Jan Sejna

Jan Sejna (died 1997) was a major general in the Czechoslovak Army who defected to the United States in 1968.

General Sejna defected in 1968 following the ouster of his patron, the Stalinist Czechoslovak President Antonin Novotny, during the Prague Spring.

He was counterintelligence analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1969 to 1976 and later worked as a consultant to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Sejna's New York Times obituary noted some doubts about his testimony:

Some of what he told Congressional committees and his handlers was startling, although much of it could not be verified. For instance, he reportedly told Western intelligence agencies in the early 1980's that the Russians had trained terrorist groups like the Baader-Meinhof gang in West Germany and the Red Brigades in Italy.

Questioned about those reports, American intelligence officials said there was evidence of indirect links between the Russians and terrorist groups, but little evidence to show direct Soviet involvement in international terrorism.

External Resources

• Questions around Sejna, Czech Military Intelligence
• The Claims of MG Jan Sejna: Crafted Nonsense, MIAfacts.org
• Katerina Zachovalova. Defector's web still tangling: Officer who fled Prague in 1968 remains controversial. The Prague Post, 25 November 2004.