Poland’s opposition party calls for probe into illegal recordings between Russia and Polish officials
By Adam Entous
25 June 2018
The opposition Civic Platform has called on the Polish government to investigate an international wiretapping project between the United States and Russia that recorded phone conversations involving Polish senior officials.
Civic Platform leader, Patryk Jaki told the media during a speech at an anti-war rally in Warsaw on Friday that the recordings were carried out in the 1980s, when then-President Lech Kaczynski was president of Poland.
The wiretaps, the last of which ended in 1987, were conducted by US authorities under the direction of Russian intelligence to monitor activities of Polish government and politicians, the opposition leader alleged.
Kaczynski was president from 1981 to 1989, during which time he pushed through a series of reforms allowing for the dissolution of the country’s ruling right-wing party, the ruling Law and Justice party.
At the time, the party was accused by many in the Communist Party of favoring a military junta that had staged martial law in 1981 to destroy independent trade unions and other anti-communist organizations.
These activities were carried out by the “Eagle” intelligence agency of the US, which was headed by the CIA’s veteran and head of counterintelligence, Lee Teng-hui, as well as the White House’s National Security Council and CIA director William Casey.
A Russian intelligence officer was also present at the scene of the wiretaps, Jaki said.
“The recordings have since been made available to journalists from Eastern Europe, including Poland,” he said. “We are calling on everyone to listen to them and see for themselves what kind of information is contained in them.”
Jaki accused the Polish government of refusing to investigate the wiretapping project.
“We have no reason to doubt the facts of the recordings—even if we don�