Włodzimierz Czarzasty and Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska have returned the declassified WSI report annex to the President, warning that publishing it risks exposing intelligence sources and undermining Poland’s national security and international cooperation.
The Controversy Over the WSI Annex
Karol Nawrocki is moving toward declassifying and releasing the annex to the report on the liquidation of the Military Information Services (WSI). On April 23, the President provided an anonymized supplement to the report for review by the Speakers of the Sejm and the Senate, but both Włodzimierz Czarzasty and Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska sent the documents back.
In an interview with Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Czarzasty argued that releasing the annex is tantamount to revealing sensitive intelligence operations. He noted that while names are masked, the context remains, potentially allowing for the identification of individuals who collaborated with Polish intelligence.
National Security and Intelligence Trust
Czarzasty emphasized that Poland currently needs a sense of security, which is built on the trust of foreign intelligence services. He questioned whether other services would share classified information or continue cooperating if they feared that agents would be exposed by the Polish state.
The Speaker stressed that the decision rests with the President, stating that if the President does not grasp the implications, he will bear full responsibility for the consequences. Presidential spokesperson Rafał Leśkiewicz confirmed on April 23 that while the Speakers’ opinions are a formal requirement, they are not legally binding.
Background of the WSI Report
The verification commission report, led by Antoni Macierewicz, was made public in February 2007 under the decision of the late President Lech Kaczyński. It covered issues such as WSI influence on public opinion, surveillance of political circles, interference in the energy market, and illegal arms trading.
The annex, which contains classified information, has been stored in the Secret Office of the National Security Bureau for 18 years. Upon taking office, Karol Nawrocki ordered a review of the document, with Leśkiewicz noting that the process was conducted in accordance with a 2008 Constitutional Tribunal ruling mandating the anonymization of sensitive data.
