This reform, carried out by the present
coalition Government, led by the social democrats (SLD), wasn’t the
first one in the post-1989 Poland.
Urzad Ochrony Panstwa
(UOP)
(Office for State Protection) was founded on
April 6, 1990 as a department of the Ministry of
the Interior. In 1996 it was transformed into a separate government
agency under the supervision of the Prime Minister. It was
responsible for intelligence, counter-intelligence and government
electronic security. The UOP replaced the communist-era Sluzba
Bezpieczenstwa (SB) (Security Service),founded
in 1956, whose responsibilities had additionally included the
suppression of the democratic opposition to the communist
government, prior to 1989. The Military Intelligence and
Counter-Intelligence (WSI) slipped out of the 1990s reform, just
changing its former name Wojskowe Sluzby Wewnetrzne (WSW)
[literally: Internal Military Services] to Wojskowe Sluzby
Informacyjne (WSI) [literally: Military Information Services].
After the collapse of the communist
system in Poland (June, 1989), in other “socialist countries”
[1990-1991] and in the USSR (December, 1991) there was an urgent
need to disband the repressive communist secret service system and
to get rid of thousands of its functionaries and secret informants.
Each of the post-communist countries dealt with this problem in its
own way. The general trend was to verify the professional cadres by
dismissing the most compromised functionaries of the regime and to
form new institutions and recruit new people. In Poland this had
been accomplished in the early 1990s but never to the end. A
“ZERO OPTION” or the complete dismissal of the Secret Services
(called in Polish: Special Services) and building them anew
in the reformed structures and with new people was also sought but
never fully materialized. The reasons were simple: the lack of
qualified people to man the Intelligence and Counter-intelligence
Services of the democratic country. It was then more easy to
organize new institutions with a “mixed personnel”, consisting in
part of the old (previously “positively verified” or “screened”)
agents and the new would be agents, recruited from among the members
of the former anti-communist opposition. This had been done in
practice. The “positively verified” former officers of the
communist Foreign Intelligence and Counter-intelligence were
transferred to the Office for State Protection (UOP) and their main
task was to train the new admissions. The key jobs were in the hands
of the former opposition activists, politically appointed and
responsible to the new government. Not a small number of the former
officers and agents pleaded loyalty to the Republic of Poland (RP)
and voluntarily dropped their obligations to the (communist)
People’s Republic of Poland, the state that ceased to exist.
Some of the new recruits, mostly young people from anti-communist
organizations, quickly learned the trade and advanced to the higher
ranks and posts, even to the post of the Head of the Office for
State Protection (Urzad Ochrony Panstwa, UOP), Head of the
Counter-intelligence (in the UOP), department heads and the like.
The remaining former communist functionaries, sacked of their jobs,
became professionals in many trades, some of them went to business
and were successful. But there were also some “black sheep” among
them, who organized their mafia-like organizations and used their
spy and spy-catcher’s experience to indulge into the illegal trade
in arms, military equipment and nuclear materials and products. Some
became the bosses in the narcotic trade or “specialized” in
financial and banking swindles, very popular after the change of the
regime. This is often called the “criminal offspring” of the former
communist Secret Services.
The verification of the personnel had
been also done in the Military Secret Services (WSI) but no new
institutions were founded there. The MI (Military Intelligence) and
the MC-I (Military Counter-intelligence) remained subordinated to
the Ministry of Defense, headed by a number of civilian politicians
from the often changing democratic governments. Some experts and
critics claim that there was no reform at all in the Military
Secret Services and these Services still remain under the influence
of the “old” communist functionaries. This is true only in part as
many young officers advanced to the higher ranks and posts on their
jobs. The Military Services were always “secretive”, due to the
nature of their secret operations, aimed at the protection of the
Polish Land Army, Navy and Air Force from enemy spies and at the
covert intelligence operations, carried out abroad to “steal”
foreign countries’ military secrets. But since Poland joined NATO
(March 12, 1999), the reform of the Polish Military Secret Services
became also a priority.
Turf wars and scandals
From 1990 until 2001 and later on the
structures of the Polish secret services were gradually reformed and
institutionalized. The “civilian” foreign intelligence and
counter-intelligence shifted from the Ministry of the Interior to
the Office for State Protection, responsible to the Prime Minister
of the Government and the Military Services remained under the
Ministry of Defense, now headed by a civilian politician, not by a
military person as before. The subsequent governments and presidents
of Poland as well as the political parties actually in power engaged
in a series of “turf wars”, seeking the hegemony over the Secret
Services. Finally a post of “Minister-Coordinator of the Special
Services” was specially formed to oversee the Services and to report
to the Prime Minister and the Government, as well as to the
Parliament. All the time, during these 11 years, there was an open
question rised: to what extend the Secret (or Special)
Services should be non-political and impartial, serving just to the
Polish State. In practice that goal could never be reached as the
changing governments formed by a number of political parties and
coalitions always wanted to control the Services to their own
benefit. Moreover, the control over the Archives of the former SB
(Security Service or political police) and the WSW (Military
Services) became the top priority task to each of the ruling parties
and political groups, who used the dossiers to compromise and
blackmail the opponents by accusing them of being “foreign spies” or
secret agents and/or informants of the SB or the WSW, in order to
eliminate them from the active political life and to deprive them
of the high posts in the state administration. This trend is being
continued until now, however in a more “civilized” way, by the
legally approved lustration process of all political figures and
public functionaries. By trial in a special Lustration Court
theoretically all people holding government or other public jobs can
be cleaned of false accusations or judged guilty of the
participation in the former communist repression system. In practice
this is sometimes a lottery, as a large part of the secret documents
has been destroyed or taken out of the SB and WSI archives before
1990 or even later.
The best known scandal came out in
December 1995. It was a (false) accusation, brought by the then
Minister of the Interior, Mr. Andrzej Milczanowski against the Prime
Minister of the Government, Mr. Josef Oleksy. The Minister,
responsible directly to President Lech Walesa, used the Office of
State Protection (UOP) to spy on the Prime Minister from the
social-democratic (SLD) government and publicly accused him in the
Parliament of being “a Russian spy”. The unproven accusation caused
the demission of the Prime Minister and the “spy-case” went to the
Military Prosecutor, who dismissed the alleged testimonies of the
UOP agents. Mr. Josef Oleksy was found not guilty but the
intelligence officers, who manipulated the accusations, were
promoted by President Lech Walesa to higher ranks, before Walesa
left the Presidential Office after the lost re-election campaign in
1995 (the winner was the actual president, Mr. Aleksander
Kwasniewski, who is serving his second and last term now). That
scandal had a close similarity to a political provocation against
the so called post-communist Left. President Walesa, who executed
the constitutional power over the Ministry of the Interior and the
Ministry of Defense, could have used the “Oleksy spy-case” to
proclaim a martial law in Poland and to remain in the Presidential
Palace for a longer time, in spite of the lost elections. Did he
really want to do so? I doubt. But certainly he wanted to prove that
the post-communists are “former Soviet agents” not worth to rule
over the democratic Polish state. If so, the scheme had failed. But
the Oleksy case wasn’t the last scandal involving the Secret
Services. In the year 2000 both presidents - the former Mr. Lech
Walesa and the actural Mr. Aleksander Kwasniewski – became subject
to the lustration trials as the contestants in the presidential
elections. At that time some efforts were made with the “help” of
the UOP to manipulate by the SB archive documents to prove at court
that both presidents of Poland were communist secret agents or
informants, before the regime change in 1989. But the truth
prevailed and the presidents were found not guilty. Lech Walesa,
again, lost the elections to Aleksander Kwasniewski, who became the
President of Poland for the second term.
“Zero option” and the Present Reform
In Fall of 2001 there were to be held the
elections to the Polish Parliament (the Sejm and the Senat). The
reform of the Secret Services became an important part of the
Election Program of the social democrats (SLD – the Social
Democratic Alliance), led by Mr. Leszek Miller, the actual Prime
Minister of the Polish Government. A long time before the elections,
SLD founded a National Security Institute in order to work out for
Poland a new system of the Secret Services to replace the one
compromised by the enduring scandals and political rivalry. At that
time the country was ruled by a bizarre coalition of the Right and
Center parties, called Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność, AWS (The
Election Action Solidarnosc). The Prime Minister then was Professor
Buzek and the Minister-Coordinator of the Secret Services was Mr.
Palubicki, a former anti-communist activist. Mr. Palubicki’s role in
the “turf wars” with the use of the UOP was evident.
The AWS Government wasn’t at all
interested in the reform of the Services, as they were under the
control of their own political factions. In fact, the UOP and the
WSI noted a number of successes in the counter-espionage and in the
disrupting of the organized crime: the mafias and narcobusiness.
But the Social Democratic Alliance (SLD) had it’s own vision of the
Secret Services, inspired by the organization of the foreign
intelligence and counter-intelligence as well as of the domestic
security in some Poland’s NATO partner states of Europe, mainly in
Germany and Great Britain. The draft of the reform had been prepared
by the National Security Institute of the SLD, with the
participation of a number of the former intelligence and
counter-intelligence officers and some members of the Special
Services Control Commission of the Sejm. It was consulted with
the National Security Bureau of the Presidential Office and also
with President Kwasniewski himself.
The team working on the reform wanted to
change the whole system of the Secret Services, splitting them into
two main Agencies: the Foreign Intelligence Agency (Agencja
Wywiadu) and the Internal Security Agency (Agencja
Bezpieczenstwa Wewnetrznego). The office of the
Minister-Coordinator should be abolished and, in its place, an
Intelligence Community should be established to serve to the main
political leaders of the country. The Intelligence Community should
be led by the Head of the Foreign Intelligence Agency (Agencja
Wywiadu, AW). The powers of the Internal Security Agency (Agencja
Bezpieczenstwa Wewnetrznego, ABW), formed mainly on the base of
the former UOP, should embrace the counter-intelligence, the
constitutional state protection, the fight against the corruption in
the state administration and against the organized crime. To some
extend the initial model for the ABW was the American FBI. But the
new agency had no police powers, like the power to arrest people.
The AW should be a typical foreign intelligence service, working
abroad. It should comprise the majority of the intelligence officers
of the former UOP as well as a part of the WSI officers, a certain
number of them to work in the strategic intelligence. Both Agencies
should be headed by civilian politicians of the actually ruling
parties or coalitions, responsible to the Prime Minister and
controlled by the Parliament and other state control institutions.
The officers in the Agencies (save for the Heads) should not be
political nominees but impartial “state servants”.
Following the parliamentary elections of
2001, won by the social democrats (SLD), the Center-Left coalition
Government formed by three political parties : SLD, UP and PSL,
started the reform of the Secret Services . The concerning Act was
approved by the lower chamber of the Parliament (the Sejm) in May of
2002 and signed by the President of Poland in June of this year,
after a prolonged discussion and in spite of the protests from the
opposition of the Right parties. The main argument against the
reform, voiced by the opposition, was that it enabled the return of
former communist functionaries to the active service, at the cost of
the dismissal of officers and agents, previously recruited from
among the former democratic opposition to the communist regime. The
social democrats replied that it never was true and that the two
Agencies would employ non-political staff, selected by virtue of
their professional qualities. Actually the forming of the two
Agencies is in progress but the polemics never end. The heads of the
Agencies: Mr. Zbigniew Siemiatkowski (AW) and Mr. Andrzej
Barcikowski (ABW) represent the ruling SLD party. The lower position
jobs are being filled in by intelligence and counter-intelligence
professionals and people from other trades, like lawyers,
technicians, analysts. Only the future practice will prove who were
right and how the new Agencies are going to serve Poland, at home
and abroad. Poland’s Secret Services will be also carefully watched
and assessed by the NATO partners and by the secret services of the
“opposition”.
Glossary:
SB: Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa,
a former communist home security & counter-intelligence service and
a secret political police, founded in 1956 and dissolved in 1990,
after the change of the regime in Poland. The SB recruited
informants (TW) for the secret police as well as agents for the
foreign intelligence service, operated abroad by the Ministry of the
Interior (MSW), as it’s separate Department.
WSW: Wojskowe Sluzby
Wewnetrzne, former military counter-intelligence and
intelligence as well as military police in communist Poland.
WSI: Wojskowe Sluzby
Informacyjne, the actual military intelligence and
counter-intelligence, since 1990. Since June 2002, a certain number
of military intelligence officers will pass to the Foreign
Intelligence Agency (AW) and will be engaged in strategic
intelligence. The WSI will carry out intelligence tasks near
Poland’s frontiers.
UOP: Urzad Ochrony Panstwa
(Office for State Protection), founded in 2000 as a department
of the Ministry of the Interior. In 1996 reorganized as a separate
government agency, responsible for intelligence,
counter-intelligence, government electronic protection and fighting
corruption and organized crime. The UOP was subordinated to the
Prime Minister of the Government. The Office for State Protection
ceased to exist in June 2002 due to the reform of the secret
services. Its functions, property and personnel were divided between
the two new agencies: the Foreign Intelligence Agency (AW) and the
Internal Security Agency (ABW).
AW: Agencja Wywiadu,
the Foreign Intelligence Agency, founded in June 2002. Its functions
are intelligence and analysis. Its personnel works in Poland (HQ,
special operations) and, mainly, abroad. It’s predominantly a
civilian institution but a certain number of officers are military,
transferred from the WSI to work in strategic intelligence. The
Agency is subordinated to the Prime Minister, its head is a civilian
politician (now Mr. Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, member of the ruling
party, SLD). So far the AW has no official Web site.
ABW: Agencja Bezpieczenstwa
Wewnetrznego, the Internal Security Agency, founded in June
2002. Its main tasks: counter-intelligence, government electronic
security, fighting corruption and organized crime. It is responsible
to the Prime Minister. More information on this Agency is to be
found on its official Web site:
http://www.abw.gov.pl [in Polish and partly in English].
WW: Wspolnota Wywiadowcza
(the Intelligence Community), founded in June 2002 as a result
of the reform. It comprises all Polish secret services and is headed
by the Head of the Foreign Intelligence Agency (presently by Mr.
Zbigniew Siemiatkowski). Its responsibility is to inform the
President of Poland, the Prime Minister of the Government and other
prominent political leaders of the country.
Short information
about the Heads of the new Agencies
Mr. Zbigniew
Siemiatkowski, aged 45 (1957), M.A. in journalism and
political science (Warsaw University), member of SLD, previous
Government posts: Minister of the Interior, Head of the Office for
State Protection (UOP), Minister-Coordinator of the Special
Services, member of the National Security Office (BBN); member of
the Parliament (Sejm), see
http://www.sejm.gov.pl/poslowie/posel4/346.htm
