At the height of
the Iraq War, Polish President Aleksander
Kwaśniewski visits with George W. Bush in the Oval Office.
President Kwasniewski: 'Sadist' CIA Should Be Shuttered; Denies Knowledge of Torture (Polityka, Poland)
"It was a
matter of 'higher necessity' … we didn't do it on a whim. It was not our
intention to accommodate sadists! … This is a real catastrophe for the United
States, the CIA and George W. Bush. … We agreed to closer cooperation believing
that America, a democratic country, would honor the law. We had no basis to
believe that the American authorities would accept, support and conceal illegal
activities." -- Former President AleksanderKwaśniewski answering TOK FM
Morning host and Polityka
journalist JacekŻakowski
On December 9, the U.S. Senate released a voluminous report about the CIA's use of
torture. The document comprises 6,700 pages and offers an account of the
interrogation methods used by the agency at its secret facilities abroad after
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The president at that time was
George W. Bush - although he was supposedly unaware of the practices as
applied.
There are no locations named in the report as they have all
been redacted. Nevertheless, experts see a Polish connection.
AleksanderKwaśniewski,
JacekŻakowski'sMorning guest on Radio TOK FM, recalled the historical context
of those events. The terrorist attack, according to the former president, was a
blow "which no one had expected," that required an appropriate
response. Hence closer cooperation among crisis management institutions became a
necessity. "Everything else was simply a reaction to what occurred,"
he insisted.
"NATO announced a state of war, and invoking the Article 5 of the Washington
Treaty, called on the allies to support the United States."
"In Poland, the key role was played by Stare Kiejkuty," Żakowski recalled.
"Everything happened with the consent of the Polish authorities." But
the president explained - in accordance with the rules of intelligence
cooperation, "we were not informed of any details." He added: "Intelligence
agencies inherently operate in silence and, regrettably, often at the very
limits of the law."
Host JacekŻakowski
challenged this assertion. The report shows that at a certain point, Polish
authorities refused to receive even one more inmate. "It follows that the
government knew there were inmates of some sort," the Polityka journalist
concluded."And then we accepted a cash
'donation' and became more 'flexible,'" Żakowski
shot back.
AleksanderKwaśniewski
wouldn't confirm that the items Żakowski pointed
to referred to Poland.
"I didn't participate in those talks, nor did I give
any consent," he assured the journalist. The former president also insisted
that he had no meetings with the CIA director [George Tenet] - and that his
only negotiating partner was George W. Bush.
Was the Polish
Constitution Violated?
Kwaśniewski was more
interested in another conclusion of the report - that the methods applied
weren't effective. "This is a real catastrophe for the United States, the
CIA and George W. Bush," the former president opined.
Żakowski insisted however, "But
is this not also a catastrophe for Poland? Our constitution has been violated and
our country has been disgraced on the global stage." He also pointed out
that the U.S. sought places beyond its borders to practice torture so as not to
break its own laws.
The former president denied there was any breach of the
constitution. This was all about the fight against terrorism he asserted. The [U.S.
Senate] report, in his opinion, will greatly complicate this fight.
Irrespective of everything else, this is a disgrace for the CIA, "an
institution that should be shuttered."
The issue of Poland's engagement can be only decided by the Krakow
Prosecutor's Office," stated Kwaśniewski.
All other discussions, in his opinion, only falsify the events that occurred 13
years ago.
Moreover, the goal of the intelligence cooperation was not "torture
for torture's sake," nor to satisfy the needs of American agents. Żakowski, on the other hand, called the CIA's methods "absurd
and counterproductive. … The result of the entire process was the rise of ISIS."
"It's a lot more complicated than that," Kwaśniewski objected. "The West is not the
creator of Islamic fundamentalism. On the other hand, the problem of the Islamic
State today seems difficult to solve. The methods used up to now have failed. …
What means does a democratic country have at its disposal to face the oncoming threats?"
Kwaśniewski asked. Thirteen years after the
World Trade Center attacks we are at a loss whether and how to react to the
Ukrainian crisis or to the possible appearance of "little green men in Latvia. … The beautiful principles of liberal governance are
under threat," Kwaśniewski claimed.
A Higher Need
Żakowski asked the former
president whether he feels responsible and whether he would, should the need arise,
stand before a state tribunal. "Since the way we react to this report is
not just relevant to this one case but to the entire evolution of our culture
and public life," Żakowski said.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
AleksanderKwaśniewski
thought these conclusions exaggerated.
"It was a matter of higher necessity; we didn't do it
on a whim. It was not our intention to accommodate sadists!" explained the
former president. "We agreed to closer cooperation with the United States
believing that America, a democratic country, would honor the law. We had no
basis to believe that the American authorities would accept, support and conceal
illegal activities." Poland's former president is convinced that George W.
Bush's intentions were legitimate.
Kwaśniewski did reveal the
circumstances under which Poland withdrew its participation in the U.S.
program.
"Polish authorities" stressed the former
president, "were unaware of the human rights transgressions, but began to
fear that the CIA's activities were ineffective. The fact that the Americans
acted in such a secretive way was disconcerting."
Poland's decision to withdraw its assistance from the CIA was
relayed to the president of the United States by Kwaśniewski
himself. Cooperation ended in 2003.
Kwaśniewski summed up by
saying, "We fought terrorism and for the security of Poland. And we succeeded."
