Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik says his ministry is investigating whether someone is attempting in connection with the case of former Foreign Ministry secretary Karel Srba, who is awaiting trial on charges of corruption and plotting the murder of a journalist, to sabotage the work of military intelligence in preparing for the NATO Summit and the possible US attack on Iraq. Srba worked for 17 years for military intelligence, which last year failed to carry out Tvrdik’s order to cease cooperation with Srba as an unreliable individual, and Srba was able to access top-secret information about intelligence operatives. The investigation indicates that this was deliberate rather than an oversight, Tvrdik says.

(PBJ 06.ix.02)