REVIEW TOPICS:
Slovak security service director denies collaboration accusations calling them fabricated
Slovakia's Institute of National Memory has new premises, own building unachieved
Lithuania’s State Security Department denies putting pressure upon political analyst
Security guards of Moldovan President forced TV cameraman to delete video recordings
1.5 kg of heroin withdrawn by Russian FSB agents from illegal circulation in Nizhny Novgorod area
Russia’s FSB: insurgent killed in Makhachkala was schoolboy
Kazakhstan secret service agents searched weekly’s editorial office following publication of security services documents
Slovak security service director denies collaboration accusations calling them fabricated
The National Security Office (NBU) director Frantisek Blanarik said today after a session of the special parliamentary committee that monitors NBU's activities that the report published by daily SME indicating that he had knowingly collaborated with the military secret services of the former Communist Czechoslovakia was false, news agency TASR reports from Bratislava.
"There are fabricated things that correspond neither in terms of time nor administration. The post of 'confidant resident' has never existed," news agency cites Blanarik who
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Frantisek Blanarik |
referred to a published secret-service file. The NBU chief also denies providing any information on his friends, and claims that he wasn't interested in co-operating with the secret services, TASR notes.
Anyone found to have engaged in deliberate co-operation with the Communist secret services is supposed to be prevented from gaining NBU clearance and disqualified from serving in such a post. Blanarik, however, runs an office that provides clearance and deals with delicate security information from Slovakia and NATO every day, stated daily SME.
The Defence Ministry said last week that Blanarik was only a 'confidant', and that he didn't deliberately co-operate with the secret services. LS-HZDS leader Vladimir Meciar, whose party nominated Blanarik to his post, has also backed him, claiming that he has also been screened by NATO, TASR adds.
Blanarik dismissed allegations that he knowingly cooperated with the military counterintelligence service of the previous regime. "I am not, nor have ever been a secret agent," The Slovak Spectator is quoting him as saying after he attended the committee meeting. He considers the information, which allegedly comes from a file kept by the military counterintelligence service in the 1970s, untrustworthy. However, Blanarik admitted that he, as a professional soldier under the previous regime, worked briefly at the intelligence unit of the general staff in 1980, but in his words it was only a few weeks and he worked there only as a janitor after he applied to be moved to another position. That is why he could not have acquired any knowledge about the work of intelligence or counterintelligence services.
Moreover, Prime Minister Robert Fico stated that Blanarik underwent a lie detector test before he got security clearance. "One cannot easily betray a lie detector. I have full confidence in the vetting process," he said.
The NBU's role is to protect classified information from people who are not reliable for security reasons. NBU considers deliberate collaborators of the previous regime to be such people, The Slovak Spectator marks.
Slovakia's Institute of National Memory has new premises, own building unachieved
Slovakia's Institute of National Memory (UPN - Ustav pamati naroda) has new premises, online paper Aktualne.sk reports today. After almost two-year-long negotiations with the Ministry of Justice about a building on the SNP Square it got new premises from the communication department.
Although the employees of the institute have already moved to the new premises, the lease agreement has not been signed as yet. Petransky told Aktualne.sk that he did not consider that there might be any problems to sign the lease agreement draft of which had been sent to the Ministry of Justice and Minstry of Communication
According to the law, the UPN has rights on its own building, however, it has failed to get one at its disposal, Aktualne.sk writes. Petranský complained to the online paper of unwillingness of functionaries to implement the law. Deputy Prime Minister Dusan Caplovic was entrusted a task of finding a self-dependent building for the institute and it was him who suggested new premises to the UPN under the communication department.
The UPN has four times moved to a new place since its creation, online paper marks. At first it was given premises in the building of the Ministry of Justice, then in the building of General
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| Old UPN house's entrance |
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Prosecutor’s Office, in the building of Doprastav in Bratislava and finally on the SNP Square. With the last seat the UPN had problems since January. The Ministry of Justice was telling about alarming situation with the premises of Bratislava district and regional court and referred to the lease agreement which contained a remark on extraordinary circumstances. Late June 2008 the lease agreement was prolonged for further three months, though.
The principle task of the Institute in the present time, from among the multitude of duties, is the disclosure of documents about the persecutions, carried out by the Nazi or communist security agencies, to individual applicants. The duty of Section of Archive is to preserve the archival documents of the former State Security and other security agencies. Of identical importance to the proper functioning of the Institute is the electronic processing of the documents in the Section of IT. This work is also necessary to the publication of the register of the files on the Internet.
Lithuania’s State Security Department denies putting pressure upon political analyst
The Chairman of the Lithuanian parliament, Arunas Valinskas, said he possessed information that the State Security Department (VSD) had not put pressure upon political analyst Kestutis Girnius and hoped for the clearing up of situation, online paper Delfi reports.
Parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee and the Commission of parliamentary control over operative activity will study suspicions of Kestutis Girnius about possible pressure made by the State Security Department. The General Director of the VSD, Povylas Malakauskas, has been invited to the nearest session of the parliamentary committee, news agency BNS reports, referring to the committee’s chairman Arvydas Anusauskas.
The known Lithuanian political analyst, professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Sciences of Vilnius University Kestutis Girnius has been claiming that he received warning from the employees of the State Security Department which the political observer estimates as pressure connected with the criticism stated by him publicly.
Girnius considers that information on possible shadowing of journalists and other persons should be carefully studied and «it is high time to establish in what scale the VSD keeps watch on population of Lithuania, on what bases and to whom this ”operative information” is shown and for what purpose, and under what circumstances the courts give OK to shadowing».
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Kestutis Girnius |
In a commentary in newspaper Lietuvos zinios, Girnius, the former chief of the Lithuanian Service of the US Congress-funded Radio Free Europe, alleges that a few months ago he was called and visited at home by a person who acquainted himself as an employee of the VSD. In some weeks Girnius addressed to a high-ranking VSD official who confirmed that the young man was their employee, and that foreign intelligence was interested in the political analyst.
Girnius also mentioned that several weeks ago together with two dozens of journalists he participated in a meeting organized by Conservatives with the next Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and the next Minister of Defence Rasa Jukniaviciene. «From reliable sources I got to know that the General Director of the VSD, Povylas Malakauskas, that very day came to Kubilius and told him that he knew about the meeting and its content. Malakauskas had hinted that it would be better to not communicate with some journalists who participated in the meeting”.
Security guards of Moldovan President forced TV cameraman to delete video recordings
Agents of the Moldovan presidential protection service have forced the operator of television channel PRO TV Kishinev to delete video recordings showing two officers taking their seats in a vehicle, news agency DEKA-press reports. The incident occurred during a visit of the President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, to the Centre on Struggle Against Corruption.
The press service of the President said the officers did not wish being filmed, however, it admitted that the security guards had reacted inadequately. There are no positions in the Moldovan legislation which would allow employees of the presidential protection service to demand destroying of video recordings, a source of the news agency clarified. Representatives of the presidential staff reminded that similar incidents already occurred earlier and the employees of presidential protection service were asked to react adequately when they happen to get in the eyeshot of television cameramen. It not the first case when members of the protection service of President Vladimir Voronin forced cameramen to delete the made video recordings, DEKA-press marks.
1.5 kg of heroin withdrawn by Russian FSB agents from illegal circulation in Nizhny Novgorod area
Members of the Nizhny Novgorod directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russian Federation carried out in November, 2008 a number of operations on suppression of constant channels of delivery of drugs to the territory of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod area, news agency Regnum reports, referring to the directorate’s press service.
The Investigatory department of the directorate brought a number of criminal cases concerning residents of Nizhny Novgorod and St.-Petersburg who have committed especially grave crimes, connected with preparation for illegal drugs selling in especially large amount.
During preliminary investigation of the criminal cases about 1.5 kg of heroin and more than 350 grams of other synthetic drugs were withdrawn from illegal circulation. Now the persons involved in specified crimes have been taken into custody, Regnum adds.
Russia’s FSB: insurgent killed in Makhachkala was schoolboy
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has established identity of the insurgent killed in Makhachkala, Dagestan, in a fire-exchange with employees of local police, news agency Interfax reports, referring to the group of public relations of the FSB Dagestan directorate. "The killed person was identified as a resident of Kyzyl-Yurt, Rizvan Kurbanov. He was 16 years old and studied in the 11th form. One month ago he left his house, his parents did not address the police, and were searching him themselves", spokesman of the FSB Dagestan directorate is quoted by the news agency as saying.
On November 30 night, a police unit was attacked in Makhachkala. Assailants fired at a police vehicle from automatic weapons. Three policemen and one assailant were killed during the incident, according to Interfax.
Kazakhstan secret service agents searched weekly’s editorial office following publication of security services documents
Security service agents carried out search in the house of the editor-in-chief of Kazakh weekly newspaper Alma-Ata Info, Ramazan Yeserghepov, news agency Interfax reports. The editorial office of the paper is also is located in the house. According to Yeserghepov, employees of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan (KNB) have withdrawn all processors from computers and mobile phones, having paralysed the work of the editorial office. The officers’ papers were not produced to the editor-in-chief of the weekly.
At the same time in the KNB Zhambyl area directorate have declared legality of the search, news agency Interfax notes. On November 21, an article titled Who Runs Our Country: President or KNB? In the same issue of the weekly two documents of the KNB directorate with signature stamps "confidentially" and "for limited use" were published, too.
In these documents it was a question of the criminal case brought on the fact of evasion from the taxation of the Taraz Company. "The article was devoted to illegal activity of the KNB Zhambyl area directorate, it was about their influence on the Office of Public Prosecutor and courts, and conducting of shadowing", online magazine Pressing cites Yeserghepov.
The public prosecutor authorized carrying out of a search within the framework of criminal case about disclosure of information making service secret. "The objective of the search was tracking down and withdrawal of the electronic carriers containing the above-stated classified documents", the KNB Zhambyl area directorate’s investigatory department said. According to Yeserghepov, during the search, the agents were eager to clear out who had given the documents to the weekly’s editorial board.
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