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There are spies everywhere,
it seems. Two members of the cabinet - Ministers Gross
and Tvrdík, naturally
- claim the BIS, the domestic intelligence service, has
been spying on them. Gross offered little evidence of it
other than some strange men hanging around a political
meeting he attended last year. But his allegations drew
attention to his wife, who has set up a rather cozy life
for their family as an Amway dealer. If somebody is snooping
around the Ministry of the Interior, suggests one newspaper,
it might have something to do with all that soap and shampoo
she's been selling lately. The case of Tvrdík also happens
to involve a family matter. BIS agents were supposedly
acting on tips provided to them by recently departed members
of Tvrdík's own military intelligence. Apparently they
wanted to get back at him for the goods he had on them,
which the Minister of Defense got from his brother, another
recently departed member of the same intelligence outfit.
No similar exit was in store for four members of the Czech
chemical warfare unit stationed in Kuwait. Their names
recently turned up on a list of former spies for the Communist
era military. Tvrdík says he isn't happy about them still
being in uniform but, as usual, he's leaving it up to others
to decide their fate. He has enough problems just trying
to set up a field hospital in Kuwait. The government offered
the hospital as a means of humanitarian support during
the war in Iraq, but for President Klaus that was going
too far. He was afraid any move without UN permission would
put the Czech Republic behind the U.S. in the war. Since
taking office Klaus has made it clear that he plans to
keep his country squarely in the middle of things. This
led him to ask U.S. ambassador Craig Stapleton to take
the Czech Republic off the list of Washington's Coalition
of the Willing. Stapleton eventually stormed out of their
meeting, reportedly after Klaus hinted that if any weapons
of mass destruction are found in Iraq, they were probably
planted there. But just like that, the war was over and
both men started playing down their differences. It was
too late for Czech travelers, however, as the U.S. immediately
slapped tougher visa restrictions on them. It could be
too late for Klaus as well. Despite his conciliatory tone,
there's still no word he will get to meet Bush during his
visit to America this summer. At least he won't have to
run the gauntlet of the U.S. embassy in Prague, or his
own Ministry of the Interior. An Iraqi woman attempted
to enter the Czech Republic to seek treatment for her ill
son, but was turned away by immigration officials, despite
having a valid visa. Things have changed now because of
the war, declared the officials as they sent her packing.
Normally the media-conscious Gross would have jumped to
the woman's rescue and reversed the decision, but it seems
those spies are getting to him. He defended the actions
of his police and even suggested the woman carefully read
the immigration law before filling out her next visa application.
Presumably she did, because within days she was granted
another one and this time it worked. As Gross continues
to stumble, Klaus is gaining on him in popularity. The
president declared it his intention to rule as the governed
would rule and that he has done. Most of his people were
against the war, so he was too. Most Czechs don't want
him to issue a presidential amnesty, so he won't. He went
to Athens to sign the accession treaty to the European
Union, which a majority of Czechs support, even squeezing
out his EU ambassador for the honors. But the ink was barely
dry when Klaus showed that his Euro-skepticism still wasn't
behind him. To be a member of the European Union, he said,
could be a dream for some, a nightmare for others. His
remark caused Foreign Minister Svoboda to declare that
Klaus couldn't pass a bar exam thinking the way he does
about Europe. Klaus shot back that Svoboda would be lucky
to make it out of kindergarten these days. And they weren't
the only ones carrying on a childish charade. The entire
Broadcasting Council was dismissed by Parliament as a result
of the arbitration debacle with TV Nova. Some members of
the Council, however, refused to accept the order and announced
they were staying put. This is my chair and you can't take
it away from me! But in the end it was a losing cause.
Somebody has to pay, even if not always. A judge suddenly
declared the ailing Union Bank bankrupt and left the government
facing 16-more-000,000,000,000 crowns in deposits to cover.
The government retaliated by throwing the judge in jail
and swore it would go after the bank's officials next,
who have been involved in everything from extortion to
kidnapping lately. But just when it looks like they're
finally reining these guys in, one of the former "captains
of industry" is acquitted of plundering the company
he ran back in the days when Klaus was premier. The court
decided that somebody has to foot the $10,000,000 he took
from his company but it ain't gonna be him.
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