KGB past haunts nominee for top security post

The Soviet-era past of Sándor Laborc, the current nominee to be director-general of Hungary’s National Security Office (NBH), has become a sticking point in his confirmation, with opposition leaders and allegedly representatives of the United States government weighing in against his appointment.

At issue is Laborc’s attendence at Moscow’s Dzerzhinsky University, named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, considered the “godfather” of the Soviet intelligence system. Those who studied at the academy were taught intelligence and counterintelligence methods by KGB instructors, and to gain admission, one had to convince admissions officers of their allegiance to Soviet ideology.

“It is wrong in a 21st century democracy to have a national security leader who graduated from the university which trains KGB members,” said Ervin Demeter, an MP of opposition party Fidesz.

Meanwhile, Demeter said that during his tenure at the NBH, Laborc significantly transformed and “weakened” Hungary’s domestic and international security service, adding that he was sacked in 2000 from the leadership of the National Information Office, another intelligency body.

In response, Socialist MP Sándor Tóth argued that the changes currently being made at the NBH are not the result of politics, pointing out that the opposition should have expressed its objections to Laborc’s appointment and other personnel shifts at a parliamentary committee meeting they declined to attend.

Tóth also said that after Laborc left the Information Office, he was offered a position at the National Tax Authority by the previous, Fidesz-led government.

According to a report in Magyar Hírlap, the United States ambassador to NATO may have played a part in Demeter’s resistance to Laborc. The opposition daily said that there is information to suggest that the US ambassador to NATO told his Hungarian counterpart that Washington finds it unacceptable that a person with a KGB past would lead the security services of a fellow NATO member.

Laborc’s nomination could also be objectionable to the US because next year Hungary will provide the chair of NATO’s Special Committee, the alliance’s secret services committee. This person will be responsible for a wealth of confidential inter-alliance information, and a chair seen as close to Moscow would be of concern to United States given fears over what is seen as an increasingly aggressive Kremlin leadership.

But on Thursday, inforadio.hu reported that Zoltán Martinusz, Hungary’s ambassador to NATO, said that no other NATO ambassadors had expressed reservations about Laborc’s appointment.