David M. Dastych

War Games documentary premiered in Warsaw

- Reported by David M. Dastych, Warsaw Correspondent Warsaw (PMN)—A documentary film about Ryszard Kuklinski, who passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA during the communist period, premiered in Warsaw in early December, 2008. The screening was held at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall under the honorary patronage of Polish Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Defense and Culture. The film, titled "War Games," took Dariusz Jablonski five years to make. It was shot in Poland, the United States and Russia and includes interviews with high-ranking CIA generals, former U.S. presidential security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Polish President Lech Walesa, Polish generals Jaruzelski and Kiszczak, commander of Warsaw Pact forces Soviet Marshal Kulikov, and Kuklinski's widow.

‘War Games’ premiered in warsaw

A documentary film about Ryszard Kuklinski, who passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA during the communist period, has been premiered in Warsaw. The screening was held at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall under the honorary patronage of Polish Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Defense and Culture.

John McCain: Country First. Barack Obama: Hope and change

On Tuesday, November 4, 2008 it will be decided who will become the next President of the United States. The new president's His serial number will be “44,” a somewhat magic numerical symbol, which in my country is usually associated with Adam Mickiewicz’s poetic and prophetic drama Dziady (‘Forefather’s Eve,’ an ancient form of Halloween), where “44” is the name of a mysterious savior of Poland. Will the 44th President of the U.S.A. be a “savior” of America, a great reformer, or a “destroyer” of the Union, the one who ignores the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?

Wake up America!

Editor's Note: Former CIA operative David Dastych reminds us that the power elite in New York began to reform the financial market in May, 2007, and did so to retain the coveted ideal of New York City as a world financial centre. "Did they provoke the financial crisis to attain their goals?" he asks. "Now it seems they need the election of Senator Barack Obama as President of the U.S. to ensure political support for their far-reaching plans. The "bailout" plan was ordered in New York city in May, 2007."

Who’s really holding him?

A swap for 136 militants offered Warsaw/Islamabad: Pakistani Police continues its search for a Polish engineer, Piotr (Peter) Stanczak, kidnapped on Sunday morning, September 28, in the Attock region, northwestern Pakistan. More than a week passed without a significant breakthrough. Last week the Pakistani Ministry of Interior informed the Polish authorities that Mr. Stanczak “is alive” and “in the hands of Pakistani Taliban,” but no specific information followed.

Who did it and why?

Warsaw, Poland-Early morning on Sunday, September 28, Mr. Piotr (Peter) Stanczak, an engineer from a Polish GEOFIZYKA Krakow Ltd. seismic survey company, drove in his Jeep, along with a Frontier Corps (FC) guard, a driver and an assistant driver. According to a local police report, about 06:20 a.m. they arrived at the field camp near Pind Sultani village of Tehsil Jand Attock district in the NWFP province of Pakistan, when three to four unknown persons attacked his Jeep No-B-2748(NWFP), killed his Pakistani companions, kidnapped him and escaped in an unknown direction.

The Giant and the Dwarfs

"Words are plentiful; deeds are precious." ~ Lech Walesa (Polish Nobel Prize winner) Warsaw, Poland: A book alleging that Solidarity trade union leader and former President of Poland Lech Walesa collaborated with communist security services (SB) was published in Warsaw on this Monday, June 23. It is a thick volume (700 pages), written and compiled from copies of documents of the Communist secret police (SB) by two young historians, Sławomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk, who received an official stamp of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) where the authors work.

Canadian & U.S. Investors Mistreated in Poland

WARSAW, POLAND: Good news about doing business in Poland. According to "European Attractiveness Survey 2008,”released by Ernst & Young on June 5, 2008, Poland has been ranked the most attractive destination for new foreign investment in Europe. Moreover, Poland was placed in the 2nd position in Europe in the job-creation ranking and in the 7th place in the foreign direct investment ranking. Poland scored top in Europe as a potential investment location (18%) leaving behind, among others, Germany (16%), Russia (12%), France (11%), Romania (10%) and the UK (9%). Poland may also boast about a very high job-creation rate. Last year, due to new foreign investment projects, 18,399 new workplaces were created, giving Poland the 2nd place in Europe after the UK. In terms of number of foreign investments, Poland was placed in the 7th position in Europe with 146 projects realized in 2007.

Irena Sendler: Compassion and Courage

Warsaw, Poland: Irena Sendler is not anymore with us. One could say the world suffered a great loss when an old lady in a wheelchair quietly pulled to the end of her long and painful but also charitable and glorious life. She passed away on the 12th of May in a Warsaw hospital, at the age of 98. On the very day she died, a school in Warsaw was to be named “Irena Sendler’s Middle School No 23” and a ceremony occurred in a timely fashion. But her portrait was adorned by a black ribbon and the school’s banner, as students and teachers stood silent with tears in their eyes. Her funeral, on May 15, brought together hundreds of people, friends and admirers of Mrs. Sendler from Poland and from abroad. On that day, AP reporter Monika Scislowska reported: “Pallbearers carried Sendler’s coffin through the historic Powazki cemetary. More than 40 children from the newly named Irena Sendler Middle School in the capital’s Praga neighborhood looked on, each holding a yellow tulip…Frederic Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’ was played as Sendler was laid to rest and mourners gathered to hear a Catholic prayer.”

A “Dismal Joke” or an Act of Grace?

Warsaw, Poland: In his book Memory and Identity, Pope John Paul II said of his visit after Christmas 1983 to Rebibbia Prison to see Mehmet Ali Agca: "We talked for a long time. Ali Agca is, as everyone says, a professional assassin, which means that the assassination was not his initiative that someone else thought of it, someone else gave the order. ”I had a feeling that I would survive. I was in pain, I had reason to be afraid, but I had this strange feeling of confidence...Oh, my Lord! This was a difficult experience."

A Moscow Contract on Pope John Paul II

Warsaw, Poland: A new sensational book was launched in Poland on Monday, April 28. Its author, an American journalist and writer John O. Koehler claims that in November 1979 in Moscow a group of nine prominent Soviet Communist Party leaders signed a secret document instructing the KGB to “use all available possibilities to prevent a new political trend, initiated by the Polish pope,” and 
“if necessary - reach to means beyond disinformation and discreditation.” Two journalists of a top-ranking Polish weekly “Wprost” (read: vprost, it means “direct” in Polish) reached the author of that book, entitled “It’s about the Pope”: Spies in the Vatican”. In their article, published on April 28, Rafal Pasztelanski and Grzegorz (Greg) Sadowski quoted a conversation with Mr. Koehler about his discovery: "I was shocked, when I found this order. The means “beyond disinformation and discreditation” meant only one thing: an approval to kill the pope.”

Soviet Politbureau Members, Gorbachev included, signed an “informal death Sentence on John Paul II

Warsaw, Poland: New, sensational documents concerning the attempt against the late pope, John Paul II, have been revealed in a new book by John O. Kohler, an American journalist and writer. The book, entitled "It's About the Pope. Spies in the Vatican", will be released in Poland on Monday, April 28, 2008 by ZNAK Publishing House, known for its publications about the late pope. The author unearthed a Kremlin document, which listed Soviet Politbureau members, who had signed an "informal death sentence" on the Polish pope. "Use all available possibilities to prevent a new political trend, initiated by the Polish pope, and "if necessary - reach to means beyond disinformation and discreditation." This instruction was given to their subordinates in the KGB by members of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party in November of 1979.

Putin Denied, Kabaeva Denied, Tabloid Apologized, Lyudmila…?

At a press conference with Silvio Berlusconi on Sardinia, Vladimir Putin officially denied a story that had circulated the world since Friday, April 16. Smiling and relaxed, Putin said “there is not a single word of truth" to the report carried by Moscow tabloid Moskovsky Korrespondent alleging that the former Russian President intended to marry a gym champion, model and MP, Alina Kabaeva, on June 15.

Tsar Putin to Marry a Gym Champion

The career of Vladimir V. Putin, 56, is not one from rags to riches but rather from obscure secrecy of the former KGB officer in a dull East Germany to the trumpets and glory of the Kremlin. At the end of his second term as President of the Russian Federation, and perhaps before his new ascent to the highest officer four years later, Putin has become a national idol and a true Tsar of Russia. He is also reported to be fabulously rich, within a range of $40 billion.

Alleged gunrunner’s wife says she saw no sign of huge arms shipments

No doubt Victor Bout has a loving and loyal wife. All she told The Times is her own version of his business life and an expression of her affection to him. The most interesting news in this article is that the Thai authorities "dropped charges against him last week" but they still want to hand him over to the American justice. Russian media wrote about Bout's connections to the Russian military intelligence and his association with high Kremlin bosses, Igor Sechin in particular. It seems very likely that Victor Bout's arrest in Bangkok wasn't a "detached" event but the result of an "underground" fight in the Russian military and intelligence establishment.

Did the FSB Betray Victor Bout?

Warsaw, Poland: In my first article, published on the CFP on March 14, and then reposted on political Web sites in Britain, Switzerland and in the United States, I reported about the DEA sting operation against Victor Bout and also on some events from the past, involving him and other people. A few hours only after the CFP publication, I received interesting documentation from Bucharest, Romania, which was published in part in my second article, posted on the CFP on Tuesday, March 18, 2008. A story recently printed in a Polish magazine Gazeta Polska provided more facts about international links of Victor Bout’s criminal network, including his business with Polish Military Intelligence, and also with Russian and Polish gangsters Semyon Mogilevich and Riccardo Fanchini (Marian Kozina). According to the Polish TV reporter Witold Gadowski, one of the high-positioned protectors of Victor Bout in the Putin’s Kremlin was gor Ivanovich Sechin, known as an opponent of the new President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.

Following the trail of the “Merchant of Death”

Warsaw, Poland: In my previous article, first published on the CFP on March 14, and then reposted on political Web sites in Britain, Switzerland and in the United States, I reported about the DEA sting operation against Victor Bout and also on some events from the past, involving him and other people. Only a few hours after the CFP publication, I received an interesting documentation from Bucharest in Romania and an article from the current issue of a Polish conservative magazine Gazeta Polska. Both provide very interesting disclosures about the illegal weapons trade and Mr. Bout’s connections to the Romanian and Polish military intelligence. Here is the first of my follow up reports.

‘Merchant of Death’ detained in Thailand

Warsaw, Poland: In a rare interview granted in Moscow to American journalist, filmmaker and writer, Peter Landesman, in 2003, Victor Anatolyevich Bout (then 36) said about himself: ''I woke up after Sept. 11 and found I was second only to Osama.” And referring to his bad reputation of “the biggest arms dealer in the world'' he joked: ''Maybe I should start an arms-trafficking university and teach a course on U.N. sanctions busting.'

Jaruzelski was no Pinochet

(Editor’s note: In March of 1987, Warsaw-based journalist David Dastych, then a CIA operator was arrested and imprisoned by Communist secret police in Poland. In a series of articles for Canada Free Press, Dastych throws a beam of light on “Communist traitors of Poland living the high life on generous pensions and tells readers their names.)

 Paul Joyal’s Injuries Saved Other Lives

After my analysis was published on the CFP on Sunday, February 24, “Russians Suspected in Shooting of Kremlin Critic Near D.C.”,  a reader from Texas e-mailed me with this message: “Actually it was his genitals that were blown off and Bush knew about it and called Putin on it.