Character smear is such a commonly used Communist (and now "progressive") technique that I often wonder if it has been described in some Leninist theoretical literature. All dissidents have been subject to it: Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Cuban dissidents. And it has been used with success against emigre groups and artists. You might remember the affaire Kosinski, where the Polish secret police planted info on writer Jerzy Kosinski, who was active in international human writes organizations, and had it printed in a cover article of the Village Voice. It worked like a charm and Kosinski's career was pretty much finished. (Allegations of plagiarism and other shenanigans.)
As far as the emigre groups are concerned, in a common scenatrio, smear information is placed in the hands of the willing dupes of Western press, and then used by the eager beavers in the State Department as a justificatione to ostracize these groups. All the Eastern European emigre activist groups and governments in exile got this treatment during and after WWII, and now, of course, the Cuban dissident groups are getting it. In a bitter irony, no one in Cuba (and other countries) would ever believe these smears, but in the West there is no shortage of naive deep thinkers, not only on the Left.
human writes = human rights
(The posting software changed it, I swear!)