This is a, as faithful as possible, translation of Sweden's minister for internal affairs Anders Ygeman's speech to the Swedish secret service. The translation is both quickly written and very unaltered, so certain sentences might not make perfect sense. The content in it's entirety should make as much sense as the original. With that, here's the word of Sweden's new government about terrorism and stuff
Speech to Säkerhetspolisen
(Note, Säkerhetspolisen is the secret service of Sweden)
The spoken word goes.
100 years as part of the police, 23 days as a public authority of it's own. During the last week I have met with Anders Thornberg five times. Had I known that I'm not sure I'd let säkerhetspolisen become a public authority.
Talking about Anders, no one may say that I have anything against the name Anders, but during the day, I have gotten the question why the competence is so concentrated to the name that there are more Anders than women in the SÄPO [Säkerhetspolisen] board. So let us hope there is no need to wait 100 years more for SÄPOs board to become representative for their employees.
Säkerhetspolisen protects the democracy, protects us as individuals and as a society. Säkerhetspolisen is the outmost warranty for a free and democratic society. That can be worth remembering when the debate about a surveillance society, mass surveillance and integrity is at it's highest.
But it can also be worth remembering it when the debate about which precausions we shall take against terrorism is at it's highest.
Every precausion we take, we take to protect the open, free and democratic society. If the methods and precausions we would use against terrorism would inhibit democracy, would inhibit freedom, would inhibit openness, then we have let the terrorists win a small victory. And instead of making the society stronger we would've made it weaker.
If a secret service is to work in a democratic society it must have the support of the people. The open democratic society is in itself one of the pillarstones to fight terrorism.
Two weeks ago I walked with millions of others from the Place de la Republique in Paris. We walked for freedom of speech, against terrorism, it was a fantastic experience.
But at the same time that millions of people express their disgust against terror, dark forces on both sides tries to make the fight against terrorism to a war of religions. To a war between civilizations.
They borrow, Samuel P. Huntington's word, "Clash of the civilizations", the clash of the civilizations. But this is not a clash between civilizations. This is a fight for civilization.
How can we mix violent extremists and terrorists with the world-religion that gathers a fifth of the population of the earth?
Maybe because the journalists when they are to interview a muslim rather walks to a mosque than to a cafe? Maybe because we will never see the positive contributions and that muslims isn't allowed to be muslims in positive contexts. No matter if it's Zinedine Zidane who wins the world championships in soccer to France or Malala Yousafzai who scores Nobel's Peace Prize.
In Sweden the freedom of religion is constitutional since very long. We are to protect all citizens, no matter if they're jews, muslims, atheists or christians. Nothing is less swedish than to look down at another human because of their religion or the color of their skin.
We must be able to think the thought that attacks can affect us in Sweden as well. I know you do, you know it happened on the Bryggargatan in Stockholm, you know it happened on Utøya in Norway and you know that YOU managed to protect the Jyllandsposten in Copenhagen from a potential attack.
I am proud of the work you do to prevent as well internal extremism as terrorism. The growing number of foreign combatants have forces tough priorities. I know that Säpo's every department have had to free resourses for the purpose of battling terrorism, at the same time the [underrättelsehotet] is noticable. (...gathering of information threat? espionage threat? A bit unclear what he's talking about.)
But the development isn't only putting pressure on Säkerhetspolisen, it puts pressure on the politics. And because I know that there are no journalists here, and because I know you're not snitches, I will take the opportunity to tell you something new.
In short the government will take a decision to begin the work to a new strategy against terrorism. The reason is of course that society changes, the threat changes and the terrorist's methods have developed.
We will prioritize preventive measures:
To support civil society and religious groups. Examples of important work is the defector operation and support line. To develop coordination between municipalities, public authorities and organizations.
Vi will take the growing threat from foreign combatants seriosly:
The administration wants to criminalize preparation, organization, training and financing of foreign combatants. Border controls at Schengen's outer border will be stricter. It is embarrassing that the inspection is better in taxi cars than border controls.
The possibility to collect and systematically analyze ticket information will be strengthened. It is about looking over the tools that the police and Säkerhetspolisen have to their disposal are purposeful and can suggest improvements as necessary.
You are the first to hear this, and I hope it will give us the right opportunities to face the terrorism threat. You are socitiy's foremost instrument to protect democracy and our human freedom and rights.
A new era begins, now you shall continue your succesful work as an independent public authority. I am convinced that it will give the best prerequisites to develop your work for Sweden's safety and security. Again, thank you for your efforts.