Final Word from Thursday, May 14, 2020

The rule in Washington and other capitals is that the cover-up is worse than the crime. It was the cover-up that brought down Richard Nixon, not the break-in at the Watergate. It was the cover-up that might land ex-PM Petr Nečas in prison for perjury. The new cover-up in Prague relates to the "ricin" leaks to Respekt magazine and to Czech TV. On Sun., the public station's 168 hodin program outed the alleged high-ranking Russian spy who supposedly brought in the deadly poison in his briefcase. According to multiple sources, 168 hodin said, the trail leads to the head of the Russian cultural center. Multiple sources? Who other than counterintelligence could possibly know? By leaking this information, agents at BIS have now apparently committed multiple criminal acts and have exposed Czech spies to the likelihood of retaliatory outing. And if BIS Dir. Michal Koudelka misled Parliament's security committee last week about these leaks, the cover-up is worse than the crime. [ Czech Republic Andrei Konchakov Television ]