Dutch to investigate foreign romantic partners of military personnel

The Netherlands' military intelligence agency MIVD is launching investigations into Defense personnel's foreign romantic partners to determine whether they pose a security risk, The Telegraaf reports.

The investigations will be conducted on partners in countries with which the the Netherlands has no official intelligence relationship. In practice this includes a large part of the world.

Until last year the rule was that military personnel had to get a Statement Of No Objection for a relationship with someone abroad. Though in most cases such a Statement was withdrawn or refused outright. This usually meant the end of a military career, because most functions involve confidential information.

This method was severely criticized by the courts. They found it took too little account of individual cases. The MIVD therefore decided to investigate each foreign romantic partner individually.