Learning from the master

East German espionage chief Markus Wolf once wrote that he wanted to be remembered for perfecting the use of sex in spying. Another of his favorite tricks was to tap the phones of West German politicians and look for inconsistencies between what they proclaimed in public and confided in private. The results were slipped to friendly journalists. Did Wolf really die recently, or has he been hard at work in Prague? There are parallels between his techniques and what is happening to Mirek Topolánek. First, a woman was put in his bed, and then his top aide, Marek Dalík, was discredited through the use of a hidden camera. If the tricks had worked - but apparently they didn't - the beneficiary would not have been Wolf's idea of a better socialist state, but rather concrete capitalist interests. Efforts to make Pavel Bém the PM of an ODS-ČSSD grand coalition are still alive and well. [Czech Republic GDR spymaster spying prime minister premier Lucie Talmanová wiretapping eavesdropping Jaroslav Kmenta]