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Post by Bonobo on Apr 18, 2008 20:12:52 GMT 1
Polish intelligence has its heroes. One from recent times is Marian Zacharski, a super spy who worked for Polish communist intelligence. MARIAN ZACHARSKI, president of the Polish American Machinery Corporation (POLAMCO), lived in the United States from 1977-1981. Zacharski in reality was an officer of the Polish intelligence service. BELL, WILLIAM HOLDEN, project manager of the Radar Systems Group at Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, California, and MARIAN ZACHARSKI, were arraigned in June 1981 on espionage charges. Under the guise of business activities, and over a period of several months, Marian Zacharski developed a relationship with Bell. According to a court affidavit filed by the bureau, he had paid Bell about $150,000 over the past three years to photograph highly classified documents detailing Hughes Aircraft radar and weapons systems. The film was passed to Polish agents and ultimately, it is believed, to the Soviet Union. As a result, the “quiet radar” and other sophisticated systems developed at Hughes Aircraft were seriously compromised. Among other things, Zacharski won access to material on the then-new Patriot and Phoenix missiles, the enhanced version of the Hawk air-to-air missile, radar instrumentation for the F-15 fighter, F-16, "stealth radar" for the B-1 and Stealth bomber, an experimental radar system being tested by the U.S. Navy, and submarine sonar BELL, WILLIAM HOLDEN, project manager of the Radar Systems Group at Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, California confessed and agreed to cooperate with the FBI in the effort to apprehend Zacharski. On 14 December, Zacharski was convicted of espionage received a life sentence, prohibition to enter US where he still is a condemned felon and consequently there is a warrant for his arrest upon the entry to the US. In June 1985 Zacharski was exchanged, along with three other Soviet Bloc spies, for 25 persons held in Eastern Europe. On 15 August, 1994 the Polish Government announced Zacharski’s appointment as head of civilian intelligence in the Office of State Protection. On the August 17, 1994 the US Embassy delivered a démarche to the Polish Government. It noted that Zacharski was still under a life sentence in the United States and requested that Warsaw reconsider his appointment. Zacharski withdrew his name the next day.
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Post by Bonobo on Jun 28, 2008 18:55:36 GMT 1
"Three mates" documentary leaves Poland dumfounded thenews.pl 25.06.2008 15:45 Feature: A documentary revealing the shady past of a former Communist secret services (SB) informer, later a respectable journalist, has left Polish public opinion dumbfounded. By Marek Jarosz The documentary film Three Mates by Ewa Stankiewicz and Anna Ferens, produced by private television TVN, broadcast in two parts on Monday and Tuesday, tells the story of a friendship among three students from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, ardent anti-Communist activists in 1970s. and well-known public figures today. The three are Bronislaw Wildstein, journalist, freelance author, and former CEO of the Polish state-owned television; Stanislaw Pyjas, a poet, brutally murdered by the Communist militia in Krakow in 1977, for which concrete evidence was never found nor the perpetrators revealed or punished, and today the symbol of martyrdom of the anti-Communist opposition in Poland; and finally Leslaw Maleszka, until recently, a prominent editor and journalist in the largest Polish liberal, intellectual- wing Gazeta Wyborcza, the country's largest daily. In 2001, it transpired that communist agents had enrolled Maleszka as a secret informer in the mid 1970s and he remained an active source of information until the 1980s, receiving generous remuneration for his services. The makers of the documentary have managed to find and interview the former SB agents who supervised Maleszka's work as an informer. A vast majority of them, still unpunished for past activities, live comfortable lives, claim generous state pensions or run their own businesses and remain arrogant towards their victims. Those who agreed to appear before the camera, describe Maleszka as a very "good, diligent agent" who "wrote excellent reports" about opposition activists, including his closest friends Wildstein and Pyjas, and even suggested areas for improvement of the collaboration. Leslaw Maleszka, who agreed to appear in the documentary, openly admits to his shameful past, but when asked why he did it, all he could say was: "That is a very good question..." Roman Graczyk, a journalist and Wildstein and Maleszka's friend from university days told TVN24 on Wednesday that a scenario could be not excluded whereby Stanislaw Pyjas had to die, because he might have suspected Maleszka of collaboration. Wildstein reminds that Maleszka was dismissed from his position at Gazeta Wyborcza only days before the premiere of the documentary. Until then, the newspaper had claimed that unless Maleszka's cooperation is proven beyond any reasonable doubt, he should be deemed the victim of a witch-hunt rather than a former SB agent. www.tvn24.pl/12690,1554685,wiadomosc.html Young Maleszka - the agent, probably responsible for his friend`s death, on the right and today Pyjas, killed by communist police.
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Post by tufta on Jun 30, 2008 13:02:05 GMT 1
Now Bonobo The only missing link (in the meaning - not presented) in your chain of thought as presented (interestingly) in this forum is a queastion as follows. Does Gazeta Wyborcza stance on matters brought forward in the 'Lech Walesa' thread and in this thread have some interaction or not at all?
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Post by Bonobo on Jun 30, 2008 20:47:35 GMT 1
Now Bonobo The only missing link (in the meaning - not presented) in your chain of thought as presented (interestingly) in this forum is a queastion as follows. Does Gazeta Wyborcza stance on matters brought forward in the 'Lech Walesa' thread and in this thread have some interaction or not at all? I have been thinking about your post for 5 minutes, even looked through the Walesa thread but I still cannot understand your Walesa and Maleszka juxtaposing... I am a fool today....
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Post by tufta on Jul 1, 2008 3:24:58 GMT 1
I mean that GW general line on all matters, including the changing attitude towards Lech Walesa, was in the hands of Maleszka as well. Or in the hands of journalists who didnt care tey worked with him. Are there more Maleszka format time out there in the world of media, the question arises. At the same time it is GW which is the strongest opponent of the book by Gontarczyk and Cenckiewicz. And it is not the book which is the real target of this stange campaign, not even it's authors. It is the IPN which is the target. Thus, the memory is the target.
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Post by Bonobo on Sept 20, 2008 21:48:56 GMT 1
Not only journalists were recruited by communist secret service. All scientists who travelled abroad had to "consult" an officer from services. Wolszczan the astronomer communist era spy? thenews.pl 18.09.2008
Poland's most famous astronomer, known for his talent for discovering planetoids, is the latest to be accused of cooperating with the SB, the communist-era secret police.
An analysis of the Institute of National Remembrance' s (IPN) archives infers that Professor Aleksander Wolszczan may have been a secret operative cooperating with the communist spy network, working under the code name "Lange". The records under investigation include lists of participants in various scientific conferences - both in Poland an abroad) - lesson plans, and scholarship reports.
The astronomer is quoted on TVN 24 as saying: "It is true that, at the beginning of the 1970s, when I started to travel abroad, I unintentionally agreed contact with the SB, because I had no idea what that meant then."
Wolszczan, in a written statement, claims that, when asked by the SB about certain people, he said little, spoke generally, or said nothing at all.
He claims that his contacts with the SB ceased during the Solidarity movement years in the 1980s, and then he left the country for ten years. "During the time of Solidarity, they asked me about people who were active in the movement and I said that I will not talk about that topic because it would hurt colleagues. That was the last time I saw that SB man, or anyone from the secret services."
Wolszczan graduated from the University of Nicolas Copernicus in Torun, in north-central Poland, the birth-place of the first astronomer to formulate heliocentric cosmology, in 1992. From 1992, he taught at Pennsylvania State University. On 11 November 1997, former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski awarded Wolszczan with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit Award. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksander_Wolszczan Aleksander Wolszczan (pronounced [alɛk'sandɛr 'vɔlʂt͡ʂan], listen (help·info)) (Apr 29, 1946 in Szczecinek, Poland) is a Polish astronomer. He was the discoverer of the first extrasolar planets and pulsar planets.
Scientific career
Educated in Poland (MSc in 1969 and PhD in 1975 at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń), Wolszczan moved in 1982 to the U.S. to work at Cornell University in Ithaca and Princeton University. Later he became an astronomy professor at the Pennsylvania State University. Concurrent with that appointment, since 1994 he has been a professor at the University in Toruń and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).
Working with Dale Frail, he carried out astronomical observations from the Arecibo Observatory which led them to the discovery of the pulsar PSR B1257+12 in 1990. The data analysis gathered thanks to the discovery showed that the pulsar is orbited by two planets with masses at least 3.4 and 2.8 times that of Earth's mass. Their orbits are 0.36 and 0.47 AU respectively. This planetary system was the first extra-solar system discovered in the Universe whose existence was proved.
Wolszczan and Frail published their findings in 1992 and 1994. In spite of initial misgivings of some experts, today this discovery is regarded as fully substantiated.
In 1996, Wolszczan was awarded the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize by the American Astronomical Society, and in 2002, he was pictured on a Polish postage stamp.
In 2003 Maciej Konacki and Wolszczan determined the orbital inclinations of the two planets, showing that the actual masses are approximately 3.9 and 4.3 Earth masses.
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Post by Bonobo on Oct 14, 2008 20:25:28 GMT 1
Professor Wolszczan - The Universal SpyNick Hodge The Krakow Post Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Over the past few weeks, Polish papers have been packed with revelations about one Professor Aleksander Wolszczan. Until recently, the professor was chiefly known for being the first man to pinpoint an extra-solar planet. However, a Soviet spectre has reared its head.
The claim that a brilliant young astronomer collaborated with communist secret police during the seventies comes as no earth- shattering news. Revelations about alleged informants have become an almost monthly occurrence in the Polish media. High fliers in the arts and sciences are amongst the most regular players in this carnival of compromised souls: writer Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski was unmasked not long after he departed from this world, many more had to face the music in person (although few showed grave remorse).
Time and time again it appears that a passport was the crucial factor. Today, when freedom of movement is largely taken as a given in Europe, it's hard to comprehend the lure of this seemingly mundane document. But, if you speak to Poles of fifty and over, 99 percent will tell you that even as late as 1980, no one believed that communism would end (or at least not in their own lifetime). The system had already lasted 40 years - eight times as long as the Nazi Occupation - why shouldn?t it run for another 40? With this in mind, many decided that coming to some kind of arrangement with the regime was a must.
You don't have to be a militant anti-commie to concede that there were aspects of Soviet life that weren't exactly jolly. Those who experienced it first-hand cite the frequent food shortages, the epic queues for mundane items like toothpaste, and not least, the tangible sense that towns and cities were rotting, owing to so little money being invested. Being fed constant disinformation was not exactly uplifting either. Thus, finding a way to transcend the grubby reality was no mean feat (although the Catholic faith played a huge part). However, for those born with academic or artistic gifts, the concept of a creative career offered a glimmer of hope.
It?s accepted that becoming a full-blown professor was nigh on impossible if you weren?t arranged. Meanwhile, making it in the arts was a tricky business if you weren?t prepared to play communist ball. And invariably, just when you were beginning to make it in your chosen career, one of the "smutni panowie" (sad gentlemen) would appear. Yes, you could have your passport - you could take your film to Cannes, you could perform your concerto in Rome, you could do your teaching stint in London... But there was just one small proviso. Put simply, you had to keep them informed.
It's easy to grasp that for many ambitious young people, it was possible to convince yourself that you wouldn't do anyone any harm. You could just waffle a bit. Not say anything important. Yet before long, people had several years of informing under their belts.
In the case of Aleksander Wolszczan, not much has come to light about specific people that he might have harmed, and no one is insisting that he did cause direct harm to any of his peers. Indeed, Wolszczan claims that when Solidarity began, he deliberately refused to offer information on activists. The most memorable claim that anyone has made about the astronomer thus far is that when his son was born, he wrote a request to the Secret Police asking if he could have some more money for his services. Allegedly, the powers that be complied.
At present, Wolszczan's case doesn't appear to teach us anything new about the psychology of the informer. And it should be mentioned that no respectable voices are baying for blood. The professor will not lose his honorary citizenship of Polish towns, and he will not be cold-shouldered in academic circles. Nevertheless, as each new star is "outed," the bravery of those who refused to compromise shines through with ever greater radiance.
Undeniably, the judgements of today's generation are detached from the gritty realities of Soviet life. However, certain facts remain. It's worth remembering that even if Wolszczan did not harm anyone through his dealings, the whole culture of informing did cause damage, in some cases it ruined lives.
Scores of Poles were denied passports for refusing to play the informing game. Dozens had their careers capped. Solidarity activists - who had informers circling them in shoals ? were arrested and incarcerated. Some were beaten up, some were killed.
Thus it's hardly surprising that there is some bitterness from those that were kept down by the old regime. Journalist Bronislaw Wildstein, one of the key movers in the "lustracja" campaign (the movement to expose former collaborators) , lost a close friend in the notorious "Pyas Case" (Stanislaw Pyas, a student in Krakow, was allegedly murdered by the Secret Services in 1977). Likewise, Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, one of the "Solidarity priests," was twice beaten up, and his friend, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, was murdered.
As Isakowicz-Zaleski recently discovered, several of the clergymen who had been informing on him rose to positions of great power in the Church. Thus it came as no surprise two years ago when voices within the Church vigorously opposed the priest's plans to publish his book on collaboration.
The question of whether former collaborators can hold positions of authority today is not as straightforward as it might seem. As mentioned, no serious voices are claiming that Professor Wolszczan has blood on his hands, or that he should be stripped of his credentials as a teacher of astronomy. However, logic suggests that each case is different. For example, the case of Stanislaw Wielgus, the would-be Archbishop of Warsaw is complex. Here is a man who until recently held the power to stifle figures such as Father Isakowicz-Zaleski. Was it sensible that he - a long-time informer - should maintain one of the most hallowed jobs in the land? Many felt not, and Archbishop Wielgus was obliged to resign from his post in December 2006.
These issues are already more than familiar to the Polish public, but to the West, they constitute a somewhat bewildering Pandora?s Box. Poland did manage to effect a bloodless revolution in 1989, and for this is should be proud. However, there were side effects. Poland did not start again from scratch. And whilst a witch hunt is not advisable, those historians struggling to reveal truths should not be halted in their tracks.
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 12, 2008 21:51:43 GMT 1
Cold War hero will get well-deserved honor By Carlos D. Luria Greenville News, SC 12/9/08
In August 1972, a sleek 54-foot yacht nosed into its berth in Wilhelmshafen, West Germany. Its decks gleamed in the late afternoon sun, and its brightwork shone. The skipper grabbed the ship's papers, attended to the formalities of entry and then gave his crew shore leave. They were dressed as wealthy tourists, but all in fact were spies.
Now alone on his vessel, the skipper sat down and penned a note to the American ambassador in Bonn, offering his services to the CIA. His name was Ryszard Kuklinski. He was the Polish General Staff's liaison to the Warsaw Pact Council, headed by Leonid Brezhnev, and he was appalled by Brezhnev's plan for a surprise military sweep across Western Europe. We tend to think of the Cuban missile crisis as the defining Cold War incident that, more than any other, brought us to the brink of World War III. It wasn't; this one was equally as serious.
Because of their overwhelming numbers, Brezhnev reasoned that his Warsaw Pact troops would quickly overwhelm Western opposition and mingle with the local population. The Americans would not be able to use tactical nuclear weapons because of the high civilian casualties, and Brezhnev did not believe that we would launch a full- scale nuclear war against the Soviet Union over an incident in Europe. Kuklinsky's letter was the first move in a long clandestine relationship in which he was responsible for scuttling Brezhnev's audacious plan.
Because he spoke little English, his letter was at first dismissed as a clumsy attempt by a low-level Polish seaman to earn a few dollars as an intelligence peddler. Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed and headquarters sent a Polish-speaking officer to meet him. For the next nine years, he provided us with over 40,000 photographs of Soviet plans, training tactics and equipment manuals until the element of surprise was gone, and Brezhnev's plan was abandoned.
Despite stringent measures taken to preserve his security, Polish intelligence began to zero in on him in the ninth year. In a hairy exfiltration operation, we were able to get him and his family out of Poland, and resettled them in the West. He died here of natural causes a few years ago.
This month CIA will honor his contributions in a four-hour symposium at its headquarters in Langley, Va. It is open to the public. More about Col. Kuklinski can be found in Benjamin Weiser's book, "A Secret Life."
Speaking personally, I do not believe that we were particularly stellar at initiating recruitments during the Cold War. But because of what America stood for and represented, we attracted many high- level and well-placed Soviet and satellite officials that, like Kuklinsky, "walked in" and recruited themselves. It was that group of walk-ins that gave us the edge in the intelligence skirmishes.
Since the Soviet Union's collapse, we have steadily squandered those core American values, and from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo and secret renditions, have given up the moral high ground. That loss has affected our ability to attract high-level, ideologically motivated walk-ins from around the world -- including those who might exist within the terrorists' ranks.
Additional Facts GUEST COLUMN Carlos Luria, a retired CIA officer who lives in Salem, served in the Clandestine Service for most of the Cold War. Today he tours the country giving talks on the need to reconstitute an effective intelligence capability. He can be reached at sedan3@gmail. com.
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A documentary film about Ryszard Kuklinski Axis News 09.12.2008
A documentary film about Ryszard Kuklinski, a Polish Army colonel who passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the United States CIA during the communist period, has been premiered in Warsaw, Polish Radio reports.
Dariusz Jablonski spent five years making the film titled War Games; it was shot in Poland, the United States and Russia. The documentary includes interviews with high-ranking CIA generals, former US presidential security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Polish President Lech Walesa, Polish generals Jaruzelski and Kiszczak, commander of Warsaw Pact forces Soviet Marshal Kulikov, and Kuklinski’s widow.
On December 11, War Games will be shown at the CIA headquarters; US President George W. Bush has been invited to attend. It will go on general release in Poland in five weeks’ time. Polish Army colonel Ryszard Kuklinski passed over 40, 000 pages of mostly Soviet secret documents to the CIA between 1971 and 1981. They described, among other things, plans for the imposition of martial law in Poland. Shortly after the declaration of martial law in Poland in December 1981, Kuklinski was extracted from Poland by the CIA, along with his family. In 1984, a military court in Warsaw sentenced him to death. The sentence was annulled after the fall of communism. Kuklinski visited Poland in 1998. He died in Florida in 2004.
Prominent historian Antoni Dudek, who was a consultant on the film, described it as a very important documentary and a valuable source of information about Colonel Kuklinski, the Cold War and martial law in Poland. The film lasts one hour and fifty minutes. Dariusz Jab³oñski, the director, told a press conference that he has undertaken efforts to introduce the film into a distribution network in the United States, Polish Radio notes.The plan if WW3. Poland was to be annihilated.
The Spy Who Really Came In From The Cold
David R. Stokes Town Hall, DC
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Ryszard Kuklinski
Several years ago, David Cornwell (better known by his nom de plume, John Le Carré) told an interviewer that, "espionage was not really something exclusive and clandestine. It was actually the currency of the Cold War. Spies were the poor bloody infantry of the Cold War."
They still are – though these days we are in a different war and battling another pernicious ideology.
Cold War spy novels make for entertaining reading, but the more we learn about the nuts and bolts of what actually went on back then, the more we come to understand that truth is in many ways even more dramatic than fiction.
Consider, for example, the case of Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski. He was a Polish patriot who may have saved his nation, the whole continent of Europe - maybe even the world – from massive suffering at the hands of a Soviet war machine once poised to race from behind Warsaw Pact borders to the Atlantic Ocean.
I recently attended a symposium at Langley on the life and work of this remarkable unsung hero who risked life, limb, and loved ones to pass along vital information at a crucial moment during the Cold War.
Under the watchful eye of CIA Director General Michael V. Hayden, and as part of a very real "social-contract" with this country, voluminous de-classified materials are being made available to researchers and the public at large. General Hayden was a history major back in college days and has not lost his love for thorough and informed analysis of the past. This passion has clearly informed his directorate.
The most recent historical symposium corresponded with the release of materials relating to Rsyzard Kuklinski and his work on our behalf, but especially that of his beloved Poland. In fact, Kuklinski, who died in 2004, did not see himself as working for "us" – rather he consciously recruited America, via the CIA, to work on behalf of Polish freedom during a dark and difficult time.
In August of 1972, Kuklinski sent a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, West Germany, establishing contact with our intelligence operatives. Signing it "P.V." (later Kuklinski said this stood for "Polish Viking"), this singular act began a relationship that would bear the fruit of literally thousands of vital documents and crucial information helping us to understand Soviet doctrine and intent.
The definitive account of the Polish spy's fascinating story is a book written by Benjamin Weiser, a reporter for the New York Times, entitled, A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country. Rsyzard Kuklinski is described at the time of his espionage work as "a small man with tousled hair, penetrating blue eyes and the gestures and mannerisms of a man within whom an unbounded supply of energy is bottled up." He focused that energy on doing everything he could to prevent his country from being sacrificed during the Cold War, as it had been in so many ways during the Second World War.
Kuklinski was motivated by patriotic fear. His role as a high-ranking staff officer made him privy to information about what a major Soviet offensive in Europe would mean. Though always framed via lip service as "defensive" in nature, the Soviet and Warsaw Pact war plans, in fact, were entirely designed to be offensive operations.
The salient point, as far as Kuklinski was concerned, had to do with the so-called Second Strategic Echelon – a massive potential Soviet offensive involving roughly 2 million soldiers and at least a million armored vehicles. Rsyzard and others in a place to know about these plans discerned accurately that the only real response NATO forces would have to counter such a massive Soviet mobilization would be nuclear.
And those bombs would drop, not in Moscow, nor in Western Europe – rather they would obliterate Poland – the perpetual 20th century European pawn.
In fact, the materials passed to us by this highly effective Cold War spy enabled the United States and NATO to effectively plan for such a scenario. And the other guys never knew we had the information.
But even beyond the role he played for us strategically, he also became our eyes and ears during those turbulent months (1980) as the world watched a fledgling political movement known as Solidarity, led by Lech Walesa, begin to achieve political traction in Poland. The world also wondered if and when the Soviets (with the complicity of their puppets in charge of things in Warsaw) would intervene as they had in Budapest (1956) and Prague (1968). It seemed like only a matter of time.
Ryszard Kuklinski was uniquely positioned in those days to report on what was going on – enabling us, in the waning days of the Carter presidency, to effectively warn the Soviets off. At one point, he sent a 16-page letter to the CIA describing high-level meetings of the Polish government where the discussion included the potential for a Soviet invasion of their country.
And the next year, 1981, as it became clear that the Polish government led by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, was preparing to declare martial law in the land, Kuklinski kept us informed in great detail. He despised Jaruzelski, writing in one covert dispatch that the strongman was "unworthy of the name Pole."
In a dramatic moment on November 2, 1981, Ryszard Kuklinski was summoned to a meeting in the office of one of his bosses. Six men sat at a T-shaped table and learned that there was a "mole" among them – someone had been leaking information to the Americans. Somehow managing to keep his composure, Kuklinski joined the chorus of voices in the room denouncing such an act of "treason."
But he knew his days were numbered and soon found a way to communicate to his handlers: "I urgently request instructions for evacuating from the country myself and my family. Please take into consideration that the state border is possibly already closed for me and my family."
For several days, CIA personnel in Warsaw tried to carry out a plan to evacuate Ryszard, his wife, and their two sons. Eventually they were spirited away for the long drive to Berlin. I spoke with the driver during a reception near the famed CIA floor seal in Langley's lobby, and he told me that they managed to get through three checkpoints en route – though acknowledging he still gets chills when thinking about that perilous trip - even 27 years later.
Life in America was no picnic for this Cold War hero and his family. They had to live under an assumed identity and avoid relationships, particularly with Polish-Americans, for years. The two Kuklinski sons met with untimely accidental deaths less than a year apart, breaking the hearts of mom and dad. Questions were raised about the nature of the deaths – one in a boating accident (the body never found) – the other on a college campus, felled by a hit-and-run driver. But no evidence (beyond the circumstantial) was ever discovered that pointed to anything conspiratorial or sinister.
Ryszard Kuklinski was tried in absentia in 1984 in Poland, found guilty of treason, and sentenced to death. After the Cold War ended, his sentence was commuted to 25 years (something that hurt Kuklinski deeply). In 1995, the chief justice of the Polish Supreme Court annulled his sentence. Then in September of 1997, all charges against him were revoked, enabling him to return to Poland a free man.
In April-May 1998, Ryszard Kuklinski made an 11-day tour of several Polish cities. He was greeted by some as a hero - on a level with Pope John Paul II. Others, however, protested that he was – and would remain - a traitor.
Lech Walesa, for all his good work in the cause of freedom, never completely accepted Kuklinski's account of things – even suggesting publicly that Rsyzard was a "double-agent" working for the Soviets, as well as the Americans. No such evidence exists – in fact, as new information comes out the case being made that Kuklinski was a Polish patriot and one of the good guys gets stronger and stronger. But Walesa's remarks highlight the tension when "state" becomes synonymous with "country."
Frankly, Ryszard Kuklinski's work – his willingness to risk it all for what he believed was right – left the world a better place. The Soviet Union eventually fell apart and freedom broke out in his beloved Poland. Neither would have happened had Warsaw Pact nations acted on clearly defined plans for continental – even global – hegemony.
When Kuklinski died in February of 2004, then Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet said: "This passionate and courageous man helped keep the Cold War from becoming hot, providing the CIA with precious information upon which so many critical national security decisions rested. And he did so for the noblest of reasons – to advance the sacred causes of liberty and peace in his homeland and throughout the world."
Long before that, Ryszard Kuklinski reflected, "I am pleased that our long, hard struggle has brought peace, freedom, and democracy not only to my country but to many other people as well."
So are we.
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 3, 2009 22:44:16 GMT 1
Kiszczak says evidence against collaborators not reliable thenews.pl 29.12.2008
Much of evidence against those accused of collaboration with Poland's secret services (SB) comes, not from information given by the accused themselves, but from bugs placed in their homes and workplaces, admits General Kiszczak.
General Czeslaw Kiszczak - currently on trial for his part in initiating martial law in Poland in 1981 - has admitted to ordering the secret police to record eavesdropped information as if it was coming, voluntarily from the accused. This invalidates much of the evidence against many who have been accused of collaboration.
Kiszczak, reports Gazeta Wyborcza – who was head of the communist secret services between 1981 – 83 - made his apologies to all who have been unjustly accused of collaboration.
One of those suspected is Malgorzata Niezabitowska, who served as a spokesperson in the first post-communist government of Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, from 1989 to 1990. She was said to have collaborated with the SB under the codename of 'Nowak'. After she was exonerated in 2006 by the vetting court, who said that information about her came from surveillance equipment installed in her house and not from herself voluntarily, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) lodged an appeal against Niezabitowska' s acquittal.
Kiszczak's statement sheds new light on the activity of the SB which was, after 1968, the organ responsible for the implementation of political repression and surveillance of opposition leaders.
Critics of the vetting process in Poland, where hundreds of people have been accused of collaboration with the communists, have argued that the source of the evidence – communist secret service records – is not reliable. Those found guilty of collaboration can be banned from public service in Poland.
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 26, 2009 23:02:42 GMT 1
Father Jankowski operational contact to communist secret police? Created: 25.03.2009 07:56
Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance claims that Father Henryk Jankowski, a key figure in the Solidarity movement in the 1980s, was an “operational contact” to the secret police in communist Poland, working under code names “Delegat” and “Libella”.
(photo - Jankowski in early days of the Solidarity movement - archives).
The revelations come in a new book to be published by the Institute on the murder by communist authorities of Father Jerzy Popieluszko in 1984.
Father Jankowski, who was active at the original Solidarity strikes at the Gdansk shipyard in 1980, strongly denies these revelations. But the IPN says it is certain that the priest became involved with agents of the communist secret services in the early 1980s.
“With academic certainty we can state that Father Jankowski was the operational contact ‘Libella’ aka ‘Delegat’,” claims historian Jan Żaryn at the IPN, an organisation set up by the state to look into communist and Nazi crimes in Poland.
The Institute says it is in possession of several surviving operational reports on contact between “Delegat” and the communist secret services conducted during the tumultuous events in Poland between December 1980 and May 1982. According to historians, the communist secret police (SB) used to perceive Jankowski as a valuable contact, and used him for spying on Solidarity and the Catholic Church in Poland.
Information about a then unnamed person from a circle close to Lech Walesa and Primate Stefan Wyszynski first appeared in the Polish media some three years ago. Historians then failed to identify the contact. Now, however, they have no doubts.
Jankowski – as the IPN’s publication notes– could have been unaware of the way he was being used, but still actively participated in order to reduce the influence of the group of intellectuals allied to the Solidarity union - the Workers’ Defence Committee (KOR).
The priest was used as an operational contact until the imposition of martial law in December 1981 but after was perceived by the SB as an enemy and was treated thereafter with suspicion.
Father Jankowski has been a controversial figure in Poland since the Solidarity days, known for his anti-EU stance and has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements.
Last year the IPN published a book claiming that Lech Walesa was another contact with the communists under the code name “Bolek” - accusations that the former Solidarity leader has strenuously denied.
Walesa: Fr. Jankowski didn’t co-operate with Secret Police Created: 26.03.2009 11:14 Lech Walesa, Solidarity hero and former President of Poland, has spoken out against the allegation that Henryk Jankowski, Catholic Prelate, co-operated with the Communist era Secret Police.
The information on the possible co-operation has been published in a book released today by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) on the 1984 murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko by Communist authorities.
Lech Walesa told the Polish Radio that Father Jankowski was a distinguished person in the Polish struggle for freedom and without him there would not have been a victory.
“Even if Fr. Jankowski committed some indiscretions, he did many more good things, so it doesn’t make any sense to talk about it now,” the former president said.
“The road to victory is not always straight, it sometimes zig-zags. Perhaps this was the road Fr. Jankowski followed,” Walesa added.
According to IPN historians, Fr. Henryk Jankowski, a key figure in the Solidarity movement in the 1980s, is claimed to have been an “operational contact” for the Secret Police during Communist Poland, working under code names such as “Delegat” and “Libella”. Jan Żaryn of the IPN explained that the priest could have been unaware of the way he was used. Fr Jankowski himself denied all allegations. www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/artykul105035_walesa_fr_jankowski_didnt_co_operate_with_secret_police.html
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Post by Bonobo on Apr 19, 2009 20:10:13 GMT 1
Bishop was security service agent in PRL
2009-04-15, author mzamojski , translator oskarinio Categories: [ Society ]
From information gathered by daily "Dziennik" synod will dismiss bishop Jagucki from his function. That case has no precedence in history of polish church.
Father T. will not come back to Poland, because his lover K. joined him in West Germany. People from his parish claim that he brought K. to West Germany, because he wanted to be with her there. Despite money he sends his wife is devastated - such information were given to Security Service (SB) during comunnist regime time by bishop Janusz Jagucki, now the head of polish evangelical-augsburgian Church.
Today the synod of this church will examine a report that throws some light on connections between priests and SB. As "Dziennik" claims synod will dissimilar bishop Jagucki from his function. That case has no precedence in history of polish Christian church.
History commission, that produced this report had examined, for last two years, some documents connected with invigilation of Lutherans by security service. The bulk of 700 pages report proves with hard evidence that bishop Jagucki was registered as TW ( secret collaboration) "Janusz". He was a very active agent and he was considered as a very precious source of information. According to historians he was spying on his parishioners on behalf of security service (SB). He also made reports about other priests of Lutheran and Catholic churches who he had known including Primate Joseph Glemp. He is said to even betray his own brother - Walter Jagucki - a head of polish Lutherans in United Kingdom.
Despite the evidence bishop claims that he is not guilty and belives that we will not be dismissed. news.poland.com/result/news/id/2085
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Post by Bonobo on Sept 11, 2009 21:12:33 GMT 1
Kwasniewski was spy collaborator, claims IPN thenews.pl 03.09.2009 The Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) is to release documents vclaiming that former president Aleksander Kwasniewksi collaborated with the communist secret service. Janusz Kurtyka, head of the IPN, has announced that in October the institute will publish documents on Aleksander Kwasniewski' s cooperation with the communist secret services. Kurtyka accuses the former President of being registered under the codename `Alek' in communist secret services files. In his opinion, thus is a proof of Kwasniewski being a secret agent rather than a victim of SB surveillance. Aleksander Kwasniewski has strongly denied the charges. "I know who I am and who I was. I was never a secret agent registered as `Alek' or under any other codename and this has already been proven," stated Kwasniewski. In 2000, the Lustration Court, a vetting court to determine whether public officials cooperated with communist secret services, verified that Kwasniewski was never a secret agent or cooperated with the service. Kwasniewski claims that the IPN's allegations come are a form of revenge for having called the IPN an "Institute of Liars". Kwasniewski also said as a joke that it must have been Kurtyka himself who registered him. The Institute of National Remembrance, which was set up to research crimes against the Polish nation by communists and Nazis, has been accused of pursuing a vendetta against politicians seen as against members of the Law and Justice party, particularly opponents of Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, including former president Lech Walesa.
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Post by Bonobo on Oct 22, 2009 22:11:49 GMT 1
Agent Tomek - super-spy or super-stud? thenews.pl 20.10.2009 Details on the mysterious anti-corruption agent who uses seduction as part of his method of entrapment have emerged, following more allegations of how he lured another woman into his trap. In September, Weronika Marczuk-Pazura, star of the Polish version of the popular "You can dance" TV programme, was caught by an agent from the anti-corruption bureau (CBA) allegedly taking a bribe from the chairman of a publishing house, in a deal which she was acting as a middle woman. Weronika Marczuk-Pazura has since said that she was trapped by an agent from the CBA, who tried to seduce her. "His eyes were heavy with passion as he tried to seduce me," says Marczuk-Pazura, who admits she trusted the man, especially after he met her family and friends. Above: Actress Weronika Marczuk-Pazura fell for super-stud Tomek Press reports say that the same agent - known as "Tomek" - seduced Civic Platform politician Beata Sawicka last year while investigating her for being involved in a corrupt land deal. "Tomek" was also involved in a failed operation to entrap Jolanta Kwasniewska and her husband, former President Aleksander Kwasniewski, while under suspicion of receiving illegal income. Tomasz, or Tomasz K. sometimes acts under the name of Tomasz Piotrowski or Tomasz Malecki, reports "Rzeczpospolita" , "Dziennik" and other newspapers. Tomek Bond? The 33 year-old apparently drives a luxurious Porshe Cayenne but sometimes rides a Harley; he wears Armani and Prada clothes and lives in a luxurious apartment. His wallet bursts at the seams with cash and gold credit cards and his "Hollywood smile" melts women's hearts, report Poland's newspapers, breathlessly. The only thing missing from the press reports is a Martini, shaken, not stirred. He started his career as a policeman but was quickly promoted to the Central Investigation Bureau in 2006. Because of his supposed acting talent, Tomek was involved in covert operations, aimed at detaining international drug dealers. His former boss at the CBA bristles, however, when he hears his former agent described as a playboy. "[Agent Tomek] is a highly professional and experienced officer who has been conducted special operations aimed at combating organized crime and drug trafficking, " says Mariusz Kaminski. Kaminski was sacked last week by Prime Minister Tusk as head of the CBA after accusing him of using the agency as a political tool against opponents of the Law and Justice party, which originally set up the unit after they came to power on a populist, anti-corruption ticket in the general election of 2005. The former head of the CBA added it was unfair to describe Tomasz K. as a ladies' man who is extravagant with money. "In order to look credible, Tomek had to be like a mirror which reflects the values appreciated by the social group he operated in," says Kaminski. Now, that the identity of the agent has been revealed and his cover blown, his life is in serious danger, warns Kaminski. Though accused of using seduction to lure his prey into his lair, more serious charges made against Agent Tomek, and the CBA in general, is the use of entrapment, provocation and set ups when trying to gain evidence of corruption among politicians and businesspeople. "He is a ruthless man," says Jan J., who acted as a go-between in one of his investigations.
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Post by valpomike on Oct 23, 2009 1:41:25 GMT 1
I don't dance, but would with her.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 23, 2009 0:05:45 GMT 1
Polish cipher officer worked for Chinese intelligence? 22.12.2009 12:39
Stefan Zielonka, a cipher officer who mysteriously disappeared in April 2009, might have betrayed Poland and worked for the Chinese secret service.
For many years Zielonka coded messages of Polish military intelligence. He had a unique knowledge of code names of Polish officers working abroad and access to secret sources of information. Zielonka also knew NATO’s codes.
So far military intelligence linked his disappearance to suicide or accidental death, but the most probable scenario seems to be high treason. Zielonka is suspected of a long-term cooperation with the Chinese secret service. If the suspicions turn out to be true, it will be one of the biggest scandals in Poland.
In May 2009, military intelligence revealed that Stefan Zielonka disappeared, suffered from depression and wanted to quit the army. The cipher officer must have prepared for his disappearance because his personal belongings also vanished. In the meantime he managed to gather quite a lot of money on his bank account although it still has not been touched.
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Post by valpomike on Dec 23, 2009 2:28:54 GMT 1
In time of war, spies could be shot. What justice do you think this guy needs? No less than life in prison, is what I think.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 23, 2009 19:31:03 GMT 1
In time of war, spies could be shot. What justice do you think this guy needs? No less than life in prison, is what I think. Mike Nope, that`s too much. Communist Poland used to administer such sentences - 25 years. 10 years is enough.
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 14, 2010 14:40:27 GMT 1
Finns who spied on Solidarity to be named... 12.03.2010 14:48
The Supreme Administrative Court in Helsinki is considering revealing documents on Finns who cooperated with the East German Stasi and informed on Poland’s Solidarity trade union members during the 1980s.
Among the eighteen citizens of Finland alleged to have cooperated with the former East German Ministry for State Security is Riitta Juntunen, who was mainly working in West Germany at the time. Her reports, in total 940-page long, were so valuable that the Stasi immediately passed them on to “their Soviet comrades”.
According to Finnish media, Juntunen also informed the Stasi about Finnish politicians and organizations which supported Polish Solidarity movement and the democratic opposition in Poland.
The documents are kept in the archives and so far have not been revealed. www.thenews.pl/international/artykul127368_finns-who-spied-on-solidarity-to-be-named.html
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 12, 2011 20:56:18 GMT 1
Two of the UK's heavyweight publishing houses went head to head in a bidding war over a planned biography of Krystyna Skarbek (aka Christine Granville), one of the most fabled Allied secret agents of the Second World War.
The book, which has the working title The Spy Who Loved, is being penned by award-winning biographer Clare Mulley.
Pan Macmillan emerged the victor in the auction, outdoing long-standing rival Penguin. The winning publisher enthused in a press release that the project is “a wonderful tale of a fascinating, difficult and enormously courageous woman, whose love life was every bit as colourful as her heroic acts of espionage.”
Krystyna Skarbek was born in 1915 into a distinguished clan. Her father was an impoverished nobleman whilst her mother who was the scion of a wealthy, assimilated Jewish family.
The future spy was in Africa when war broke out in 1939, and she gained British backing to launch clandestine missions to occupied Poland. She was given the pseudonym of Christine Granville, one of several false identities.
Later, as an operative of the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) she was parachuted into occupied France. Amongst her most famed exploits was the rescue of her commanding officer Francis Cammaerts (together with two cohorts) from the clutches of the Gestapo.
Skarbek married twice and had a string of affairs with highly colourful characters, including fellow agent Andrzej Kowerski (Andrew Kennedy).
It has been claimed that after the war, she had a relationship with Bond author Ian Fleming, even inspiring the fictional agent Vesper Lynd from Casino Royale. Fleming once cited Skarbek in his writings, but recent research has questioned whether the alleged year-long affair was concocted by an over-enthusiastic biographer named Donald McCormick.
Skarbek was unable to resettle in Poland after the war owing to the installation of communism. She was murdered in London in 1952 by a spurned admirer.
The Spy Who Loved is due to be released next year. 'The Spy Who Loved' gets rave reviews 29.08.2012 08:30 A new biography of Krystyna Skarbek, daughter of a Polish Count-turned fearless spy for the British during WW II, has been reviewed in the UK as “thrilling” and told in “mesmerising detail”. The Economist magazine describes Clare Mulley’s book ‘The Spy Who Loved: the Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville’ as an “assiduously researched, passionately written and highly atmospheric biography”. She survived WW II as a spy only to be murdered in London in 1952 by a man who became obsessed with her after she failed to return his love. The book tells the story of Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, who was born in 1908 in Warsaw to Count Jerzy Skarbek and Stefania, the daughter of a wealthy Jewish banker. When Poland was attacked by Germany in 1939, Krystyna and her then husband Jerzy Giżycki were in Africa and the pair sailed for England, where she demanded to be taken in to work for the British Secret Intelligence Service’s Section ‘D’. MI6's records describe her as “a flaming Polish patriot, expert skier and great adventuress, absolutely fearless”. Skarbek was sent to Hungary and Poland to organise Polish couriers to take intelligence reports from Nazi-occupied Warsaw to Budapest – a task which exposed her to great dangers, including a brief arrest by the Gestapo in 1941. She was also sent on missions to Egypt and France. After the war was over, the now Christine Granville was awarded the OBE medal by the British and the Croix de guerre by the French was her daring exploits in service of the allies. Although she never was, as had been speculated, the lover of Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond novels, it is thought she may have been the inspiration for the character Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love. As well as a fearless spy, Christina was extremely attractive to men and after separating from her husband during the war she went on to have several affairs. Her tragic death came just seven years after the end of WW II, when, after years of comparatively aimless existence, including working on cruise ships, she was stabbed to death by Dennis Muldowney, a man whose advances she had continually spurned. Skarbek is buried in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery at Kensal Green in north west London. Patriot The Economist writes that Clare Mulley “has done an excellent job of presenting the tangled anecdotes and realities of this secret agent’s life…”. “The Spy Who Loved’ is not just the story of an uniquely brave and complicated patriot, but also a scholarly and tautly written account of secret operations in occupied Europe,” the magazine writes. According to Nigel Jones writing in The Daily Telegraph, “Clare Mulley has done a dogged piece of detective work piecing together Christine’s ultimately tragic life. Understandably obsessed by her charismatic subject, she has written a thrilling book, and paid overdue homage to a difficult woman who seized life with both hands”. Clare Mulley’s book is published by Macmillan and is also to be brought out by St Martin’s Press in the United States. An earlier book on Krystyna Skarbek, 'A Search for Christine Granville’ by Madeleine Masson (1912-2007) was published in a Polish translation last year, under the title ‘Wojna, moja miłość. Krystyna Skarbek – ulubiona agentka Churchilla’ (War, My Love, Krystyna Skarbek – Churchill’s Favourite Agent). (pg/mk) tags: books, Krystyna Skarbek, WW II
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