U.S. DENIES POLISH CLAIM IT ALLOWED SOLIDARITY ARRESTS BY KEEPING SILENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403590001-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 5, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403590001-3
WASHINGTON TIMES
ON `-(A- 5 June 1986
U.S,, denies '
Polish clann it
allowed
Solidarity '
arrests by keeping sal
By Bill Kritzberent
TH NMSHINOTON TIME
h to De artment yesterday dis-
aim t at the Reagan
admtntstration allowed the martial law
su cession o f o i a t t
to take niace by failing to advance information received frotc mith
_CIA mole in Poland's army
A State Department spokesman said
the charges were "trumped-up" to divert
blame from the real culprit, Poland.
Polish spokesman Jerzy Urban told
UPI and the Washington Post the spy had
informed the United States about the
martial law plan a month before it was
imposed. Alerted by the mole's subse-
quent disappearance, the Warsaw gov-
ernment suspected that the Americans
had advance knowledge and waited for
them to divulge it, said Mr. Urban.
But Washington never spoke up. Soli-
darity was never alerted and thousands
of its members were arrested the night
martial law was imposed Dec. 13, 1981.
Washington's decision to keep quiet
about the plan "constituted a sort of reti-
cent go-ahead on their part;' Mr. Urban
told UPI. He said Washington knew the
martial law plans by Nov 6 that year.
A State Department spokesman re-
tused comment on the story of the VIA
mole, saying it was an "intelligence mat-
tie said the United States " a ho
definitive information" that martial law
would be imposed.
He called Mr. Urban's version "a self-
serving attempt to lay the blame for mar-
tial law in Poland somewhere else than
where it belongs, that is with the Polish
government."
The spokesman also noted that Mr. Ur-
ban's statement acknowledged "that the
Polish authorities had laid plans for mar-
tial law months in advance, compiling
lists of the thousands of Solidarity lead-
ers to be arrested.
"He points out Soviet complicity in
planning martial law. Such admissions
are more damaging to the reputation of
the Polish government than any trumped-
up charges that Urban has leveled at the
United States."
The department statement, read by
fused" months leading up to martial law
,
"We were well aware of the possibility of
imposition of martial law, but had no de-
finitive information as to whether or
when such a step might actually be
taken"
In the absence of definitive word on
what would happen, the statement said,
"our objective was to convince the Polish
government to work out a solution with
Solidarity."
"The United States was aware of the
Polish situation;' Mr. Urban said in a tele-
phone conversation with UPI referring to
the possibility of Soviet intervention at
the time to quash Solidarity.
As Solidarity grew in strength through
1981, the Soviet Union had repeatedly
warned of intervention to restore order
in Poland, but Poland's own imposition of
martial law warded off such a direct So-
viet intervention.
Mr. Urban named the CIA spy as
U a ys s ~
for
----- .also L11 ICU
the CIA plant-al s Co. a saw u to
ski she was a "mo e" for t e
Staff
Mr. Urban said Mr. Kuklinski had "dis-
appeared" from Warsaw by the time se-
curity services became suspicious. His
home and the farms of his two sons were
deserted and the whole family had left
the country by Nov 6, 1981.
Mr. Urban said that when the Kuklin-
skis were withdrawn from Poland, the
authorities thought the Americans would
announce he had gone to the United
States and that they would announce the
plans and warn Solidarity and the
Catholic Church.
"That of course would have made the
imposition of martial law impossible;'
Mr. Urban said.
"We waited and waited, and they never
announced the plans. We then came to the
conclusion that they decided to be dis-
creet.
"Owing to this, we were able to impose
martial law," he said.
Asked whether he meant the U.S. gov-
ernment had indirectly helped the Polish
government impose martial law, Mr. Ur-
ban replied, "I would say it was a sort of
a reticent permission on their part.
"Later we listened with surprise to the
voices of condemnation and everything
that followed in the U.S. reaction."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403590001-3