REVIEW TOPICS:
Swedish security officials acknowledges that East German Stasi had spy network in Sweden
Finnish Security Police archives to be reviewed paying attention to contacts with Eastern bloc
Candidates for Romanian Orthodox Patriarch seat, verified for Communist collaborations
In Hungary missing secret document may cause heads to roll
Espionage case of alleged Polish agents transferred to Supreme Court of Belarus
Russian military counterintelligence arrest ring leaders nabbed in $2.7mln service scam
Azerbaijan National Security Ministry returned some newspaper’s property confiscated for investigation
Swedish security officials acknowledges that East German Stasi had spy network in Sweden
Sweden has revealed that the East German secret police Stasi had informants in Sweden during the Cold War and it uncovered a corresponding network during the 1990s, Swedish Radio and BBC are reporting. SÄPO, The Security Service Branch of the Swedish Police, said it found 50 spies who had worked for the Stasi.
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Investigative journalist Björn Cederberg, the author of Kamrat Spion (Comrade Spy), the book about the Stasi espionage network, told Swedish Radio News that SÄPO had a list of around 900 names of people who were either working for Stasi or who the East Germans wanted to use as informants. Swedish intelligence identified the spies between 1993 and 1995 during investigations launched after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. He told the BBC News that after looking through the Stasi files in Berlin, he found the informers' codenames but not their identities. At least one informer on the list had access to top secret information about Sweden's military. "The Stasi were interested in Sweden because it was neutral but had some co-operation with Nato and they wanted to find out its real position," concluded Cederberg And he wants the names to be made public in order to demystify the espionage claims. While SÄPO earlier yesterday had denied the existence of any such list, they now say that it’s only up to 50 people who worked for Stasi, or at least were on Stasi’s wishlist
Anders Thornberg, Head of information at SÄPO says it lies within the authority of SÄPO to decide whether to publish the names or not, but he stresses that the Swedish Intelligence Service has to follow the official secrets legislation. BBC News cites Thornberg who said that SÄPO had questioned all the suspects and brought prosecutions in a number of cases. They were charged with unlawful spying but the cases were thrown out because more than five years had elapsed since the time of the offences. "These cases are all closed. We will not reveal the names," said the SÄPO official. SÄPO divulged the spy list's existence following media requests. The revelation came after the publication in June of a book about Stasi espionage in Sweden, a country that was neutral during the Cold War.
Finnish Security Police archives to be reviewed paying attention to contacts with Eastern bloc
The Finnish Security Police (SUPO) has commissioned political history professor Kimmo Rentola to delve into the recent past of the bureau and the assignment is related to the bureau's 60th anniversary, daily Turun Sanomat reports. Professor Rentola is to begin his research this autumn, paper notes.
However, in view of recent events involving the security police, Rentola will also look into matters regarding Finnish connections material to intelligence services of the former Eastern bloc countries, according to Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE radio.
Rentola, a professor at the University of Turku, who has also previously worked for the country’s security police, refutes that he is any sort of truth commission. However he says material from former East Germany's State Security Service, Stasi will most probably be thoroughly reviewed. Security police files in Finland Finland are kept confidential for 60 years, while research permits can be granted for files over a quarter of a century old, YLE adds. Finish Prime Minister Vanhanen said SUPO, whose task is to deal with significant questions related to national security, has to have the right to hold secret information. He added that one should consider how the Stasi material could be made available to researchers.
Jyrki Katainen and Anne Holmlund, respectively Finnish finance and interior ministers, said that they considered the opening of the Stasi files, held by the SUPO, possible under certain conditions, news agency STT reports. Katainen told the YLE that the material might be made public if such a move had no detrimental impact on SUPO's possibilities to gather intelligence. Holmlund outline similar conditions at commercial broadcaster MTV3's breakfast programme and added that the future head of SUPO should hold the discretionary power in the matter.
Candidates for Romanian Orthodox Patriarch seat, verified for Communist collaborations
The Romanian Civic Forum (FCR) demanded CNSAS - the body researching the archives of Ceausescu's political police, Securitate - to verify whether the candidates for the supreme position in the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR) were informers before 1989 or not, news agency HotNews reports.
Even more, FRC accused CNSAS of participating in the concealing of the priests' files.
"Those who know that they made deals with the Devil must step back and quit. We believe that the media pressure may determine them to withdraw from the race", agency cites the FCR president, Adrian Iurascu. CNSAS has confirmed that 20 high-ranked priests will be searched for in the archives, all 20 being a plausible option for the future Patriarch seat, HotNews says.
In Hungary missing secret document may cause heads to roll
National daily Magyar Hirlap wrote today that a
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Zoltan Bolcsik |
strictly confidential document which disappeared from police files may cost National Bureau of
Investigation (NNI) chief Zoltan Bolcsik and deputy Gyorgy Zsombok their jobs.
The document - which may or may not have been a medical report on the subject of a criminal investigation - disappeared from NNI files sometime between July 24 and 31. Copies of it were faxed to a number of newspapers several days later. Police reported the document missing on to days ago and threatened to prosecute any journalist who made the contents known, which ears to have deterred publication.
National daily Nepszabadsag wrote that the document, while secret, contained no hot news, and was not simply copied and distributed but stolen outright. This suggests, the paper wrote, that the perpetrator's goal was to give police a black eye. If that was indeed the purpose of the theft, it succeeded, for NNI did not realize that the document was missing until a journalist reported having received a copy, Nepszabadsag noted. Police have questioned a number of journalists although they believe the thief came from inside the NNI.
Espionage case of alleged Polish agents transferred to Supreme Court of Belarus
Supposed “espionage case” against five citizens accused in espionage in favour of Poland, which was open by the Belarusian KGB in July this year has been transferred to the Supreme Court of Belarus, online paper Newsru.com reports, referring to the press-service of the Supreme Court in Minsk. It is said that the case was started by the military board of judges.
According to the KGB of Belarus, Polish intelligence service was interested in the military strategic objects of Belarus and Russia in the territory of Belarus; they are likely to be interested in deployment and number of the antimissile systems, S-300 in particular, online paper Khartiya’97 writes. It is reported that the head of the “spies’ network” was the officer of military air-forces of Belarus Vladimir Russkin, Russian officer Yurenya was also a member of the group. It appeared that the main role in revealing the espionage case belonged to the Russian security services.
In January 2007 Vladimir Russkin was detained on the border for the attempt of secret materials trafficking. Other “members of the spies’ network” were also arrested soon after. The detained have been charged with high treason through espionage.
Russian military counterintelligence arrest ring leaders nabbed in $2.7mln service scam
Russian capital city police and military counterintelligence agents have arrested and charged a lecturer at an elite Defense Ministry academy and a senior civilian official on suspicion of trying to scam the state out of $2.7 million in compensation for fictitious services in counterterrorism operations, The Moscow Times reports, referring to sources in security forces.
Police and military counterintelligence arrested the six suspects over the past two weeks after convicted apartment burglar Alexei Shpak submitted forged documents to the Interior Ministry's finance department demanding 71 million rubles in compensation for 71 servicemen who supposedly participated in counterterrorism operations in the North Caucasus, police spokesman Filip Zolotnitsky said in a statement cited by The Moscow Times. Agents, having been tipped off to the scam, arrested Shpak after he signed documents to receive the money, news agency Interfax reported. Police then proceeded to arrest Shpak's five alleged conspirators, including Colonel Shamil Kuchukov, a lecturer in strategy at the elite Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and a senior federal servant whose name is not being released. Investigators charge that the suspects forged decisions from a Rostov-on-Don military court ordering immediate compensation for the servicemen, as well as documents showing they had given Shpak power of attorney, news agency cites Zolotnitsky.
Azerbaijan National Security Ministry returned some newspaper’s property confiscated for investigation
Azerbaijan news agency APA reports that editor Uzeyir Jafarov from the the Gundalik Azerbaican newspaper told the APA that he and chief editor Shahveled Chobanogly were invited to the National Security Ministry in Baku for taking the confiscated paper’s property back. However, he said not all of the property of the editorial office was returned.
“We were only given press cards, visit cards, papers with notes, discs and diskettes under act. When investigator Samir Aliyev was asked when the computers and archive will be returned he said the investigation is about to end, and the computers will be returned soon. The archive will be used during court consideration,” the editor told the APA.
The property of the Gundalik Azerbaican was confiscated at the office of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of Gundalik Azerbaican and Realniy Azerbaijan by officers of the National Security Ministry on May 22, reportedly for investigation, news agency adds.
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