Poland's Government Prevents Secret Testimony By Former Polish Minister Of Interior
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The Polish Government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski suspended secret parliamentary committee hearings to prevent Poland's former Minister of Interior from giving information about the activities of Poland's Secret Services on the pretext that the information that he may be giving to the closed door meeting of the commission responsible for overseeing the Secret Services is a State Secret.
Ludwig Dorn
Silences Tongues
After having been removed as Minister of the Interior for allegedly leaking information about a sting operation set to entrap former Minister of Agriculture Andrej Lepper, Janusz Kaczmarek has been under fire for his comments. And in order to defend himself he has gone on the offensive
Though on the offensive, he has been circumspect, He has spoken in private or behind closed doors and not made specific information about purported illegal activities available to the public.
Last week when Kaczmarek was on vacation in Italy, fearing that Kaczmarek, when he returned to Poland, would be arrested for having given false testimony, Former Minister of Education Roman Giertych visited him. According to Giertych, Kaczmarek told him that Kaczynski had information about Civic Platform Leader Donald Tusk's sex life that would be used to discredit Tusk in the coming campaign. Kaczynski quickly denied he would do that.
When he returned to Poland, Kaczmarek did not elaborate on Giertych's revelation and he was not arrested.
But at this weeks secret meeting of the Special Services Committee he apparently said a lot. Though the meeting was secret, news leaked out almost immediately.
It is reported that he testified that the Prime Minister's party was using the Secret Services, prosecutors and the Anti-Corruption Bureau to gather information on not only opposition politicians, private media owners and journalist but also people within Law and Justice Party. He specifically named TVN, Polsat, Gazeta Wyborcza. Donald Tusk, Former Prime Minister Pawlak and Lech Walesa's son. ( This information cannot be verified because it was leaked by unidentified sources and printed in the local Polish press without attribution. http://www.zw.com.pl/zw2/index.jsp?place=Lead04&&news_cat_id=16&news_id=167023&layout=1&forum_id=42982&page=text" Sejmowe ostatki na podsluchu
Kaczmarek was scheduled to testify again yesterday. But he was kept waiting for five hours while the Special Services Committee apparently argued over procedural matters and the content of his testimony.
Finally, over the objections of the head of the Committee, the Speaker of the Parliament Ludwig Dorn was called by members of the Prime Minister's Party to terminate the committee meeting. Dorn terminated the meeting saying that he needed legal opinion to check as to whether Kaczmarek was revealing State Secrets.
The opposition parties were incensed. All Special Service Committee members have the highest level of secret clearances. And besides, Kaczmarek's testimony is being given in secret.
The Government has been actively trying to prevent any investigation into its use of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and Secret Services. Dorn has already ruled against voting on motions that would establish a special committee to investigate the use of the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the activities that led to both Andrej Lepper's and Kaczmarek's dismissals. The reasoning used in that issue is that an investigation should not be done before new elections because the opposition will politicize it.
The opposition claims that the Prime Minister's party does not want the public to know what it has been doing prior to the elections.
There have been calls for transparency in government operations. Now it seems that the government is trying to prevent even members of the Government from knowing what has been happening.
With the possibility of new elections looming and the Civic Platform coming to power, the information is likely to come out in the rather near future.
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