The spy worked at the Ministry of National Defense for years. Former intelligence officer: SKW was a disaster after Macierewicz’s rule
Did the services not notice a spy in the Ministry of National Defense? – SKW was, colloquially speaking, the most politically “crawled” service of all – says Lt. Col. Marcin Faliński in “Wprost”.
Tomasz Stankiewicz, “Wprost”: In 2021, the Military Counterintelligence Service examined an official detained at the Ministry of National Defense and did not find anything disturbing. How is it possible that the officers did not see what they now call “tremendous evidence of treason”?
Lt. Col. Marcin Faliński, former officer of the Foreign Intelligence Agency: I see various possibilities here. Either the proceedings were conducted poorly or simply not thoroughly. We also need to remember the condition of the SKW after Antoni Macierewicz’s rule – it was a major decline in terms of personnel, to put it mildly. The second issue is that we still don’t know when this man started cooperating with foreign intelligence, I assume Russian. Was this already going on before 2021 or did it start later? Or maybe he was “placed” much earlier, even from the beginning of his career? Without this answer, it is difficult to honestly assess what exactly failed.
So the political context of that time could have influenced the quality of the SKW’s work?
Yes. We know the history of verifications, admissions, purges and personnel confusion. The SKW was, colloquially speaking, the most politically “crawled” service of all.
How strong is the resistance in Polish counterintelligence to undermining the loyalty of people who have held prominent positions for decades? Does their high position in the Ministry of National Defense hierarchy create a kind of “protective umbrella” around them?
It is not the “resistance” that matters here, but the person. The screening procedure is usually conducted by one officer, sometimes by two people. A lot depends on the professionalism of the particular leader.
If we assume that this man has been acting “always” or for many years, then the problem does not only concern 2021, there must also have been earlier actions in other political realities. I repeat. The key question is how long the cooperation lasted.
Are there so-called “sacred cows” that are not touched or x-rayed, for example politicians or high-ranking officials?
