[Marcus Marulus]

KGB-trained Hungarian heads Nato committee

By Bruno Waterfield

Last Updated: 1:12am GMT 06/02/2008

The appointment of Hungary's KGB-trained secret service chief to a senior Nato intelligence committee has alarmed diplomats amid new fears over the security of the alliance's military secrets.

Sandor Laborc, 49, who trained with the Russian secret service's elite at Dzerzhinsky Academy, in Moscow, from 1983 to 1989, is the new chairman of a special Nato committee that analyses and shares intelligence from the 26 member countries.

"The presence of a senior Soviet-trained official will make people think twice and could lead to a policy of withholding highly classified data in certain circumstances," said one Nato diplomat.

Gen Laborc took the Nato post last month and will hold it under a system of automatic rotation until the end of the year, at a time when relations between the Western alliance and Russia are at their most tense since the end of the Cold War.

Nato officials, including diplomats from Britain and United States, are publicly maintaining a stony silence over Gen Laborc.

[source]