ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with three different ways of obtaining intelligence from behind the iron curtain by agents crossing the border, by aerial photography and monitoring in the border areas, and by agents on board merchant vessels. Aerial photography from along the Norwegian-Soviet border was in a way a parallel to the Humint missions across the border. As far as can be ascertained from the available sources, 1954 saw the end of Humint missions across the border from Finland and Norway as organised by the NIS. As many Norwegian merchant vessels traded between foreign ports, the NIS had from the early 1950s briefing officers stationed also in certain important foreign ports, such as in London, in Kiel, and in Singapore with a view to shipping traffic to China. The transport of goods by Western merchant vessels to and from the communist bloc was a different matter. Norway, with the world's fourth largest merchant navy, was very active in this trade.
