Norway’s intelligence chief resigns over Pakistan

Janne Kristiansen, head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), on July 25

The head of Norway’s intelligence service (PST) has resigned over remarks she made about the country’s activities in Pakistan, the justice ministry announced yesterday.
Janne Kristiansen had already been criticised for her defence of the service’s failure to anticipate the July attacks in which 77 people were killed.
She had informed the justice ministry that she would be resigning, said the statement, adding: “The reason is a possible breach of her duty to maintain confidentiality by revealing classified information.”
The ministry was referring to Kristiansen’s appearance on Wednesday before a parliamentary committee during which she revealed that Norway’s military intelligence had agents in Pakistan.
“They would have to answer themselves [but] they are represented in countries that you have in mind,” she said in answer to a question from a deputy on Norway’s intelligence presence in Pakistan.
Her comments come as Western powers, led by the United States, have expressed suspicions about the Pakistani services clandestinely supporting the Taliban.
On Tuesday, Kristiansen released her agency’s annual threat assessment report, which said radical Islamists posed the biggest danger to Norway even though it was a Norwegian right-wing extremist who carried out last July’s massacre.