POLE SAYS U.S. LEARNED OF PLANS FOR MARTIAL LAW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403300003-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 5, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403300003-2
ARTICLE APPE6RED
ON _
OPAGE
NEW YORK TIMES
5 June 1986
Pole Says U.S. Learned of Plans for Martial Law
By MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN
Sp.cW to no Mw Yak flew
WARSAW, June 4 - Senior Amer-
ican officials learned in advance from
a defecting Polish colonel how and
when the Polish authorities planned to
impose martial law in 1981, the Polish
Government's spokesman said today.
The spokesman asserted that Amer-
ican officials chose not to thwart the
operation by warning Solidarity or
Roman Catholic Church leaders.
[In Washington, the Reagan Ad-
ministration called the charge
"trumped up."]
Responding to a report in The Wash-
ington Post today confirming the defec-
tion of the agent in 1981, the Govern-
ment spokesman identified the Polish
officer as Col. Wlodzimierz Kuklinski.
He was on the army's General Staff
until he disappeared from Poland with
his two grown sons and their families
36 days before Gen. Wojciech Jaruzel-
ski ordered tanks into the streets to
crush the Solidarity movement.
Solidarity leaders, told of the com-
ments by the spokesman, Jerzy Urban,
confirmed that no credible warnings of
any imminent army crackdown were
transmitted to them in the winter of
1981. The Solidarity sources added that
with such advance notice, they might
have staved off the Government's mili.
tary move by disclosing the plans and
preparing for a general strike.
Reached at his home in Gdansk,
Lech Walesa, the founder of Solidarity,
said that in the winter of 1981 he had re-
ceived "absolutely no warning from
anyone."
As to the question of whether such a
warning would have deflected the pos-
sibility of martial law, he said it was
foolish to speculate.
Mr. Urban insisted that the colonel
knew all particulars of the plan, which
he had reportedly helped put together.
The Polish Government spokesman
said the agent knew specifically that
the crackdown would have to come be-
fore Dec,. 16, when a large part of the
army was due to be discharged on a
scheduled rotation.
Mr. Urban noted in an interview that
the success of the operation on Dec. 13,
1981, depended greatly on an element of
surprise, and many Solidarity activists
have said how stunned they were to see
the army on the streets.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403300003-2