying they never shadowed or tapped Wilders. Like every politician, Wilders underwent an assessment of how much he was under threat, but that was done using only public sources.

Source: Elsevier (Dutch)

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