Intelligence

Polish Officer, CIA Spy Buried in Warsaw

Yahoo! News - Polish Officer, CIA Spy Buried in Warsaw

WARSAW, Poland - A Polish army officer, who spied on his country for the CIA (news - web sites) during the Cold War and warned of the 1981 military crackdown before fleeing to the United States, was buried Saturday in Warsaw.

The military ceremony, at which Col. Ryszard Kuklinski's ashes were interred, was attended by about a thousand Poles, the honorary guard of the Polish Army, Polish and American officials, and Polish war veterans.

"For us Americans, Col. Kuklinski is a hero and we are grateful for his sacrifice," said U.S. Ambassador to Poland Christopher Hill. "Thanks to him, the Cold War remained cold."

Kuklinski died Feb. 10 at the age of 73 at a military hospital in Tampa, Fla.

Kuklinski served as a liaison officer between the Polish military and the Soviet Army in 1976-1981. From behind the Iron Curtain, he passed some 35,000 pages of Warsaw Pact secrets to the CIA, telling them about the communist government's plan to impose martial law in 1981 and launch a bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy Solidarity movement.

Some Poles still regard Kuklinski as a traitor.

Kuklinski fled the country weeks before martial law was imposed in December 1981, and the government seized his house and other property.

He was sentenced to death by Poland's communist government in 1984. His family lived in hiding for years because of threats on his life, and both of his sons died in mysterious accidents after the end of communism.

Kuklinski visited his homeland in May 1998 for the first time since fleeing, months after a court cleared him of the treason charges.

June 21, 2004 at 08:59 PM in CIA | Permalink | TrackBack (27) | Top of page | Blog Home