Government ousts head of NATO-affiliated intelligence agency
WARSAW, Poland — Officials of Poland’s new right-wing government, backed by troops, entered the office of a fledgling NATO-affiliated counter-intelligence centre shortly after midnight Friday to replace the head of the centre with a person loyal to the new leadership.
The previous head, Col. Krzysztof Dusza, failed to act on a dismissal order last week, said Bartlomiej Misiewicz, a defence ministry official.
He said Dusza’s licence to access classified information was recently lifted and he could not continue in the post.
There was no resistance, and Dusza wasn’t there, but the head of the centre was able to enter. There was no explanation from the government for the dramatic swoop at 1:30 a.m.
The new Law and Justice government has been replacing top staff at all of the nation’s security services.
Dusza, speaking on TVN24, said he had not received a dismissal document and believed he is still the head of the centre. The incident sparked an angry reaction from the political opposition.
“I believe it has never happened in the history of NATO that a member state attacked a NATO outpost,” said Tomasz Siemoniak, who was defence minister in Poland’s previous centrist government.
“This is an issue for the Polish authorities,” said a NATO official in Brussels. “The Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence in Poland has not yet been accredited by NATO,” he said.
The official said NATO centres of excellence are “are international research centres, which are nationally or multi-nationally funded and staffed, and work alongside the alliance, but they are not NATO bodies.”
Poland has been in political crisis since Law and Justice took power in mid-November.
The party’s attempts to put its supporters on the constitutional Tribunal — refusing to allow three judges chosen legally by the previous government onto the court — have sparked a deep crisis.
Opposition to the way that the party is consolidating power brought out tens of thousands of protesters last weekend and more rallies across Poland are planned for Saturday.