Outgoing UOP chief criticizes government's plans for special service reform

Prime Minister Leszek Miller yesterday accepted the resignation of chief of the State Security Office (UOP) Zbigniew Nowek. The new UOP head will be Zbigniew Siemiatkowski. A week ago Miller asked Nowek to resign but he refused, claiming that the UOP should not be left without a leader at a time when NATO was conducting a war. In an interview with journalists, Nowek later criticized the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) plans to reform the UOP, saying, "The program of the SLD practically amounts to the liquidation of Poland's special services." (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 7) P.W.