Mitja Mersol 1974 Photo:njena.sl
According to Jack Grimston of the Sunday Times (25 March), and The Australian, newly released secret files in Slovenia (a former Yugoslav state) revealed that BBC World Service was infiltrated by a ring of informants run by the secret police of Communist Yugoslavia (UDBA).
The spies had the task of briefing Yugoslav Marshall Tito and his secret service on their Yugoslav and British colleagues and on dissident émigrés living in Britain.
One of the informants unmasked is Mitja Mersol, currently an MP in Slovenia, who worked as an announcer for the BBC World Service during 1970’s. His UDBA codename: “Linguist”
The secret files portray London as a fertile and active ground for covert cold war operations and maneuvering between Yugoslav agents and anti-Communist émigrés,
Jure Brankovic from the Slovenian Pop TV station reported on the secret papers as showing that UDBA received a stream of information from the spies at BBC from 1950’s to 1980’s.
The secret papers show that before Mersol started at the BBC in 1971, he was issued with a special camera by the UDBA to photograph documents and he was instructed in the use of a secret writing system.
“Mersol gained the confidence of colleagues and émigrés, reporting back on topics such as their anti-Communist plotting, their love lives and who was in the pay of Scotland Yard.
The Sunday Times reports that last week Mersol said that he had worked in a way that had ‘harmed no one’.
Adding, “a man does many things in his life. Every man is a judge of his own actions and I have long ago drawn a line under what happened 40 years ago. We at that time lived in a different country, with a different system and in different circumstances.”
Mersol may not have physically harmed anyone but as a spy for one of the most murderous secret services in Europe (more murderous than the Soviet bloc’s one, as claimed by Dr. John R. Schindler, author of book: “Agents Provocateurs: Terrorism, Espionage, and the Secret Struggle for Yugoslavia, 1945 – 1990” )
It stands to logic and reason that he contributed to the information needed by UDBA to plan and execute assassinations, whether her knew what UDBA was up to or not. But in any case, the fact that UDBA was on a killing spree of Croatians and other anti-Communists living abroad was public knowledge and public suspicion so it would seem highly unlikely that he himself did not know anything about UDBA’s operations.
Dr Schindler asserts that Tito was useful to the West, so UDBA crimes were mostly ignored, even when Yugoslav agents killed abroad, frequently.
The former communist regime in Yugoslavia has a terrible history of assassinations directed against its opponents. Between 1946 and 1991 the many UDBA assassinations and assassination attempts victims were mostly Croatian émigrés, although others were targeted. The attacks were usually carried out by small teams consisting of a trigger-man supported by a spotter and were always carefully planned. The attacks were often made as targets entered or left their homes since this was the point at which they were most vulnerable and where a case of mistaken identity was least likely.
The last known UDBA hit in Britain took place on 20 October 1988 when Nikola Stedul, a 51-year-old Croatian émigré, was gunned down outside his home in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. For various reasons, the attack did not go smoothly. Stedul survived it although he was severely wounded in the head. His assailant was arrested a few hours later at Heathrow airport and identified as one Vinko Sindicic—a Yugoslav known to Western intelligence services.
The entire incident demonstrated the bankruptcy of the Yugoslav system, Brian Gallagher wrote in 2003. Furthermore, the article written by Gallagher points to the fact that Sindicic made his way back to Croatia in 1998 and that charges against him for the murder of Croatian dissident Bruno Busic in Paris was thrown out in 2000 for lack of evidence.
No surprise there. In 2000, former Communists (Social Democrats) were in government and former communist Stjepan Mesic was the president. They weren’t going to bend over backwards to look for or produce evidence they may have known about as former high-ranking communists.
One can say that while many Croatian people won independence under Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) slogan “Everything for Croatia” the antifascists within it (aka communists) operated under the slogan that came very close to “Everything against Croatia”.
Who knows what new documents and evidence of such Communist crimes will also see light of day and whether they will be processed in courts as they should. Whatever comes out of these revelations one thing is for sure: another flag of truth about why Croatians had no alternative but to free themselves from the oppression and prison that was Yugoslavia for them. One can only hope that Mersol, having said that under Yugoslavia people lived under a different system and different circumstances, will take the matter further and enlighten the world some more about those circumstances. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)
RSS - Posts
HAHHAHAHA dear old good guy marshal tito. everybody tried to kill him and he played better. people loved tito. even today the whole world loves tito and those who dont they can (deleted by admin). tito fought hitler stallin and vatican and cia and kgb and fbi and many other and won
Vojislav Stamimirovic has many spy stories ,
about the very first arrest was in the 1960’s while he was still married to Blue Blood American Leslie Olmsted his second wife that was the editor in cheif for Carnagie Hall Magazine and they had a child a son was born Alexander Olmsted Stanimirovic son of a Spy.
He was picked up by some spooks, that he changed his ways. Stan was picked up by the CIA around noon and by the next day he was on his way to criminality, just to really show them !
It was done on spite for destroying his good name ,
and treating him like a criminal that he was not yet !
What Stan started would not stop . Nikola Kavalja was a person that was close to Stan for one reason alone to Kill Tito ! Killing Tito is a new manuscript that is completed by Pavle Stanimirovic the son of Vojislav Stanimirovic the genius criminal mastermind.
Tito and Toto’s Hunters I am working on a project for 2018 about Josip Broz Tito and a crime wave that came from.Titograd a hidden lie of deciet and secrets about Alexandar Karalanovic , Nikola Kavalja , Voijislav Stanimirovic , Voja Kovacevic , The stories that I listen to them as they first broke from first hand account I was in this crew of people and it is 1000% pure Hollywood Movies OMG can not look away from Heros to Zeros and Zeros to Heros , I am Mali Paja Amerikanac and at first you will be extremly sceptical I wont blame you that is just the way you were raised I was cut from a different cloth , I was raised in private Swiss Boarding Schools were I have learned to play Tennis like Novak Djokovic and Ski like James Bond in the movies because in real life I skiied with Roger Moore and trust me he is a begginer !
Scared for all the people this will take by shock ? No disrespect just pure 100% unexajurated facts extracted from my criminal life is just what this world needs I know so should you. Take good care of them and just match the actors as much and similar as possible. , Big difference Ray Liotta & Henry Hill . Very curious as ti the casting ? I like One or two solid actors with authentic values !
Tito Josip Broz , Now that I think about it my father, must have had sympathy for him, because when his potential killers came for coffee they were ready Nikola Kavalja , and a young Boško but it was Alex Karalanovic that also had a few attempts on Tito’s life , he remembered the stories of his late father , and the high ranking Yugolsavian Colonel and a funny story ,
when personal given by and the story went like this. ,
Marshal Josip Broz Tito gave my grandfather a car 101 Llada or Zaztava and he drove it one week he gave it back and felt bad that others did not have cars so he will take public transportation is that special something that we can not overlook it was a believe aystem of equality and every one being equal was a nice concept called Marxisim and Karl never wanted this to turn out Communist but guess what ? It did in a big way , that is the only reason a dictator Castro was dressed in Military garb and not Hugo Boss , he slept on a military cot. Is the sacrifice that people just don’t have because we are not created equal.
Vojislav Stanimirovic , Alexander Karalanovic, Poljak Sndre Montrose Spy arrest by CIA Spooks arrested Stan Escaped Communist Yugoslavia under Marshal Josip Broz Tito was as mysterious as Vojislav escaped Stories from Italy and in the Camps is where he met the real criminals and Gentleman criminals also was Andre Montrose becoming a life long very close friend bailing out Mr Stan for the Vizcaya was 200k Cash Bail and The Proffesor posted it right before he went on three month Vacation Traveling all over the world , he was a master paratrooper and belong to this gang of sophisticated gentleman thieves it was very lucrative to be a thief then . They also say the Apple never falls far from the tree , a son was born in 1972 that followed the same footsteps for the love of a father and son is strong it’s family !
the bail was actually $100,000 I looked it up
Is Mitja Mersol stil alive? Does anyone have a number or an email address for him? i am at porat.ari@gmail.com