Kert: Simm may have been spying for decades

Dec 18, 2008
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

TALLINN – The former commander of the Estonian defense forces, Johannes Kert, has said that he believes Herman Simm may have been acting as a spy since the early 90s, the Estonian-language daily Eesti Paevaleht reported.

Simm is a former senior Defense Ministry official who is now under investigation for treason in what has become the largest espionage case to hit the Baltics since the countries regained independence.

According to Kert, he got an inkling of Simm's involvement in shady dealings in connection with a special course for the defense forces senior command in Finlandfrom March 1998 till May 1999. Simm was at that time head of the Defense Ministry's secret information protection service.

Kert said the start of the course was delayed by a few weeks without advance notice, which is most unusual in the Finnish military.

"Towards the end of the course I got an explanation for this. Namely, a rumor had been leaked to Finland that I as the then commander of the Estonian defense forces could not be trusted because the Americans had decided not to admit me to a previously agreed-upon training in the United States," Kert told the paper.

What actually happened was that the U.S.training was postponed by then President Lennart Meri as the supreme commander of the defense forces, Kert explained. It took the Finnish special services some time to verify the information and once the circumstances were clear the course could go ahead.

"It turned out that the information discrediting the commander of the Estonian defense forces was spread in Finlandby Herman Simm," he added.

WIDER IMPLICATION

Norway’s national security body, meanwhile, has launched an investigation to discover the extent of damage caused by the former high-ranking Estonian defense official now under investigation for suspected treason, the Norwegian daily Aftenposten reported.

Herman Simm for years had access to highly classified Norwegian documents and he was also very well informed about Norwegian and NATO computer protection systems and knew the codes used in exchanges between the NATO headquarters in Brussels and Oslo, the paper says.

Simm, former head of the EstonianDefense Ministry's secret information unit, also had access to secret data Norway sent to the NATO headquarters such as information about troops in Afghanistan and ships performing NATO duties.

NSM chief Geir A. Samuelsen said the suspected treachery may have given a blow to both the security of cooperation within the alliance and to Norwaythat has engaged in particularly close cooperation with Estonian security agencies.

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