Terje Rød-Larsen’s fashionable apartment in Drammensveien 42, which Jeffrey Epstein financed and acted as broker for, is the site where classified documents from the Oslo Accords have been found—documents whose existence the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Utenriksdepartementet, UD) had previously denied.
Papers stamped “strictly confidential” and “secret”, from the peace process between Israel and the PLO in the 1990s, have been found by Økokrim in a basement storage unit belonging to Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul at Frogner in Oslo.
This emerges from correspondence between Økokrim and UD to which VG has gained access.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the leadership of Jonas Gahr Støre, stated in 2006 that no documents were missing from their archive, and the matter was thereafter forgotten.
– It appears entirely obvious that Støre has an explanatory problem here, says the chairman of the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs (kontroll- og konstitusjonskomiteen), Per-Willy Amundsen (FrP), according to VG.
Document has previously written about Epstein’s very active role in the purchase of the apartment, and in what appears to be attempts at blackmail against the seller, the shipowner Morits Haugen, afterwards. In 2018 the apartment was transferred at approximately half the market value to the diplomatic couple Juul/Rød-Larsen.
Slik drev Epstein utpressing av skipsreder etter Rød-Larsens eiendomskupp
Middle East researcher Hilde Henriksen Waage and the National Archives (Riksarkivet) warned that the documents were missing from UD’s archives and have attempted to obtain them for more than 20 years.
– Our conclusion is that there are no documents he [Rød-Larsen] has from the Oslo process that are missing from UD’s archives. We consider the matter closed, said a press spokesperson in UD on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2006.
In accordance with the Security Act (sikkerhetsloven), classified documents lose their protection after 30 years, unless otherwise determined. Secret documents from 1995 and earlier may therefore already have been automatically declassified.
Did Epstein have access?
The apartment in Drammensveien in Oslo has, since it was taken over by the diplomatic couple, been a meeting place for central politicians. Ine Eriksen Søreide was allowed to borrow it to celebrate her 40th birthday there. Jens Stoltenberg is said to have stayed there several times together with his wife Ingrid Schulerud, who was Norway’s ambassador to Belgium from 2015 to 2019.
The jurist Marius Reikerås raises the question of whether the Oslo archives or other confidential documents connected to Norwegian foreign policy have in reality been stored in premises to which Jeffrey Epstein had access through his agreements with Rød-Larsen regarding partial financing of the house purchase.
– If the answer is yes, this is no longer merely about an exclusive property in Oslo. Then it concerns possible access to sensitive information at the intersection of international diplomacy, Norwegian authorities, and one of the most compromising networks uncovered in recent times, writes Reikerås on Facebook.
Several boxes
According to VG, several boxes containing documents have been found in the basement storage unit.
The documents contain, among other things, communication between high-ranking persons in the foreign service and politicians concerning the negotiations. There are documents dated both before and after the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Several of the papers have since surfaced elsewhere in the world, including in Israel.
UD replies today, Friday, that the information about the document discovery is new to them.
This despite the fact that Økokrim itself reported the discovery after the search of the apartment.
– From Økokrim’s description it appears highly probable that some of these documents clearly should have been in UD’s archives. This appears to be clear breaches of, among other things, the rules for the handling of classified information and the archive regulations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes the information from Økokrim very seriously, it is stated in a reply to VG.
Explanatory problem
– It is almost unbelievable. That it is possible to handle classified information in that manner is entirely unacceptable. That one may have to be a little creative for a night or two, I can accept, but not for many years, says the second deputy chair of the scrutiny committee, Ove Trellevik (H).
He believes that Støre has an explanatory problem.
– Someone should have missed these documents a long, long time ago.
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