Le Plux, Brussels' NATO information goldmine for spies
Le Plux, Brussels' NATO information goldmine for spies
A bus from Express line 12. © Indigo Publications - 2022
Across the globe, spies gather in inconspicuous dens, where they meet contacts and hold discreet conversations. This week, Intelligence Online explores Brussel's Place de Luxembourg, known as Le Plux, where EU and NATO officials quaff Belgian beer and chat as Russian spies listen in.
Issue dated 01/07/2022 Reading time 2 minutes
Not a week goes by without Paul Avallone, the director of the NATO Office of Security (NOS), in charge of internal security and counterintelligence, being warned about potential information leaks at favourite Brussels gathering spot Le Plux, as the Belgian capital's Place de Luxembourg is known. Our sources say that Avalonne, who has served as security adviser at US embassies in Dar es-Salaam, Tel Aviv, Bishkek and Kinshasa, has never before encountered security weaknesses on the scale of those at Le Plux, where international functionaries meet up informally after work.
Initially, European Union (EU) officials began meeting at the Place, which is close to the European Parliament, on Thursday evenings. Soon NATO civil and military personnel living in the vicinity also started going to the hot spot to relax over a Belgian beer among ambitious young Eurocrats and a certain number of unknowns with Slavic accents. NATO remains a major obsession for Russian intelligence. In October 2021, eight intelligence officers under diplomatic cover, from the GRU, the FSB and the SVR, had their accreditation withdrawn as members of the Russian diplomatic mission to NATO.
Badges on display on the Express 12
Sitting in one of the bars there, or just on the place itself, it is easy to eavesdrop on conversations about key NATO issues between people who are identifiable thanks to the work badges they are still wearing. And yet the Place is half an hour away from NATO headquarters. The Express 12 bus, which takes workers to NATO headquarters each morning and evening, also transports soldiers from all corners of the world to Le Plux to socialise at the end of the day. A lot of them also wear their badges on board the bus.
Some report their concerns about possible information leaks to NOS and the intelligence and security department, headed by David Cattler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) official. But there is little they can do about the goings-on at Le Plux. Belgium's State Security Service (VSSE) is also mobilised on the possibility of intelligence gathering around the EU and NATO headquarters. Fortunately for EU nations' security, sensitive current issues are not often the subject of conversation. Coordination on Ukraine, for instance, is being conducted largely without NATO involvement, with countries engaged in supporting Ukraine in the war avoiding multilateral channels for less formality and greater efficiency.
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