Wikileaks on Poland

[Bonobo]

Wikileaks - why France snubbed Poland over D-Day anniversary
01.12.2010 17:44

Wikileaks has revealed why the then president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski was not invited by President Sarkozy to last year’s D-Day anniversary celebrations in Normandy, while US, Canadian and UK heads of government were given an invite.

At the time, National Security Bureau chief in Warsaw, Aleksander Szczygło, reacted to the snub by Paris not to invite a representative from Poland to the celebrations marking the 1944 D-Day landings, by saying it left a “nasty aftertaste and a sense of resentment”.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the lack of an invite was “regrettable”.

The latest batch of cables released by the whistle blowing web site reveals, however, that Kaczynski was not invited because Paris was worried about the length of the guest list.

A cable dated 8 June 2009 from an American diplomat records a conversation he had with Jean-David Levitte, the chief diplomatic aide to President Sarkozy. The cable says:

“Levitte began by explaining the French decision not to invite the Germans to the June 6 D-Day commemoration. "It's my fault," said Levitte, who said that President Sarkozy had initially been keen to invite German Chancellor Merkel to participate. "I pointed out to the President that if Merkel came, then Sarkozy would be obligated to invite the heads of state of Italy, Poland, and the Czech Republic as well." Moreover, all of those leaders would have to be given an opportunity to speak as well, which would lengthen an already long ceremony.”

The cable goes on to say that UK prime minister at the time, Gordon Brown and Canadian PM Stephen Harper were invited because their popularity rating in opinion polls were so poor that they needed some good news media coverage.

“The cases of the UK and Canada were exceptional [Levitte added] added, because both Gordon Brown and Stephen Harper were in such political trouble at home that the survival of their governments was at stake,” says the cable.

But back in June 2009 PM Donald Tusk tried to present the snub by Paris in the context of poor relations between presidents Sarkozy and Kaczynski following the Polish head of state’s refusal to sign the Lisbon Treaty.

“President Sarkozy has made it clear that he treated President Kaczyński’s refusal to ratify the Treaty as a matter of personal concern to him,” claimed Tusk.

[Bonobo]

The American Embassy in Warsaw has released a statement saying that the latest publication of confidential and top secret cables and documents by Wikileaks “poses a real risk to real people”.

U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein says in the statement: “I will not comment on the authenticity of any documents, but I join Secretary [of State Hilary]Clinton in deeply regretting the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential.”

Classified diplomatic communications are documents that were never intended for public consumption,” the statement continues. “They are a snapshot in time, preliminary, and should not be seen as having standing on their own, or as representing U.S. policy.”

There are up to 200 cables sent from the American Embassy in Poland which have yet to be published by the five media outlets worldwide which have access to up to 250,000 documents gathered by Wikileaks. It is thought that most of the cables from the embassy in Warsaw refer to negotiations over anti-missile systems in central Europe.

Preempting the release of the documents, Ambassador Feinstein writes that, “The alliance between the United States and Poland is strong and resilient. I am confident that our two countries will continue to build on the progress we have worked so hard to achieve, and to advance our shared values and interests around the world.” (pg)

[Bonobo]

Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski’s remark while in Washington in 2009 that American forces would be welcome in Poland, "to protect against Russian aggression" caused consternation in both the US and Russian capitals, the latest batch of cables released by Wikileaks reveals.

Sikorski’s remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington also included the foreign ministers opinion that Russian war games on the Baltic were “directed against Russia.”

The remark prompted a cable sent by a US diplomat from the American Embassy in Moscow, dated 9 November 2009. The cabled stated that: “Some Russian officials were quick to point out that Sikorski's comments undermined not only improved Polish relations (Ref A and B), but harmed Russian-U.S. and Russian-NATO relations as well.”

The cable goes on to say: “While the Russian MFA has not yet issued a formalstatement, [Russian foreign minister] Sergey Lavrov told the press that he did not believe that Sikorski had actually made the remarks. Lavrov commented, however, that if proved true, "it throws me into deep astonishment because we had talked in a detailed manner about the problems that needed to be addressed in the context of European security."

“Russian Permanent Representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin called Sikorski's remarks "absurd" and a u-turn in Polish policy toward Russia and its engagement with NATO and Europe,” the cable continues.

'Office of Threats from the East'

After noting that Poland had been staunchly supporting Georgia in its conflict with Russia the year before, the cable from the American diplomat says: “The Polish [Foreign Ministry] has established a Bureau of European Security, which Polish diplomats jokingly refer to as the ‘Office of Threats from the East.’”

A Russian diplomat then claimed his telephone conversations with Polish government officials had been tapped. “According to XXXXXXXXXXXX diplomat XXXXXXXXXXXX (PROTECT), who was recruited to work in this bureau whileserving in Moscow, the Russian MFA threw this new moniker back at him during a meeting. XXXXXXXXXXXX claimed to us that the only way the MFA could have known about the reference was to have been listening in on his phone conversations with Warsaw while he was interviewing for the job,” reads the cable.

[Bonobo]

Wow! I have always thought that NATO is a paper tiger and it is enough to blow hard to defeat it.

But those guys really seem serious and make brave plans. ;D ;D ;D ;D

Wikileaks - secret NATO plans against Russian attack of Poland
07.12.2010 11:43

As President Dmitry Medvedev ends his visit to Warsaw today, it has been revealed that Washington has drawn up classified plans to defend Poland and the Baltic states from Russian attack, according to a cable released by Wikileaks. Nine NATO divisions made up of Polish, German US and British troops have been assigned combat duties in the event of an attack on Poland or the Baltic states by Russia, according to cables marked ‘secret’ by Admiral James Stavridis from the US mission to NATO in Brussels.

The policy - referred to as ‘Eastern Guardian’ - was agreed on 22 January this year and will jar with President Obama’s recent declaration that NATO-Russian relations have been “re-set”.

The revelations that NATO has, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, fully drawn up contingency plans to defend Poland from Russian attack could be embarrassing coming just hours after President Bronislaw Komorowski and President Dmitry Medvedev describing Warsaw and Moscow as entering a historic “new chapter” of closer, more cordial relations.

The cable states that: “On January 22, NATO's Military Committee agreed to expand EAGLE GUARDIAN, the Alliance's contingency plan for the reinforcement and defense of Poland, to also include the defense and reinforcement of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.”

Another cable sent from the US embassy in Warsaw on 18 December 2009 on the Eastern Guardian plans says: “Poland strongly agrees with the necessity of contingency planning for the Baltic States but would like to avoid delays in the completion of the EAGLE GUARDIAN plan for Poland.

However, both Komorowski and Kobieracki suggested that Poland might be able to accept a "creatively packaged" plan that included separate but complementary components ("chapters") for Poland and the Baltic States. They agreed that discussions should not be made public. END SUMMARY.”

Christmas present

The US embassy in Tallinn describes the Estonian reaction to the ’contingency plans’ against a Russian attack as “an early Christmas present” in yet another cable released today.

“[Paul Teesalu, director of Estonian’s Foreign Ministry Security Policy Division] welcomed the information and called it an "early Christmas present." Teesalu was pleased to see a clear plan to add the Baltic States to Eagle Guardian, and thought this the best option for easily including the Baltic region in contingency planning. Teesalu also fully agreed that all such discussion should be conducted out of the public eye, stating that Estonia is looking for, "solidarity, not visibility," says the cable.

[Bonobo]

‘Polish GROM missiles found in Chechnya’ discussed in leaked cable
09.12.2010 14:21

The US and Russia discussed the discovery of Polish made GROM missiles in Chechnya in 2008 which Moscow claimed had been transferred from Georgia, new cables from Wikileaks reveal.

In late 2008, the Moscow-based Izvestia newspaper reported that army personnel had found GROM (thunder) man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADS) in Chechnya, which they claimed had come from Georgia following the Russian-Georgian war.

During the war, Georgia is thought to have purchased 100 Grom AA missiles and 30 launchers, delivered to Tbilisi at the request of the then Polish president, Lech Kaczynski.

It was suggested by Russian media that Georgia had been supplying Chechen rebels with Polish made weapons.

Washington discussed the development with Moscow following a US-Russian summit in July 2009, where they discussed non-proliferation measures in the region.

A cable dated 6 August 2009, remarks that at the summit, “the Russian side again requested U.S. help preventing the spread of MANPADS in the Caucasus, in particular information on Polish-supplied MANPADS to Georgia that were discovered in Chechnya following the August 2008 conflict. In response to our non-paper on the subject, the Russian MFA informed us it had begun a dialogue with the Polish government.”

The Izvestia article claimed that on 14 August 2008 a missile had been fired at Russian aircraft when it flew over Itum-Kale in Chechnya but missed the target. On 10 October, Russian Special Forces found one used and another intact Polish GROM missile launching sites.

[Bonobo]

Wikileaks - France pressure on Poland after Russian-Georgian war
09.03.2011 10:13
Paris threatened in 2008 to obstruct a flagship initiative by Poland and Sweden to draw ex-Soviet states closer to the EU, if Warsaw and Stockholm did not soften their stance on Russia’s war with Georgia.

The cable released by Wikileaks, marked ‘confidential’ and sent by US Charge d'Affaires Robert Silverman, reported that Swedish diplomat Johan Frisell told him: “France threatened to stall the Eastern Partnership initiative if the Swedes and others opposed to "business as usual" with Moscow refused to resume EU-Russia talks.”

Poland was a fierce critic of Russia during its war with Georgia in 2008. France, however, wanted a softer line to be pursued with Moscow.

The confidential cable continues: “But once the decision on talks on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement was made, Sweden and Poland, co-drafters of the initiative, were given a green light to "move ahead," Frisell told us.”

France was keen to sign a deal between Russia’s gas giant Gazprom and Gaz de France Suez on the French utility's participation in the Nord Stream gas pipeline project - an agreement finally concluded in March last year.

France was also in the process of selling a Mistral-class assault warship - capable of transporting and deploying up to 16 helicopters, 13 battle tanks and 450 troops - to Russia, much to the displeasure of Washington, Warsaw and other EU governments.

Doves and hawks

Previous cables released by Wikileaks have shown that the EU was split over the Russia-Georgia war, with France and Germany leading the ‘doves’ and Poland, alongside other former communist EU members and the UK wanting a harsher line against what they saw as Moscow’s “aggressor” status in the conflict.

A cable sent to Washington from Brussels on 12 August 2008 noted that: "A number of allies - especially Germany - are parroting Russian points on Georgian culpability for the crisis. {…} The German-led side {…} is unlikely to support anything more than a slap on the Russian wrist in the upcoming NATO ministerial."

[valpomike]

You can ad the French to the list, with Germans, Russians, and any other who want to hurt Poland.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Wikileaks - Poland feared becoming US ‘nuisance’
13.04.2011 13:36
In a cable released by whistleblower web site Wikileaks, the then US ambassador to Poland wrote back to the White House in March 2009 that Polish elites feared “Poland has become an afterthought, or even a nuisance in Washington circles’.

Labelled ‘confidential’, with the title - 'Are we sincere?,' the then ambassador, Victor Ashe wrote in the cable: “There is a growing fear among Polish government elites that Poland has become an afterthought, or even a nuisance, in Washington circles, and this is hard to swallow for a country that considers itself a loyal ally and important contributor to U.S. strategic interests in greater Europe and Afghanistan.”

The cable was written early into the Obama administration’s term and following the first meeting between Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski and the new US secretary of state, Hilary Clinton.

The Polish government was getting anxious, reports Ambassador Ashe, to set up a meeting between Prime Minister Tusk and President Obama.

“[The Polish government] would like very much to hear back on its request for PM Tusk's visit to the White House. Privately, [Foreign Ministry] officials have told us the Prime Minister will lose credibility if he does not get a Washington visit by the end of April,” writes the ambassador back to Washington.

The cable also reports on Warsaw fears that the new US administration, which wanted to thaw, sometimes difficult relations with Russia during the Bush years, would make deals with Moscow behind Poland’s back and under pressure from Russia.

On whether Obama would cancel President Bush’s central European anti-missile shield plan - which he eventually did - the cable writes:

“Deputy Defense Minister Stanislaw Komorowski told acting U/S Mull in Washington in early March that "it is important to be 100 percent sure that Russia has no influence on sovereign decisions ... that would be a disaster for both of us."

On the Polish government’s fears of being left in the cold, the cable writes: “We have […] given Warsaw numerous assurances that the U.S. intends to move forward with our strategic relationship and will consult on [missile defence] but Poles are keenly aware of the lack of actual consultations -- either on the Administration's thinking on MD or dialogue as envisioned in the August 2008 Declaration on Strategic Cooperation.” (

[valpomike]

Obama, does not speak for the true Americans, we care for Poland, even with him not. This is another reason, he will serve just one term, and that was to much.
After this election, our new leaders will work with Poland, I am sure.

Mike