For their eyes only
But this is hardly a novelty in this country, given that the political police and military intelligence were the main planks supporting the government for four decades before independence in 1989.
In the early 1990s, military intelligence played a more benign role, as their successful rescue mission to take U.S. agents out of Iraq prior to the first Gulf War was widely credited with helping this country reach an agreement with the Paris club of the largest creditor governments. Incidentally, the man who had run up those debts during his term as Communist party leader in the 1970s, Edward Gierek, was recently named the best post-war leader of the country by a staggering 46 percent of Poles - but that is an issue deserving of a whole article in itself.
In any case, since the 'Samum' operation in Iraq in 1991, military intelligence has played an equally important, and not always quite so beneficial, part in the country's politics. Former Soviet Bloc countries maintained friendly relations with Arab terrorists and regimes and the Polish military intelligence is thought to have developed an extensive network of contacts throughout the Middle East. That, many think, has helped it win favor with its new American allies, who insisted that the military intelligence structure and personnel remain intact in the course of the country's transformation.
Institutional and personal stability and continuity are no doubt crucial when it comes to spying, but at a time when everything else is undergoing the process of a complete overhaul, they can also serve to strengthen the institution's influence. That seems to be the case with the Military Intelligence Service (WSI), whose current head, General Marek Dukaczewski, has recently vowed to go to court over newspaper reports that he broke the law by leaking documents implicating a politician as a former informer in order to block his promotion.
It must be the country's novel contribution to the art of spying that the head of military intelligence takes his grievances against the press to court. Preferring usually to stay out of the limelight, the spooks now seem to have forgone their chances of that in the coming months. Predictably, Dukaczewski's threat to sue prompted Rzeczpospolita, the broadsheet daily named as the culprit, and other publications to follow up with a series of stories alleging that the WSI is the single most important player in domestic politics. According to some commentators, even the candidacy of Marek Belka for prime minister is best seen in that light.
Belka, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski's candidate, was the chief economic administrator of the Provisional Coalition Authority in Iraq, a role that he won thanks to the spooks' good relations with the USA. He is seen as enjoying the trust of Washington and could help win economic favors with the world's only superpower, which in turn could help rebuild the standing of the left in terms of public opinion. That could help the president return to active politics as the left's leader after the end of his second and final term next year. This alleged scenario also envisages the spies' involvement in most of the economic scandals of the last fifteen years, with the Orlen affair the most recent example.
Interestingly, General Dukaczewski, the chief spook himself, does not deny that people connected to the service could have had something to do with many of the scandals. He suggests, however, that the individuals in question were former informers and retired officers of the intelligence services, rather than active spies. In other words, it is not the WSI itself, but individual errant spooks who are the movers and shakers behind the scenes of Polish business.
General Dukaczewski probably knows best (indeed, his detractors claim that he knows who the next prime minister, president and Orlen CEO will be). But it would, perhaps, be nice if the public knew a little bit more about the secret services. Yes, their very name suggests otherwise, but consider the recent furor over the deportation of Ahmed Amar, a Yemeni Imam, who until last week was studying for his PhD in political science at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
He was ordered to leave the country after the Internal Security Agency (ABW), the civilian arm of the secret services, named him as being suspected of leanings and activities that could potentially lead to his support of terrorism or otherwise endangering state security. The wording was vague and even Mr Amar himself was not told what exactly it was that he had done to enrage the authorities.
True, Mr Amar has given newspaper interviews in which he seemed to, if not justify, then at least empathize with the September 11 attackers. But he claims that he was merely trying to explain why some Arabs may see terrorism as a way to combat infidels, rather than expressing his personal opinion. There is a difference between saying "I can see where these people are coming from" and actually agreeing with them. That is not to say that Mr Amar's remarks were sensitive, well thought-out or true. Then again, neither is calling the torture of prisoners a "fraternity prank." Both could be seen as condoning criminal acts, but is there a law against that? In any case, while the secret services have an obligation to protect the state's security, the press must try and act as a check on abuses. But it is very difficult to know if they are happening, when even the accused are not told what their crimes are.
In the early 1990s, military intelligence played a more benign role, as their successful rescue mission to take U.S. agents out of Iraq prior to the first Gulf War was widely credited with helping this country reach an agreement with the Paris club of the largest creditor governments. Incidentally, the man who had run up those debts during his term as Communist party leader in the 1970s, Edward Gierek, was recently named the best post-war leader of the country by a staggering 46 percent of Poles - but that is an issue deserving of a whole article in itself.
In any case, since the 'Samum' operation in Iraq in 1991, military intelligence has played an equally important, and not always quite so beneficial, part in the country's politics. Former Soviet Bloc countries maintained friendly relations with Arab terrorists and regimes and the Polish military intelligence is thought to have developed an extensive network of contacts throughout the Middle East. That, many think, has helped it win favor with its new American allies, who insisted that the military intelligence structure and personnel remain intact in the course of the country's transformation.
Institutional and personal stability and continuity are no doubt crucial when it comes to spying, but at a time when everything else is undergoing the process of a complete overhaul, they can also serve to strengthen the institution's influence. That seems to be the case with the Military Intelligence Service (WSI), whose current head, General Marek Dukaczewski, has recently vowed to go to court over newspaper reports that he broke the law by leaking documents implicating a politician as a former informer in order to block his promotion.
It must be the country's novel contribution to the art of spying that the head of military intelligence takes his grievances against the press to court. Preferring usually to stay out of the limelight, the spooks now seem to have forgone their chances of that in the coming months. Predictably, Dukaczewski's threat to sue prompted Rzeczpospolita, the broadsheet daily named as the culprit, and other publications to follow up with a series of stories alleging that the WSI is the single most important player in domestic politics. According to some commentators, even the candidacy of Marek Belka for prime minister is best seen in that light.
Belka, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski's candidate, was the chief economic administrator of the Provisional Coalition Authority in Iraq, a role that he won thanks to the spooks' good relations with the USA. He is seen as enjoying the trust of Washington and could help win economic favors with the world's only superpower, which in turn could help rebuild the standing of the left in terms of public opinion. That could help the president return to active politics as the left's leader after the end of his second and final term next year. This alleged scenario also envisages the spies' involvement in most of the economic scandals of the last fifteen years, with the Orlen affair the most recent example.
Interestingly, General Dukaczewski, the chief spook himself, does not deny that people connected to the service could have had something to do with many of the scandals. He suggests, however, that the individuals in question were former informers and retired officers of the intelligence services, rather than active spies. In other words, it is not the WSI itself, but individual errant spooks who are the movers and shakers behind the scenes of Polish business.
General Dukaczewski probably knows best (indeed, his detractors claim that he knows who the next prime minister, president and Orlen CEO will be). But it would, perhaps, be nice if the public knew a little bit more about the secret services. Yes, their very name suggests otherwise, but consider the recent furor over the deportation of Ahmed Amar, a Yemeni Imam, who until last week was studying for his PhD in political science at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
He was ordered to leave the country after the Internal Security Agency (ABW), the civilian arm of the secret services, named him as being suspected of leanings and activities that could potentially lead to his support of terrorism or otherwise endangering state security. The wording was vague and even Mr Amar himself was not told what exactly it was that he had done to enrage the authorities.
True, Mr Amar has given newspaper interviews in which he seemed to, if not justify, then at least empathize with the September 11 attackers. But he claims that he was merely trying to explain why some Arabs may see terrorism as a way to combat infidels, rather than expressing his personal opinion. There is a difference between saying "I can see where these people are coming from" and actually agreeing with them. That is not to say that Mr Amar's remarks were sensitive, well thought-out or true. Then again, neither is calling the torture of prisoners a "fraternity prank." Both could be seen as condoning criminal acts, but is there a law against that? In any case, while the secret services have an obligation to protect the state's security, the press must try and act as a check on abuses. But it is very difficult to know if they are happening, when even the accused are not told what their crimes are.
