Office for Foreign Relations and Information 

Would you as a representative of a secret service welcome an act similar to the US Patriot Act?

It should be pointed out that the Czech Republic does not have any special anti-terrorism act.

This is the reason why I am asking if you welcomed it.

Certainly. This country needs such an act. We are not immune to a terrorist threat. At the moment when we are not able to adequately counter such a threat, mainly to take preventive measures in order to prevent potential attacks and its disastrous consequences, it is clear that we need such an act. We need to have means for preventing these attacks.

Do you mean to say that the current legislation does not allow it?

It does, but the existing possibilities and means are more complicated and they are not so effective. There is a lack of cooperation. It is much more complicated than if there was a tool which would somehow united the current means.

Would you use President Bush's words "We are in a war" for the situation?

These are President Bush's words. I would put it this way - we are in a situation when terrorist threat cannot be underestimated, no matter whether you live in the United States or in the Czech Republic. I am afraid that in the Czech Republic the awareness about the threat is lower than in the United States.

Is not there a danger that terrorism will win simply due to the fact that democratic states will voluntarily abandon part of their civil liberties?

I don't think that democratic states would be willing to surrender democratic freedoms. There is another danger. Protection of democratic freedoms is extremely important and cannot be abandoned. However, it sometimes prevents democratic states from finding new measures that would help them to eliminate potential threats. It will work only if they manage to establish effective control mechanisms in order to prevent abuse of power.

When we look at the government plan, it has still been a plan, which was mentioned by my colleague, it is for instance secret services' easy access to personal data, information about telephone communications, etc. What is the current guarantee that security services will not abuse this information?

As to the control of intelligence services, the Czech Republic has already have certain mechanisms that force intelligence services to cooperate with legislative power…

Yes, but it is often pointed out that the control is not sufficiently effective. And even the members of parliament complaint about that.

The control could be more effective if the members of parliament were able to adopt adequate legislation and tighten the control. The intelligence services have consistently called for control mechanisms, but they themselves cannot write the laws. Thus it goes hand in hand: We want more powers, but we also want tighter control.

Do you mean to say that you would like to have greater control over yourselves?

Undoubtedly.

How has the work of secret service changed recently? Are they able to for instance react flexibly? There is a lot of information, mobile phones, e-mails etc?

We try to react as flexibly as possible. The flexibility can be seen especially in cooperation with foreign partners. The exchange of information is very intensive. I can say that our services were able to contribute to the investigation of London attacks by concrete intelligence.

How, for instance, does the American CIA, when it participates in the search for terrorists, share its information with the secret services of the allied countries, specifically with your service?

The cooperation is always related to a concrete case. The more concrete the case, the more concrete the cooperation. As to the exchange of more general information, it is not that intensive. The cooperation differs from one case to another.

Is it not the case that the CIA does not trust foreign secret services in some cases?

I don't think so. Certain, let's say, caution is in order. It is a fairly standard attitude towards the exchange information among intelligence services. It exists in all services all over the world.

The obvious question in this context is: has some new intelligence on, let's say, more up-to-date threat of a terrorist attack been found?

It is not possible to say that we are endangered by something concrete; nevertheless, the general caution still continues and is great.

And what are the greatest risks you think might occur?

A permanent risk which can change into an imminent risk has been posed by terrorism financing and support. I am afraid that states that do not have adequate legislation, and the Czech Republic is unfortunately one of them, can be attractive in terms of logistical support for terrorism. I think that strictness and certain caution are certainly necessary.