Final Word from Tuesday, October 21, 2025

For the first time it has become widely acceptable to criticize the BIS counterintelligence agency, similar to the way Americans routinely question the CIA. This might in fact be the biggest outcome so far of the campaign Deník N has been waging against new MP Filip Turek of the Motorists. There's no evidence that BIS was in any way involved in assisting Zdislava Pokorná of Deník N, but there's no strong reason either to believe that it wasn't, esp. after Pres. Petr Pavel spoke openly about the role the intelligence services will play in the vetting of potential cabinet members. Pokorná said in a podcast that the management of Deník N knows exactly where the old Facebook posts came from and that the source was not the intelligence services or Andrej Babiš. This categoric statement merely raised more doubt. How can anyone in a country so full of agents and their handlers know for sure that a given source isn't linked to the secret world? Unless of course Dir. Michal Koudelka of BIS gives his personal guarantee? [ Czech Republic daily journalist president espionage ]