"Bound" to Cooperate The Current Austrian Intelligence Organizations
			Due to the topical limits of this overview it is necessary to concentrate on the present intelligence situation in Austria, thereby largely ignoring the genesis and evolution of the Austrian intelligence services over the course of the last half-century. The proverbial scarcity of information provided by the Austrian Government on its own intelligence units(5) necessitates reliance on published accounts by former intelligence functionaries as well as on the work of investigative journalists and freelance writers on intelligence issues.(6) Scientific treatment of Austrian post-war intelligence is still quite rudimentary.(7) The Staatspolizeilicher Dienst (Stapo), recently reformed as Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung (BVT) To this day the political police in Austria has never been organizationally separated from the existing police structure.(8) However, the Austrian Government (an ÖVP/FPÖ coalition, denoted as cabinet Schüssel I and Schüssel II)(9) has initiated a comprehensive reform of the political security apparatus and has just recently replaced the Stapo with a Federal Agency for State Protection and Counter-Terrorism (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung, shortly BVT), more or less based on the contours of the German civilian service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and the Bundesdienst für Verfassungsschutz (BfV).(10) The new BVT has been in existence since December 1, 2002. Its new features will be described below. Until recently the Stapo has been one of five „groups“ (Gruppe II/C) of the Directorate-General for Public Security in the Ministry of the Interior.(11) There is a security directorate (Sicherheitsdirektion) in each of the the nine Austrian provinces (Länder) with state security offices in the nine state capitals as well as state security sub-offices in several of the larger Austrian cities like Leoben, Steyr or Wiener Neustadt. The Stapo’s main task has always been to protect the constitutional order and institutions (Abteilung Staatsschutz) and to protect foreign diplomatic personell and higher state functionaries as well as official buildings and residences (Abteilung Personen- und Objektschutz). It has special units to counter espionage, organized crime and terroristic activities (Einsatzgruppe zur Bekämpfung des Terrorismus, EBT). Traditionally it also assumes or at least oversees certain administrative functions such as the issuance of passports, the registration of foreigners (Fremdenpolizei) and the regulation of associations and gatherings (Vereinspolizei). In the early 1990s the Stapo numbered close to 800 functionaries with an estimated annual budget of approximately one billion Austrian shillings.(12) Through the introduction of a new police security law, effective since May 1, 1993 (the Sicherheitspolizeigesetz, SPG), the Stapo has been subjected to parliamentary control.(13) In 1999 and 2000 the investigatory and monitoring powers of the Stapo were significantly enlarged (erweiterte Gefahrenerforschung, Lauschangriff) and the Government has installed a security law adviser (Rechtsschutzbeaufragter) and has introduced a new judicial complaint procedure. Nevertheless, privacy jurists have been critical of the ambiguous provisions of the law, fearing a propensity for misuse of the new powers. While during the Cold War years since 1947 the extreme left, particularly the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ), got most of the attention of the Stapo agents, there has also always been a surveillance of the extreme right. By the late 1960s and early 1970s increased attention was given to the student movement, pacifist and anti-nuclear campaigners, and organized environmentalist and animal protectionist groups; occasionally the overzealousness of the Stapo led to scandals about the collection of dossiers on law-abiding, innocent Austrian citizens; this happened in the mid-1960s under the socialist Interior Minister Franz Olah and again in 1990. As already mentioned, the Stapo has now been replaced by the Federal Agency for State Security and Counter-Terrorism. This reform has stream-lined the organizational structure of the political security apparatus and has finally integrated all of its various functions into one federally directed organization in Vienna, the BVT, supported by nine sub-offices in the nine provincial capitals, the Landesämter (LVT). A new emphasis has been laid on international relations and analysis, as crucial areas in devising preventative strategies for a timely recognition of threats to security interests of the Austrian state. Its underlying principles are the speedy transfer of vital information to a single decision-maker or decision-making groups, such as the newly created Austrian National Security Council, and the improved cooperation with the internal elites of industry and commerce. The BVT leadership directly controls the crucial agendas of international cooperation and information management and directs three separate departments: Department 1 (administration and logistics); Department 2 (information gathering, research and analysis) and Department 3 (personnel and object protection). There are five specific sub-areas addressing specific issues or functions: extremism; terrorism; counter-espionage, illegal weapons trade and proliferation; analysis and operative support.(14) It is perhaps too early to judge whether this streamlined organizational structure has significantly heightened the effectiveness of the civilian security apparatus in Austria. As a member of the European Union since January 1, 1995 Austria naturally takes part in several multi-lateral intelligence exchange networks and entertains bi-lateral intelligence relations with many other countries, both inside and outside Europe. In the year 2000, the Stapo had professional exchanges with 64 intelligence or police organizations in 46 countries and held 125 professional meetings, conferences or consultations with such partners, 43 of them in Austria itself and 82 abroad.(15) The Heeresnachrichtenamt (HNaA) The second-largest security service in Austria is the Heeresnachrichtenamt of the Ministry of Defence. It is headquartered at the General Command Barracks in Hütteldorferstrasse 126, A-1140 Vienna, where it occupies the entire third floor. It is reputed to consist of a personnel of between 300 to 450 employees, both military and civilian. Its annual budget is allegedly in the vicinity of 500 million Austrian shillings or slightly less than 40 million Euro.(16) As already mentioned, it was founded in early 1956 as „Gruppe Heeresnachrichtenwesen“ (Nagrp) under the leadership of Kurt Fechner, a kind of „Austrian Gehlen“, who had served as chief of Leitstelle II Süd-Ost, Vienna, under Colonel, later General Erwin von Lahousen, who himself was in 1955 actually rumoured to have been offered again the post of chief of military intelligence which he had held in the First Austrian Army before the Anschluss.(17) Like Reinhard Gehlen, Fechner had at war’s end handed the bulk of the archives of his Leitstelle over to the American military authorities in the Austrian town of Pertisau, thereby managing to ingratiate himself to the leading occupational power in Austria.(18) When the American military establishment in Austria prepared for withdrawal from Austria after May 1955, most of the U.S. military installations and equipment used by USFA were left behind to establish and furnish the new Austrian Army. The new Austrian military intelligence was thus almost totally supplied by American gadgetry. By far the most important installation built up after the Four Allies had evacuated Austria was an extensive listening post right opposite to Bratislava, close to the Austro-Czech border, called „Königswarte“ in Wolfsthal/ Hainburg. This SIGINT site was to be only the first, albeit the largest of several listening posts built up in the immediate post-occupation era. Other such posts were eventually erected e.g. at Neulengbach and Grossharras in Lower Austria, Gols in Burgenland, Pirka in Styria and Stockham near Wels in Upper Austria. Similar installations were opened in the western provinces, e.g. in Fussach, Vorarlberg and in St. Johann in Tirol. The Nagrp was to concentrate mainly on developments in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and particularly in Tito’s Yugoslavia. The first test for Austrian military intelligence already came in the late fall of 1956 when the Hungarian Uprising brought a wave of close to 200,000 political refugees into Eastern Austria.(19) By August 1968 when the next major crisis, namely the crushing of the Prague Spring movement by Soviet and Eastern Bloc troops again tested neighbouring and neutral Austria, the HNaA, by then under the leadership of Brigadier Alexander Buschek, proved up to the challenge. It had even been able to provide the Western Powers with accurate advance information about the military build-up and strategic intentions of the Warsaw Pact Forces prior to August 20, 1968. Similar success was achieved in 1991 when the HNaA was able to forewarn and reassure the authorities in Austria and the West that the Slovenian defence forces were equipped to successfully stand up to the federal forces of the Yugoslav people’s Army. The HNaA remains to this day one of the best-informed intelligence services on military developments in the Balkans.(20) In 1985, under an SPÖ/FPÖ coalition Austrian government, the military counter intelligence branch was separated from the HNaA and turned into a security agency of its own. The present chief of the HNnA, Divisionär Alfred Schätz, has been in office since 1990; his military intelligence career until then had been centered mainly on the research and analysis section with responsibilities particularly for South-Eastern Europe.(21) The Abwehramt (AbwA) The military security office AbwA is by far the smallest of the three Austrian intelligence services. It is located at Hetzgasse 2, A-1030 Vienna and is alleged to employ no more than a staff of 60 to 100.(22) It is currently directed by Mag. Erich Deutsch, at present a civilian professional. Its main focus is the security of the Austrian armed forces. It appears that the AbwA works in close cooperation with the Stapo/BVT, particularly in the area of counter-intelligence in respect to surveilling and controlling the activities of foreign intelligence services on Austrian soil. Very little else is known about this military counter-intelligence unit.		SURVEY CONTENT A LITTLE HISTORY ... THE CURRENT AUSTRIAN INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS INTELLIGENCE COOPERATION OR DEPENDENCE?