“This cannot be left without a response. The services, instead of defending our country, are to a significant extent being used to destroy political opponents,” said Mateusz Morawiecki, a Member of Parliament from Law and Justice (PiS), on the program “Michał #Rachoń” on TV Republika. He was commenting on yesterday’s attack by Gazeta Wyborcza on the head of the National Security Bureau (BBN).
Czuchnowski’s Attack on the Head of the BBN
On Monday, Gazeta Wyborcza published a piece by Wojciech Czuchnowski aimed at Prof. Sławomir Cenckiewicz, the head of the National Security Bureau (BBN). Citing an anonymous source, the author described information concerning medications allegedly taken by Cenckiewicz, said to have come from a security questionnaire. According to the publication, the alleged failure to take these data into account was to form the basis for the Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW) revoking his security clearance and access to classified information. The matter sparked further controversy after a statement by a retired SKW officer, Col. Artur Hejny, who on TV Republika said that the disclosure of such sensitive, strictly classified medical data must have originated from within the service itself.
Mateusz Morawiecki, a Law and Justice (PiS) MP, referred to the Gazeta Wyborcza attack on Prof. Cenckiewicz on the program “Michał #Rachoń” on TV Republika.
“The services are once again being used to the highest degree for political games, just as during the election campaign. When operational materials leak directly from the services or from the prosecutor’s office to journalists, who then turn it into a scandal meant to harm the head of the BBN, this is something deserving the strongest condemnation. I think the services have begun to play their own various games. We know that, unfortunately, the services have such tendencies,” the politician said.
According to Morawiecki, after a potential return of the right wing to power, “it will be necessary to conduct a very deep review of the services – who is responsible for what, from which desk a document leaked to the media, and what Prime Minister Tusk used to destroy his political opponents. This cannot be left without a response. The services, instead of defending our country, are to a significant extent being used to destroy political opponents,” he stressed.
“Such leaks threaten the security of the Polish state”
Morawiecki also commented on the fact that some representatives of the December 13 coalition, instead of informing the public about an explanatory investigation and possible resignations, began to press ahead with further attacks on Prof. Cenckiewicz.
“Something is burning under their seats if they have started putting on a masquerade and throwing up a smokescreen around themselves,” he assessed.
He emphasized that “it is obvious that when such things leak from the services at a given moment, prosecutorial proceedings should be initiated ex officio.”
“Such leaks threaten the security of the Polish state. Please imagine what may happen if there are no proper procedures, if various services probably have their tentacles there. We know what kind of agent networks the Russians left here after 1993. All of this requires clarification as quickly as possible,” he concluded.