Czechoslovak Interior Ministry Note on Actions of Agent Minarik against Radio Free Europe

1^st Administrative Division of the Federal Ministry of the Interior – department 31

Prague, September 30, 1975

Strictly confidential!

Approved by the Minister of the Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, Jaromir Obzina [with a handwritten note: approved provided Minarik during his activities in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic will become member of the SNB]

Preliminary draft on activities against Radio Free Europe, Émigré Council and some representatives of the Czechoslovak exiles.

4 pages

no enclosures

In September 1968 our agent PLEY [Minarik] was sent to the German Federal Republic to permanently infiltrate RFE headquarters in Munich.

The operation was successful and PLEY has been working in the radio station since November 1968. During his stay at RFE he has familiarized himself with the RFE agenda, the policies and the atmosphere, established close contacts with almost all 1968 emigrants who work for RFE, including the prominent Czechoslovak exiles at the Czech broadcasting department. Based on his cooperation with the Czechoslovak intelligence service, he turned over to the Ministry many [RFE] documents, including the analyses of the station’s work, regulations and directives issued by the us management, photocopies of correspondence from some RFE employees, etc.

During his stay abroad he met prominent Czechoslovak exiles living in Western Europe, such as Pelikan, Tigrid, Filip, Pachman, Muller, Pfaf, Utitz, Rehak, and others. Following our instructions he took an active part in the activities of different exile organization, including the advisory Council, and has gained an insight into the life and the activities of the Czechoslovak exiles in the German Federal Republic. He took part in almost every important meeting of the top Czechoslovak exiles. PLEY has become a well-known figure both in RFE and in the Czechoslovak exile community in the Federal Republic of Germany and beyond its borders.

Due to the current cuts and layoffs in RFE, our agent PLEY could lose his job which would result in considerable limitation of his intelligence services. In addition to that, PLEY has many times expressed his desire to return to the Czechoslovak republic, get married and have children.

The current situation seems favorable for putting agent PLEY to use in preparing effective actions aimed at both Radio Free Europe in Munich and counter the activities of the top Czechoslovak exiles.

In connection with the upcoming 15^th Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia we can expect increased activity on the part of ideological subversion centers, emigrant organizations and Radio Free Europe. During this period we suggest undertaking measures using our co-worker PLEY to compromise the above mentioned organizations and individual prominent exiles.

Based on our experience and the favorable response to our action called “Talks From the Other Side,” we are convinced that using agent PLEY will be very effective, because PLEY is relatively young, intelligent and generally capable. We can safely make use of him in the media, press conferences, etc., contrary to the problematic comrade Hracka.

If the action is safely completed, we plan to bring agent PLEY back to Czechoslovakia in the end of 1975 and present him to the public as an officer of the Czechoslovak intelligence service who worked in Radio Free Europe to uncover and make public the station’s longtime adversary activities against the socialist countries, and unmask the moral profile of individual RFE employees; to show the role of RFE in organizing adversary activities among Czechoslovak exiles as instruments of ideological subversion centers and special services, while at the same time uncovering the relationships among the top Czechoslovak émigrés officials, their conflicts, the tributary relation to their “providers,” etc., all that in the light of the conclusions of the Conference on security and Cooperation (CSCE) in Europe in Helsinki.

[PLEY’s] withdrawal and his subsequent public appearance will also become part of the political campaign preceding the Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, although we expect that this action will last for a long time.

We plan an informational meeting with PLEY in the second part of October 1975 in Czechoslovakia. It is absolutely necessary to settle the matter of his possible withdrawal before that time, so that he can be given the directives needed for his final activities.

If this draft is approved, we will present our proposal for withdrawal of agent PLEY, as well as the scope and subject matter of the series of actions.

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Head of the 31^st Department of the 1^st Administrative Division of the Ministry of the Interior, Lieutenant Colonel Jan Pozorny

Recommended by:

Deputy of the Head of the 1^st Division of the Ministry of the Interior, Lieutenant Colonel Jaromir Frybort

Head of the 1^st Division of the Ministry of the Interior, Major General Milos Hladik