Polish book revives informer claims against Walesa

[Jaga]

I do not really believe that Lech Walesa was an agent. He has many enemies because he dissolved a right wind government when he was a president.

www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1717590220080617

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish newspaper published excerpts on Tuesday of a new book purporting to prove that former anti-communist leader Lech Walesa once informed for the communist secret police, claims he has repeatedly denied.

The claims are not new but the book by two historians working for the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) -- which supervises files from the communist era -- cites what it says are previously unknown documents linking Walesa to the secret police in the early 1970s.

Walesa, a Nobel Peace Laureate and one-time leader of the Solidarity movement that toppled Polish communism in 1989, has long denied the claims of collaboration.

His office declined to comment on Tuesday on the excerpts, published in the Rzeczpospolita daily, but newspapers say Walesa plans to sue the authors when "Walesa and the Security Service" goes on sale next Monday.

In their book, Slawomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk also say that, while serving as Poland's first post-communist president in 1990-1995, Walesa removed from the state archive documents they say proved his communist-era collaboration.

The allegations about Walesa's past surfaced in 1992. A vetting court ruled in 2000 that he had never been an agent for the secret police and Walesa, now 64, has won several court cases on the issue.

President Lech Kaczynski revived the allegations in a television program and last week, Walesa responded angrily by demanding that Kaczynski be removed from office.

The animosity between the two men dates back to the 1990s when Kaczynski started questioning Walesa's leading role in Solidarity.

[Jaga]

There was a huge discussion about it in Polish TV today - whether Walesa was an agent or not.

I think that he was forced to meet with the communist security agency from time to time but I do not believe that he was a willing agent as some accuse him.

Some people are simply upset that Walesa is even critized since he is one of the best symbols of Polish Solidarity fight all over the world.

[tuftabis]

Jun 18, 2008 21:46:01 GMT -7 Jaga said:

I think that he was forced to meet with the communist security agency from time to time but I do not believe that he was a willing agent as some accuse him.

Some people are simply upset that Walesa is even critized since he is one of the best symbols of Polish Solidarity fight all over the world.

Agreed on both points!

[rdywenur]

Just more mud throwing trying to collect some attention to himself. I like Walesa and don't believe for one minute any of that garbage. Just look at the source it is coming from. How did the Poles elect Kaczynski in th first place. Too much vodka drinking clouded your sense of thinking straight in making a decision .

[Jaga]

Jun 19, 2008 4:24:02 GMT -7 rdywenur said:

How did the Poles elect Kaczynski in th first place. Too much vodka drinking clouded your sense of thinking straight in making a decision .

Kaczynski played on nationalistic and patriotic instincts and also on security and revealing the communistic past. Sorry to tell you but Kaczynski's supporters are similar to Bush supporters - elderly folks with close-minded view of the world.

[tuftabis]

Jun 19, 2008 4:24:02 GMT -7 rdywenur said:

Just more mud throwing trying to collect some attention to himself. I like Walesa and don't believe for one minute any of that garbage. Just look at the source it is coming from. How did the Poles elect Kaczynski in th first place. Too much vodka drinking clouded your sense of thinking straight in making a decision .

Yeah, we Poles should learn how to soberly elect great president from the Americans!! Or maybe you could learn how to get drunk?


Charles Baudelaire

Get Drunk

Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness
of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"

[rdywenur]

Yeah, we Poles should learn how to soberly elect great president from the Americans!! Or maybe you could learn how to get drunk?

My apologies for my flippant remark but no thank you to the invitation.

[Pawian]

Jun 19, 2008 9:16:57 GMT -7 Jaga said:

Kaczynski played on nationalistic and patriotic instincts and also on security and revealing the communistic past. Sorry to tell you but Kaczynski's supporters are similar to Bush supporters - elderly folks with close-minded view of the world.

One of Kaczynski`s men also "revealed" just before elections that Tusk`s grandfather was in German Wehrmacht.

The authors of the book, especially Piotr Gontarczyk, are also Kaczynski`s men. It is obvious they wrote a political pamphlet in order to damage Wales`a image. They manipulated a lot of facts in the book, presented assumptions as clear truth. Serious historians call them pseudo-historians and add that reality was more complicated and it is practically impossible to establish what is true or not because the communist secret police forged documents. .

[Jaga]

Jun 23, 2008 9:11:50 GMT -7 Pawian said:

One of Kaczynski`s men also "revealed" just before elections that Tusk`s grandfather was in German Wehrmacht.

The authors of the book, especially Piotr Gontarczyk, are also Kaczynski`s men. It is obvious they wrote a political pamphlet in order to damage Wales`a image. They manipulated a lot of facts in the book, presented assumptions as clear truth. Serious historians call them pseudo-historians and add that reality was more complicated and it is practically impossible to establish what is true or not because the communist secret police forged documents. .

Good point. we talked about Kaczynskis smearing other people earlier.
If Lech Walesa was so bad why Kaczynskis went to Polish oligarchy on his back since they were secretaries of his administration when he was a president.