Maybe there ARE commies under every rock...

This symposium transcript is very interesting in presenting the case for how the overthrow and execution of dictator Nicolai Ceaucescu in Romania was orchestrated by the Soviet Union, even if it backfired on them when the Soviet Bloc collapsed.  The supporting evidence comes from top secret documents smuggled out of Soviet Bloc archives by one of the participants of this symposium. 
 
The discussion by people who actually lived in the Soviet Bloc under communism offers insight into scope, range and audacity of Soviet intelligence operations.  Many thousands of people were involved over decades of planning to put thousands into all high government positions of many countries.  

Without going into all the other evidence I know of, I would say there is no question whatsover that the Soviets and the communists in Russia who replaced them would attempt something as bold as my own pet theory: that they might work for decades to plant a mole in the presidency of the United States -- let's say, Barack Obama.  

The article is long, so I distilled the key highlights obliquely relevant to that thesis, and italicized or highlighted a few things I thought especially important.  The speakers are former dissidents from the Soviet Union and other East Bloc countries, and one Soviet general, the highest official ever to have defected from the former Soviet bloc.  (Of course, the other highest ranking defector from right *after* the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sergei Tretyakov, died a few months ago, though there is the peculiar timing of our arrest of 10 Soviet moles only a few days later.)

What's the cash value of this?  If one assumes an unorganized opposition, then all one must do to save the United States is persuade people of the right ideas.  Time and reason is on your side.  If the opposition is highly organized however, with a specific plan and agenda driven by unlimited resources and committed people who are ruthlessly dishonest (or worse) about what they will do to succeed -- you've got a much harder job ahead of you.  (For example, you wouldn't have fought Nazi Germany or the Soviets with nothing but persuasion -- we'd all be high-stepping to the Horst Wessel song or worse.)  Know thy enemy, for it will dictate the necessary strategy and tactics required to win.

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Stroilov: ...Gorbachev wanted the Politburo to work out a clear strategy in case of a serious crisis, so as to keep East Europe under control without a military intervention. This task was given to a special commission chaired by Alexander Yakovlev.

...There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the coup against Caeusescu in 1989 was secretly directed from Moscow. It is known that at least some of the key figures in the National Salvation Committee (such as Gen. Militaru or Silviu Brucan) had been secretly in touch with the Soviets for years. After the revolution, the new government took a very pro-Soviet line,

...we are not talking about different interpretations of events – the evidence is overwhelming, while all the main participants are in total denial. After all, about a thousand people were killed is those events – so it would take a lot of courage for Gorbachev, or Iliescu, or Baker to tell the whole truth and accept their share of responsibility.

Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa:  ...In real life, it often happens that a person may go out to find wool and come home shorn, as they say in Romania. Neither Gorbachev nor his intelligence services were able to predict that their efforts to hold Romania within the confines of glasnost and perestroika  would in the end—to use a Marxist image—dig their own graves.

Buchar: ...One has to keep in mind that all of this was carefully planned for a long period of time. The name of Anatoly Golitsyn is such a taboo till today, yet he brought to the West information about the Soviets planning these changes back in 1962. Then another defector, Gen. Jan Sejna in 1968, said the same thing. But nobody in the West listened or wanted to hear it. ...It looks like this mind-blowing operation was carefully planned for some thirty years. The Soviets used Ceausescu as a guinea pig to test how to create the communist leader likeable to the West. At the same time, they created a little monster, because Ceausescu’s ego became so big it crossed the point of no return.

Bukovsky: ...Let me start with a fresh Polish joke about a conversation between two pigs in a barn:

Pig #1: “You know, I cannot believe that they are feeding us and looking after us just because they are kind. They must have some ulterior motive. In the end, they will probably kill and eat us.”

Pig #2: “Oh, stop this. To hell with your conspiracy theories!”

...A few years ago, when Iliescu was still the president [of Romania, after the overthrow of Ceaucescu], I mentioned in an interview to a Romanian newspaper that he and his ‘National Salvation Committee’ were secretly backed by Moscow. Even at that stage, the evidence was already overwhelming, so I felt free to refer to that as an established fact and did not expect any controversy. But suddenly, Iliescu went out and threatened to sue me for libel in a Romanian court. I replied I would be happy to have the evidence tested in court, but invited him to sue me in Britain...

...Indeed, the known facts and documents leave me in no doubt that the whole so-called 1989 revolution was simply a Soviet operation. However, even I did not suspect that Iliescu was so close to Moscow that he actually asked for a Soviet invasion.

...in particular, a lot of questions to be asked about the role of the West: how much did State Secretary Baker know about the Soviet backing for the revolution? ...But one thing is now abundantly clear: Iliescu and his committee were little more than just Soviet puppets. Throughout history, it was typical for Soviet-sponsored subversives in any country to request a Soviet invasion when they lost control of events.

[I asked] ...Alexander Yakovlev ...the architect of the 1989 revolutions... How did it get out of control? ... Yakovlev was adamant: there had been no plan, no decision, no discussion of that issue by the Politburo. All happened by itself.

At that point, we were approached by Radek Sikorski (at that time, he was not the Foreign Minister of Poland yet), who also had a question for Yakovlev:

“Alexander Nikovayevich, I wanted to ask you for a very long time: when exactly have you stopped believing in communism?”

“Do you think I am an idiot?” Yakovlev asked. “I never believed in communism in my life.”

Amazed, Radek turned to me and said in English:

“It looks like the whole f…ng Soviet Union was governed by anti-communists!”

Now we learn, from Pavel’s documents, that not only did the Politburo have a plan, but Yakovlev personally was in charge of its preparation.

...Romania is the main reason why Gorbachev and Yakovlev denied their responsibility for the 1989 revolutions. After all, over a thousand people were killed there. Still, our opponents have hardly anything to say on the substance of the matter – you cannot argue against the documents. All they can do is dismiss all the evidence as a “conspiracy theory.” Sadly, though, when multiplied by all the power and money of the neo-communist Establishment, even this cheap propaganda trick works.
Nowadays, the “conspiracy theorist” label is being used in the same manner as “enemy of the people” under Stalin. Nobody ever gave a clear definition of a conspiracy theory, and yet, it is a perfect way to silence dissenting voices without any debate on the substance of the matter. We seem to admit that conspiracies do happen and sometimes succeed, so much so that we even recognize them in criminal law. It is quite respectable, for example, to blame the 9/11 tragedy on an al-Qaeda conspiracy. This is not a conspiracy theory – but any alternative theory is. So, a conspiracy theory is simply a view which does not fit into the margins of what is acceptable to the Establishment, simply a deviation from their propaganda line.

It is time to admit that, because conspiracies sometimes occur, a conspiracy theory may happen to be accurate, just like any other theory. In the case of the Romanian revolution, the “conspiracy theory” is simply the only possible explanation of the known facts.

...Alas, as I said many times before, we did not win the Cold War. No war is over until the minefields and unexploded bombs are cleared away, unless gangs of marauders and surviving enemies are disarmed. Above all, no war is over until its crimes are investigated and condemned, and the truth about its history is revealed and accepted. So far, in the world in general and Romania in particular, we only see communists writing history and dictating the conditions of peace. The most optimistic comment I can make about this is that there is still a long way to go.

Stroilov: ...Paradoxically, ...while the history of communism is being distorted and falsified, at present the recovery is going on just fine. I agree with Vladimir: recovery is simply not possible without revealing the whole truth about the past. While the Iliescus of this world are lying about their communist past, I shall never believe a word of what they say about their ostensibly democratic present.

...The EU membership or even NATO membership do not guarantee democracy. On the contrary, today’s European Union is a notoriously anti-democratic, socialist structure. It is a direct continuation of the Soviet plan for a ‘Common European Home,’ where Eastern Europe would be sandwiched between a Soviet Russia on one hand and a socialist United Europe on the other.


...So, if Iliescu was pro-Soviet and then suddenly turned pro-EU, it tells us more about the EU than about Iliescu. If he is pro-Western now, this only means something is very wrong with the West.  The EU we know is simply a clever device for the Iliescus of the East and the West to preserve their unearned position of power.

...what is the meaning of ‘pro-Western’ today, when the United States is fighting a losing battle against Marxist reforms by its own government? Can we still seriously say that the free world has won the Cold War? ...the communists have suffered some losses but survived as an international Mafia. The real question is: how much has survived of the free world? ...The Second Cold War has already started. The question is: do we – in the East and the West – have the strength to resist? ...indeed, the greatest rebellion in today’s world is to put two and two together.

Pacepa: I fully agree with Mr. Bukovksy: “It looks like the whole f…ing Soviet Union was governed by anti-Communists.”  ...How is it possible for Communists still to be calling the shots in a NATO country twenty years after Communism collapsed there? ...Romania had moved from rigid [Communist] egalitarianism to super-inegalitarianism run by corrupt ex-Communists who merely pay lip-service to democracy. This “new predatory elite” has “widened the gap between a parasitic state and a demoralized society.” ...Let me put it my own way. Today we know how a democracy could be changed into a Communist tyranny, but we are still learning how to reverse that nightmare.

...The Kremlin had a similar “Dnestr” plan for every bloc country. In 1990, I found a Stasi extension of the “Dnestr” plan for East Germany in the newly-opened Stasi archives.

The Stasi extension was called Plan OibE (Offiziere im besonderen Einsatz—officers on special assignment), and it defined the Stasi’s ultra-secret tasks in the event that “the [Communist] Socialist Unity Party of Germany were to lose its power.” ...The plan provided that 2,587 undercover Stasi officers, whose identity was extremely tightly held, would on signal move into high-level positions in the German Democratic Republic (2,000) and its embassies (587). ...it is noteworthy that most of the new politicians who rose to prominence in Germany after Communism’s collapse were secretly affiliated with the Stasi. Among them: Lothar de Maziere, the first democratically elected East German prime minister; Ibrahim Böhme, a founder of the eastern Social Democratic Party; Wolfgang Schnur, the founding leader of the Democratic Awakening, a once burgeoning political party, which collapsed after Schnur’s exposure as a Stasi asset.

...The success of the “Dnestr” plan in Romania may make life miserable for that country’s population, but it can scarcely be said to threaten world peace. The spectacular success of the “Dnestr” plan in Russia might, however. Today over 6,000 former officers of the KGB, which killed tens of millions during the Soviet years and terrorized a third of the World’s population, are running the country’s federal and local governments, and nearly half of all top governmental positions are now held by former officers of the KGB. The Soviet Union had one KGB officer for every 428 citizens. Putin’s Russia has one FSB officer for every 297 citizens. We are facing the first intelligence dictatorship in history.

Buchar: ...The biggest problem we are all facing is the total blackout of media on this issue, globally. No media outlet is willing to challenge the official version of the story regardless of the evidence presented. Why is that? ... “We deny it because when we admit it, we have to do something about it. Better do nothing.”

...As a result the worldwide neo-communist movement is spreading like a cancer with the goal to destroy Western civilization and nobody is willing to mention it. Besides, it would be bad for business. And meanwhile, the “first intelligence dictatorship,” as Mr. Pacepa put it, is working in overdrive—just look at the Russians’ activities in former Eastern Europe countries and in the EU, not to mention in the US and in other parts of the world.

...How does one open the eyes of people in a consumer society today? The problem seems to be so distant, almost abstract. Their perception of reality was already shaped and massaged by the media. After all, people prefer to believe what they want to believe. They want to go shopping, be entertained and have a good time. Maybe they will awaken one day but it may be too little too late.

Bukovsky: ...Before the latest presidential elections in Romania, the socialist candidate, Mircea Geoana, was caught secretly talking to Moscow about financing his campaign, in exchange for the further lucrative opportunities he would open for Russian businesses after becoming president, and an improvement of relations ‘reset‘-style. ...What kind of democracy is this, where at least one of the major parties is little more than a Russian fifth column, and every election presents a very real threat to the country’s independence and freedom?

Robb:  The kind of democracy where Barack Obama can be elected President.