Directions of Changes Taking Place
in the Polish Secret Service After 1989
More details
Hide details
1
Professor at the Institute of Political Science,
University of Warsaw
Publication date: 2019-12-27
Studia Politologiczne 2014;31
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Secret services inherited from the former system were not in any way adjusted to the
conditions of a free, open society or to the created standards of a democratic state
of law. The new authorities of the democratic country faced the problem of building
their own secret services subordinated to the rules of a sovereign state. It was
necessary to choose the way to create them as well as establish their organizational
shape, competences and tasks. The idea of a revolution in the services was given up
and the intermediate variant was chosen. It was radical in its content but gentle in form. The model shaped in 1990 was based on dividing secret services into civil and
military ones. The former were subordinated to the Minister of the Interior, then
to the Prime Minister, whereas the latter – to the Minister of National Defense.
The Office for State Protection (UOP) was the service performing the tasks of civil
intelligence and counterintelligence. With time, it was granted the competences
from the field of combating organized crime aimed at the economic basis of the
state. UOP was the leading service in the system of institutions of the state’s
security. The Military Information Services (WSI) were the old internal services of
the armed forces modified only in a slight degree. In the second stage of the reform
of 2002, UOP was divided into two separate agencies. Internal Security Agency
took over the majority of competences and tasks of UOP. The Foreign Intelligence
Agency is responsible for foreign intelligence. Liquidation of WSI realized in 2006
in a rapid manner introduced chaos and disorganization in military services, which
till today feel the consequences of the operation performed then. According to
the declarations of the government, new reforms await secret services in 2013.
REFERENCES (9)
1.
Encyklopedia szpiegostwa, Warszawa 1995.
2.
Galicki Z., Status prawny służb specjalnych w wybranych państwach zachodnich, Warszawa 1996.
3.
Hoc S., Zagadnienia odpowiedzialności karnej za szpiegostwo, Warszawa 1985.
4.
Piotrowski P., Przemiany w MSW w latach 1989–1990, Biuletyn IPN 2006, nr 3.
5.
„Przegląd Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego”, Wydanie Specjalne. 20-lecie UOP/ABW, 6 kwietnia 2009.
6.
Siemiątkowski Z., Wywiad a władza. Wywiad cywilny w systemie sprawowania władzy PRL, Warszawa 2009.
7.
Służby specjalne-programowanie, nadzór, koordynacja, Warszawa 2003.
8.
Zalewski S., Funkcja informacyjna służb specjalnych w systemie bezpieczeństwa RP, Warszawa 2005.
9.
Zalewski S., Służby specjalne w państwie demokratycznym, Warszawa 2005.