Word: stasis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Maiziere had twice outlasted rumors of Stasi links since his rise from political obscurity. Not this time. In early December the weekly Der Spiegel claimed that under the old regime he regularly provided information to the infamous Ministry of State Security, popularly known as Stasi. The magazine reproduced a Stasi file card indicating that an informant lived at De Maiziere's Berlin address. His code name: Czerny, the surname of a 19th century Austrian composer...
...Stasi stain, however, will be almost impossible to erase -- for De Maiziere as well as tens of thousands of other former citizens of East Germany. At its height, the ministry was the most powerful arm of the communists and had at its command 85,000 full-time workers, 109,000 paid informants and innumerable unofficial snoops who kept tabs on everything from visiting foreigners to the affairs of their neighbors. It kept files on 4 million of the country's citizens as well as 2 million West Germans. Placed end to end, the Stasi's records would reportedly stretch...
...secret-intelligence agency, the section run by the fabled Markus Wolf until his retirement in 1987. "That stuff is dynamite, and ((West German)) agents might not like what they find in it," said Fischer. The archives also contain videotapes of individuals in sexually compromising situations, financial records of Stasi-front business enterprises, and electronic surveillance transcripts that could become evidence in criminal prosecutions -- to say nothing of destroying political and professional careers. Berlin officials reported last week that Stasi bugging devices even turned up in church confessionals...
Kohl himself suggested that some of the Stasi material should remain secret. "We cannot permit a failed communist regime to posthumously poison the atmosphere in our country," the Chancellor said last week. "If there is evidence of a crime, then it should go before a court. But we should not start a witch hunt...
That could be difficult to prevent. Some former top Stasi officials may have fled to the KGB or other intelligence services with a wealth of incriminating information that could be used for blackmail or to besmirch the characters of prominent persons. Still others may be offering to keep quiet in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Wolf's successor as head of the intelligence agency, Werner Grossmann, was arrested on Oct. 3 but was freed the next day without being charged. Fischer said Grossmann had probably made an "arrangement" with the West Germans...