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in the News |
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INTRO | |
BBC Correspondent Clare Doole reported
on Dino Bellasi, who is at the centre of the biggest spy scandal ever
to occur in Switzerland. |
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IN
FULL | |
 | Listen
to the report in full |
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2nd September
1999 Swiss
spy
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| NEWS
1 | |
The
Bellasi affair, as it’s become known, could have come straight
from the pages of a spy novel. Dino Bellasi, a Swiss secret service
member with a taste for the high life, was arrested in mid-August
for embezzling nearly six million dollars from the Defence
Ministry. He explained his jet-set lifestyle, which included
houses in Switzerland and Austria, by saying they were a cover
for a top secret mission - equipping and training an army independent
of the Government. His allegation that he was acting on orders
from on high rocked the military establishment. |
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WORDS | |
a
taste for the high life: a liking for an exciting and
luxurious lifestyle embezzling:
stealing money from your employers jet-set
: suggests the luxurious lifestyle of rich and successful people a
cover for : if something acts as a cover for something else then it prevents
people from seeing what's actually happening orders
from on high: orders from your superiors |
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| NEWS
2 | |
But
according to the Swiss federal prosecutor, Bellasi's allegations are
totally unfounded, a fantasy he dreamt up to save his own
skin. They have, however, exposed serious shortcomings in the
Swiss intelligence service. The question remains - how he got away
with making false claims for fictitious army exercises
for so long. His fraud went unchecked even after he had left the service
last November on health grounds. |
| WORDS | |
unfounded:
not based on facts or evidence to
save his own skin: to act in order to protect himself false
claims: claims with no factual basis fictitious
army exercises: exercises that did not exist |
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Read
about the background in BBC News Online |
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