Military Intelligence from Libya and Terrorism. the „Oil“ Residency in The

138 documents Military Intelligence from Libya and Terrorism THE “Oil” rESIDENCY IN THE MATERIALS OF THE MAIN MILITARY COUNTERINTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE PAVEL žÁČEK On the basis of an international treaty between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, at the end of October and the beginning of November 1977, 625 Czechoslovak military experts arrived in Tripoli. Led by Brigadier General Juraj Lalo, they were meant to assist the Libyan armed forces improve their training and to improve the battle readiness of the air force, armoured forces, and artillery.1 The Czechoslovak “normalisation” regime had no excessive illusions about the nature of its north African partner. The only thing that perhaps united them both was their acute anti-Americanism or possibly their opposition to Israel. Besides ensuring the required inflow of foreign currencies with security forces – in a manner similar to their Soviet and East German counterparts – until the year 1989, they strived to take advantage of the relatively opportune political situation in their sphere of interest for the benefit of their power politics. The establishment of the “Oil” ar office in Libya on the basis of being intelligence tasks. lways be aware that residency named the resident for the ZS/GŠ ČSLA the main goal of your mission abroad is On 1 November 1977, by order of General residency in Tripoli, with the codename the fulfilment of agency tasks ensuing Martin Dzúr, the Federal Minister of Na- “Oil” (“Ropa”).2 from orders issued to you by head office. tional Defence, a senior managing offi- In directives approved by the deputy In his activities, he was specifically cer and specialist with the political de- head of the ZS/GŠ ČSLA for humint subordinate to the 23rd Department partment of the Intelligence Directorate intelligence, Colonel Karel Sochor, the of the ZS/GŠ ČSLA headed by Colonel of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak attaché was supposed to conscientious- Václav Hataš.3 People’s Army (ZS/GŠ ČSLA), Colonel ly and respectfully perform the duties In the initial phase, the Central Head František Sýkora, was appointed to the of the official attaché post, but only as Office (Hlavní ústředí) asked Colonel official post of military and aviation at- a cover activity that could be used as Sýkora requested to ascertain the oppor- taché (VLP) at the Czechoslovak consul- much as possible for the fulfilment of tunities for recruitment and information 1 Security Services Archive (hereinafter only referred to as ABS), fond (i.e. a fund or collection of documents in an archive, hereinafter only referred to as f.), the Intelligence Service of the General Staff (hereinafter only referred to as ZS/GŠ), archive number (hereinafter only referred to as a. č.) 38869. Personal file 589, I. section. Re: An Informational report on the receipt of Czechoslovak military experts in Libya, 3 November 1977, č. j. (i.e. Ref. No) 01/1977. 2 Colonel František Sýkora, born: 29 January 1925, joined the ZS/GŠ ČSLA as a political worker on 25 September 1957. In the years 1960-1962 he completed studies at the Zpravodajský institut (Intelligence Institute), from 8 October 1963 to 9 October 1967 he was VLP at the Czechoslovak embassy in Egypt, in the years 1967- 1969, he was a senior officer of the third group of the department (3/2nd department) of strategic intelligence for the management of the “Nil” (SAR – Egypt) and “Babylon” (SYAR – Syria) residencies, from 1 October 1969 to 9 September 1971 he was head of the 3/2nd division (which managed the following residencies: “Riviera,” “Korida,” “Magreb,” “Duna,” “Nil,” “Babylon,” “Kandahár,” and “Bambus”), from 1 December 1971 to 30 September 1976 he was VLP at the Czechoslovak embassy in the USA, in 1976-1978 he was the leading senior specialist officer for the political division of the ZS/GŠ and from 13 February 1978 to 10 November 1982 he was VLP and the R-ROPA (R-OIL) resident (589) in Tripoli under the cover of the embassy counsellor for the embassy in Libya. He was retired from the 23rd department of the ZS/GŠ ČSLA on 31 January 1983. 3 See footnote 18 for his career path. behind the iron curtain 139 Army General Ing Martin Dzúr, Federal Minister of National Colonel František Sýkora and Colonel Václav Hataš, military intelligence residents in Tripoli Defence Photo: Czech News Agency (ČTK) Photo: Security Services Archive activites. His attention was supposed to developments in the Near East. […] The of the Main Military Counterintelli- be focused on individual groups with an influence of LIBYA on the development of gence Directorate, Lieutenant Colonel emphasis on: inter-Arab relations is one of your most Miloš Čech, who worked as an officer – the diplomatic corps with diplomats important areas of informational inter- managing a group of Czechoslovak from the Arab world and developing est. Another objective was to obtain military experts for special tasks.6 countries being the priority, samples (documents) of military tech- Last but not least, Colonel Sýkora was – resistance movements and individual nology belonging to the armies of the obliged to maintain the so-called ideo- representatives supported by LIBYA, North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) logically political and moral unity of – professional specialists working in and French aviation technology. the residency’s officers and members Libya who have a relationship with the Colonel Sýkora had a fundamental of their families in the spirit of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR) duty to rigorously observe the princi- Marxist-Leninist line of the Commu- either by virtue of having studied previ- ples of conspiracy and security while nist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), ously in the CSSR or of having a Czech creating and managing a network of and he was also obliged to maintain wife, etc.4 agents. He was then meant to devote close contact with other employees of In the next phase, the main task was extraordinary attention to manage- the Czechoslovak consular office and the construction of a network of agents, ment activities with respect to the members of the Soviet consulate as initially with the help of selected col- Lubomír Hrnčíř (organ 621), who was well as the representations of the other laborators (SP) from the ranks of living there legally and was the resi- Warsaw Pact states.7 Czechoslovak military experts. Colonel dency’s second officer. Systematically The evaluation of Colonel Sýkora, who Sýkora was meant to ensure that the evaluate all items of knowledge about stayed at the foreign “Oil” residency “Oil” residency in Libya would build up the activities of KR [counterintelli- from February to November 1982, indi- a working network of agents, compris- gence] against the residency, the ZÚ cates that he did not succeed in building ing at least on agent/source (AP), two [embassy], the military mission, and up a network of agents. Although he cognisant informers (VI), and a sub- against individual subjects and mem- began working on three potential in- network of unwitting informers (NI). bers of their families. Continuously telligence targets (ZA) of Arab origin The aim of constructing a network of adopt the necessary countermeasures (TRIFA8, LIBU,9 and RIM10), only one of agents is to ensure the permanent and to ensure the uninterrupted fulfilment of them made it to the stage of becoming systematic supply of valuable reports the main tasks of the residency and the a novice cognisant informer. However, that lead to our uncovering the inten- security of its members.5 For this pur- as a result of the poor quality of the in- tions of the imperialist powers and indi- pose, he was meant to maintain close formation results and the incomplete vidual Arab states for influencing further cooperation with the officer (resident) uncovering of agent possibilities, the 4 ABS, f. ZS/GŠ, a. č. 38869. Personal file 589, I. Directive for the activity of the military and aviation attaché Colonel František Sýkora, 31 December 1977, č. j. 00105844/OS-[77]. 5 Ibid. 6 Leading senior specialist officer of the Third Section of the Third Directorate of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (FMV) Lieutenant Colonel Miloš Čech, born: 9 February 1939, from 14 October 1977 to 30 April 1981 he worked as a resident at the Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (HS VKR) in Tripoli. 7 ABS, f. ZS/GŠ, a. č. 38869. Personal file 589, I. Directive for the activity of the military and aviation attaché Colonel František Sýkora, 31 December 1977, č. j. 00105844/OS-[77]. 8 Cf. ABS, f. ZS/GŠ, a. č. 34040. 9 Cf. ibid., a. č. 38096. 10 Cf. ibid., a. č. 40099. 140 documents Central Head Office did not approve tak- the need to abide by the Czechoslovak Hataš was given the task of monitoring ing him on. Although he built up a net- foreign policy line, as well as the di- Libya’s bilateral relations with the Arab work of collaborators (VOK11, DUMI12, rectives, tasks and instructions of the Republic of Egypt and the development RADIS13, ABDUL14, BRUK15, and ŠER16), Central Head Office in regard to agent of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Consider only RADIS and ABDUL developed any activity. By agreement with the Federal building and controlling a high-quality active activity. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the resi- agent network and creating an infor- After an initial befuddled phase, when dent’s official work classification at mation system out of members of the the resident only obtained half the the consular office in Tripoli – embassy Czechoslovak military specialists to be stipulated samples of Western military counsellor – was newly regulated by the principal, basic resource for obtain- technology (just eight specimens), he a special directive, which, among other ing information.20 subsequently supplied a total of five things, demarcated his subordination In view of the fact that he did not take samples and three technical docu- to the ambassador in regard to social over any agency resource from his pre- ments that were rated at the second and official activity.

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