Final Word from Thursday, February 12, 2004
Every few days, the name of another former StB agent is leaked to the press. The scandals are soon forgotten by the public, but they inflict lasting damage on the people and companies involved. In the case of Pavel Kalášek of Hewlett-Packard, some IT people suspect the attack was orchestrated by a competitor. It came just two days before the visit of Bill Gates of Microsoft, a key HP business partner. Kalášek's past had been common knowledge in IT circles for years. Other IT companies, such as Microsoft and Logica, also have known StB skeletons in their closets, but they've escaped media attention. Foreign companies often liked to hire StB types, because they had good contacts and could easily be controlled. Uncovering the past of such people is the job of reporters, but the media (as always) need to be careful not to become a pawn in someone else's game. information technologz