Pavel Zacek, Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, will discuss the recent release of the Czechoslovak intelligence services' archives. Benjamin Fischer former chief historian for the CIA, will provide commentary.

Pavel Zacek earned his Ph.D. from Charles University in Prague. Prior to being named director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Zacek worked as acting director of the Czech Security Service Archives. He is the author of nearly a dozen books on the Czechoslovak security services, including most recently At the Head of the State Security Service. The Fall of the Regime in the Records of a Secret Police Officer (2006).

Benjamin B. Fischer is a former chief historian for the CIA. A career CIA officer, Fischer worked for 8 years in analysis, and 15 years in operations. Beginning in 1995, Fischer worked at the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence, where he published several monographs, including A Cold War Conundrum: The 1983 Soviet War Scare, Okhrana: The Paris Operations of the Russian Imperial Police, and At Cold War's End: U.S. Intelligence on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1989-1991, which was selected for inclusion in a timecapsule to be held at the National Archives until it is unsealed in 2100. In 2002, Fischer was awarded a visiting research fellowship at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway.