December
19, 2006: Intelligence agencies usually face some danger from their competitors
in other countries. But in Eastern Europe, you sometimes have internal threats
as well. Such was the case recently in the Czech Republic, where a former
senior civil servant (Zdenek Dolezel) is accused of trying to blackmail the
leadership of the Czech military intelligence service, into becoming Dolezel's
own intelligence service. Dolezel is also accused of stealing European Union
funds, as well as a bribery case surrounding the privatization of a state owned
energy company. The intelligence agency became aware of the plot, and foiled it
by alerting key members of parliament and their superiors in the Defense
Ministry.
Corruption
was pretty extensive during the Cold War, when most East European nations were
run by communist dictatorships. The new democratic nations of East Europe tried
to eliminate the corruption, but the bad habits were too well established.
Politicians still campaign on promises to "clean out the crooks," but there are
so many corrupt officials out there, the cleansing process is going to take a
while.
