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From: Thomas Shaddack <tsc..._at_shaddack.mauriceward.com>
To: tscm-l2006_at_googlegroups.com
Subject: Recording device shakes a government
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http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/12/czech_republic
Summary of the affair: a Czech environment minister's advisor attempted to
manipulate public tenders in order to channel money into said minister's
political career. One of the officials was honest; went to the Minister of
Interior, a former investigative journalist, and asked for advice. The
minister advised against going to the police without a concrete proof, as
then the issue would be dismissed as claim-vs-claim. The official asked
for advice about recording devices, got referred to another journalist who
possesses such technology.
The official took a recording device to a meeting, and got a record of
incriminating statements. Then a newspaper got hold of the record.
It seems that even the Prime Minister may be implicated; the police
director met him some time into the affair to discuss something, and the
suspicion is that there is a flow of information from the police to the
top politics (probably also the reason why the official got the advice
about not going the police route first, an advice for which the Minister
of Interior gets a lot of flak from the ODS party, the party to which both
the Prime Minister and the Minister (well, now ex-Minister) of Environment
belong. The President, from the same party, is dismissing the affair and
standing behind the PM and the MoE. The Minister of Interior is a member
of another party, VV, currently in a coalition with the ODS.
To add a Monty-Pythonesque touch to the issue, the government built its
election campaign around the promise of fighting corruption. Oops.
This leads me to a thought about business culture vs security.
In Finland, when business and politics were virtually 100% male-dominated,
it used to be a tradition to do at least some meetings in a sauna. (Could
local Finns comment on details, please? I have this from a hearsay.) Such
environment could be highly beneficial, security-wise; the high
temperature and high humidity is not friendly to fine electronics, and the
clothing options are hindering the ability to hide recording devices on
one's own body. The sauna itself can be built in a way that makes the
installation easy to bug-sweep and physically inspect.
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:17 CST