Phillip Seymour Hoffman in A Most Wanted Man: After the torture
that went on at the CIA black site on Polish territory,
can Poles trust
the United States? Do they have a choice?
Poland's CIA
Black Site and Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Polityka, Poland)
"In the film
A Most Wanted Man, recently-deceased
Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a German agent who, although he doesn't trust the
Americans, is obliged to cooperate with them. … Poland didn't make a bad
decision, when - like other allies -it signed up without hesitation to
cooperate with Washington after the September 11 attacks. … Allowing the use of
a secret base in Poland I would not consider a mistake or a problem. Were our
decision-makers supposed to assume that the American secret services were there
to commit torture?"
The shocking report from the U.S. Senate reveals cruelty,
arbitrary violence and dishonesty on the part of some in the American
intelligence services. One has to respect this high-level body for revealing
CIA's methods, despite knowing it will not buoy supporters of the United States
around the world. This is about Bush's America, not Obama's. President Obama himself
has condemned torture and forbade its use.
Americans will resolve their problems with intelligence
services themselves, and Poland will do the same. It would likely be helpful
for us to prepare our own report showing what Polish authorities knew about
American torture. It is an amazing coincidence that today's edition of Polityka the same
time as the release of the film A Most Wanted
Man, a thriller based on the novel by John le Carré.
In the film, recently-deceased Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a German agent who,
although he doesn't trust the Americans, is obliged to cooperate with them. The
German wants to complete his intelligence task with finesse, "with a
velvet glove." You will have to find out yourselves if he succeeds. If you
haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
The question is whether our leaders at the time - former [President]
Kwaśniewski or former [Prime Minister] Miller - have
seen the film. Of course, the film and the le Carré
novel emerged much later than the torture the report refers to, and they are both
works of fiction. However, le Carré - the master of
crime fiction - didn't just pluck his ideas out of thin air. He can read the
atmosphere better than any politician.
This leads us to a few obvious conclusions. Poland didn't
make a bad decision, when - like other allies -it signed up without hesitation
to cooperate with Washington after the September 11 attacks. Allowing the use
of a secret base in Poland I would not consider a mistake or a problem. Were
our decision-makers supposed to assume that the American secret services were
there to commit torture or that they aren't trustworthy?
Was it necessary to demand full accounting of the actions of
the American secret services? The Senate report – assuming that the relevant
passages refer to Poland – indicates that our authorities at some point wanted a
document signed that would clarify the roles and responsibilities of both parties
- but the Americans didn't agree to that. Should Poland have demanded that the
base be liquidated?
Posted by Worldmeets.US
Let me remind you that for years, all political forces in
Poland have striven to obtain a permanent presence for U.S. forces in the
country. That is even more the case today, in the face of Russia's aggressive
actions. Allied cooperation is a necessity. And it may sound naive, but one
must keep watch over the hands of our allies.
Based on the movie quoted here, one cannot draw the
conclusion that Americans are devils and its better not to be in cahoots with
them. We all have trouble controlling our intelligence services. President
Harry Truman even said he didn't want a Gestapo or secret police at home, but
he didn't abolish the secret services. Isn't it a hypocrisy when we all demand
civilized legal norms for the fight against crime, but we don't do the same for
our intelligence services?
And one more thing. It is easy to
adopt an attitude of: "I condemn and don't want to have to do deal with it."
The latest example: President Obama was looking for countries to which he could
send Guantanamo prisoners. There are still 70 people there who four years ago
has already qualified for release. Republicans don't want to allow them on U.S.
soil and sending them to Syria, Iraq or Pakistan is most often out of the
question. This year, a few found refuge in Qatar, Slovakia and even Georgia.
How many of us would support the idea to offering them asylum in Poland?
