Bulgaria to open archive on its Communist spy network The Associated Press Wednesday, December 6, 2006
SOFIA Lawmakers on Wednesday adopted a much-delayed law to open the archives of Bulgaria's former Communist secret service, but also voted to keep a small portion of the files secret for "national security reasons." The new law, adopted more than 17 years after the collapse of the Communist regime, requires the publication of all files identifying public figures - politicians, senior public officials, magistrates, clergymen and journalists - as former Communist secret agents. But analysts and opposition parties said that last minute changes had reduced its scope to shine light on one of the Cold War's most notorious spy networks and discern to what extent KGB- trained officers and their informants still hold influence. Researchers believe that the secret files could shed light on the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II and the murder in London of the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, who was working for the BBC's Bulgarian Service. The legislation includes no sanctions for the former agents, such as stripping them of public office, but only makes their past public. In a controversial amendment of the initial draft, however, lawmakers banned the publication of documents "that might harm Bulgaria's interests in international relations or lead to serious danger for anyone's life." The amendment - meant to protect people who are still on active intelligence duty, for example - was made "under pressure," legislators conceded. It passed 114-44 with one abstention. "This serious pressure" came "precisely from the intelligence services, particularly the National Intelligence Service," said a lawmaker, Nikolai Svinarov, of the governing coalition. He insisted, however, that the exception concerned "just several dozens of people" and was necessary to protect national security. Bulgaria's National Intelligence Service is the successor to the former Communist intelligence agency and is now in control of the archive. The amendment triggered protests by civil groups in front of Parliament. "This leaves a closed enclave within the archives, which contains the information about the real background of our present-day political establishment," said Georgi Lozanov, head of the Clean Voices civil initiative that was pushing for complete declassification of the Communist archives. The rest of the archives of the once powerful State Security, as well as of the former military intelligence service, will be declassified and accessible upon request. The law must now be signed by President Georgi Parvanov and published before it comes into force. A nine-member panel will need to be appointed and charged with declassifying the still- secret files. The former Communist State Security, disbanded after the 1989 collapse of the Communist regime, included intelligence and counterintelligence offices, as well as political police. Bulgaria is one of the last former Communist nations to tackle the historical records of its past. Other countries with former Communist regimes, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, already have taken measures to open Communist-era secret files. $@ +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
