Former Arctic Politicians Riddle the Epstein Files

With almost 1,500 participants, 150 of them journalists from across the world, this year's edition of the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, Northern Norway, was meant to share knowledge on defense, business, and people in the North.

For example, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, in his speech, spoke more or less directly to both the EU and the US. He spoke of a NATO strong enough to withstand external threats, about the necessity of preparedness in the population and economic security.

The ghosts

The ghosts of the past wanted it, albeit not voluntarily, differently. 

It must feel deeply unfair for PM Jonas Gahr Støre and MFA Espen Barth Eide.

After years in denial, they were nearly stripped bare by the Ministry of Justice:

Thorbjørn Jagland, Børge Brende, and Terje Rød-Larsen.

An ingenious system of once-secret files, retrieved from the depths of Epstein's misdeeds and manipulation, trickled bit by bit into the news. A continuous stream of updates on policy and diplomacy in perfect harmony with an abuser's preposterous ability to maneuver into the Norwegian public. 

Without the public knowing.

For me, it led to a re-encounter with my own life as a journalist in Dagbladet's political department or as the editor of Svalbardposten.

A driving force

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the beginning of the 2000s, Thorbjørn Jagland was a driving force behind the so-called 'Barents cooperation,' in which trade and cooperation with Russia were central. Later, he became president of the Norwegian parliament at the same time as the Stoltenberg Cabinet, with Jonas Gahr Støre as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, presented its High North strategy. Jagland's speeches centered on what would become a political mantra: the High North as Norway's most important strategic focus area.

Børge Brende, now the CEO of the World Economic Forum, played a key role in the Conservative Party's High North policy while serving as foreign minister. He was a regular guest at precisely the Arctic Frontiers conference from 2013 to 2017. In 2014, he presented the report Nordkloden ('The North Globe') as foreign minister together with then-PM Erna Solberg. This took place in Hammerfest, Northern Norway.

I was present and listened to yet another session in which we in the North played the leading role in national and international development and value creation.

Arne O. Holm believes:

A creeping feeling of being reduced to pawns in a game between the great powers

I was also present when Børge Brende, as climate minister, launched one of the most important measures in modern Norwegian Svalbard policy, the Environment Act. The act provided Norway with strengthened governance instruments over the Arctic archipelago.

Fishy business

The prime minister at the time was Kjell Magne Bondevik. Later, Epstein attempted to draw him into his web as well, but he commendably declined.

Terje Rød-Larsen, who served as the planning minister in Thorbjørn Jagland's government, had a somewhat different approach to the High North and the Northern Norwegian business sector. With dubious methods, he was to build up a fisheries company in Finnmark, Northern Norway. It ended abruptly and brutally. Revelations, including in my own newspaper Dagbladet, led to his resignation as minister after just under a month in office. The National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime gave him a farewell gift in the shape of a NOK 50,000 fine.

I remember the press conference on November 29th, 1996, when he announced his resignation. He was seething with bitterness toward the press. He did not deserve this at all, he believed, before he continued on his path toward diplomacy, eventually ending up in Jeffrey Epstein's lap.

The Epstein revelations also include innocent victims with connections to the North. Recently, Princess Ingrid Alexandra completed a charming tour to Finnmark. Through this, the royal family could cast some much-needed luster over both soldiers and the Sami population. The experience was quickly overshadowed by a stream of messages and meetings between her mother, Crown Princess Mette Marit, and Epstein.

Brighter sky

There is rarely room for news from and about the High North in the national and international media. The Arctic Frontiers conference, with its display of journalists, holds all the prerequisites to wedge into the more 'urban' news landscape.

Norwegian journalists in Tromsø this week fought a hard and unfair battle for column space with Epstein and the royal family. After scouring foreign media, the impression remains the same. 

For our former 'heroes' awaits scrutiny, investigation and perhaps prosecution.

It seems, after all, the sky is brighter for us who live and reside in the North.