Military Information Services

Military Information Services
Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne
overview
Formed	1991 (1991)
Preceding agencies	Second Directorate for Intelligence and Counter-intelligence Second Directorate of General Staff of the Polish Army Internal Military Service
Dissolved	October 2006 (2006-10)
Superseding agency	Military Intelligence Service Military Counter-intelligence Service
Jurisdiction	Polish Armed Forces
Parent department	Ministry of Defense

Military Information Services (Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne, or WSI) was a common name for the Polish military intelligence and counter-intelligence agency. The agency was created in 1990 after the Revolutions of 1989 ended the Communist regime as a merger between the former Communist agencies Internal Military Service (Wojskowa Służba Wewnętrzna, or WSW) and the Second Directorate of General Staff of the Polish Army. The combined agency was originally known as the Second Directorate for Intelligence and Counter-intelligence (Zarząd II Wywiadu i Kontrwywiadu); it was renamed to WSI in 1991. At first, all commanding and upper-level officers—and most of the employees—had direct personal and career links with the former Communist regimes of Poland and the Soviet Union.

By a vote of 375-48 in favor, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland voted to liquidate WSI in October 2006.^{[citation needed]}

History

In 1990, the Second Directorate of General Staff of the Polish Army was joined with military counter-intelligence to form the WSW. That merger combined the intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies under one structure, the Second Directorate for Intelligence and Counter-intelligence. In 1991, the Second Directorate was transformed into the WSI. WSI was responsible for military counter-intelligence and security activities in Poland.

WSI was bound by law to shield vital state information for the newly-independent Poland, under the direct control and management of the Ministry of Defense (Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej). WSI was also intended to be Poland's liaison with the intelligence services of other NATO countries.

WSI was to investigate and counteract threats to Poland's defense forces and vital defense information. It also regulated arms, explosives, equipment, licenses, etc.

Liquidation

In 2006, WSI was liquidated and replaced by two independent military intelligence services, the Military Counter-intelligence Service (Służba Kontrwywiadu Wojskowego) and the Military Intelligence Service (Służba Wywiadu Wojskowego). Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński appointed conservative politician Antoni Macierewicz as the lead liquidator of WSI.

According to military experts of the Polish Democratic Left Alliance, NATO officials expressed disapproval of disbanding WSI.^{[citation needed]}

The Sejm allowed President Lech Kaczyński's administration to publish the Macierewicz Report, a 164-page document detailing the extralegal activities of the WSI that lead to its liquidation. The report contains information about WSI soldiers and employees

Disclosure or use of the information making the State secret or; omission to notify the prosecution agencies of criminal acts; obstruction and disconcerting penal proceedings; use of violence and illegal threats; exerting illegal affect on decisions made by the public authorities; keeping secret cooperation with entrepreneurs and persons acting in public media; falsifying information in order to exercise or extend penal proceedings against specific persons; taking financial or personal benefits from the above mentioned actions; and any other actions going beyond the matters of State defense and safety of the Polish Army.

^{[citation needed]}

Although first phase (i.e. lawful frames of liquidation made in 2006/2007) is perceived by most of Polish political elite as successful^[1] also probably in terms of extinction i.e. mitigation of: long-term overestimation of skills, faultlessness, etc..; however new formation, that was being made by process of - inter alia - "verification" was nothing less than incomplete. Polish media sources inform about ongoing, since 2007 (lawmaking) and 2009 (start of implementation), next phases of reforms towards, so-called^[2], "professionalization" in Polish army, which, according to politicians, is the biggest need of breaktrough in history of army in Poland also bigger in comparison with the liquidation of WSI and is spread for several years until 2018, but there are many public voices of opposition about problems in those reforms in spite of verification of WSI. Lack of professionals, worse results of new services in 2010, 2011, and other, cause - in Poland - diminishing of past homeland issues concerning WSI.^[3]

References

1. ^ (Polish) Sejm decided about liquidation of WSI
2. ^ Professional skills needed for recruitment were lowered in 2009/2010 in comparison with earlier periods, source: gazeta.pl (Polish)
3. ^ (Polish) Komorowski: Plan of recall of the next Lech Kaczyński's deductions .

See also

• UOP
• CIA
• Warsaw Pact
• GRU
• KGB
• SB

Read the Report http://www.scribd.com/doc/32383589/Antoni-Macierewicz-Report-on-liquidation-of-the-Polish-Military-Information-Services