POLES LEVEL CHARGES AT U.S. DIPLOMAT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201590004-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 21, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/10 :CIA-RDP90-009658000201590004-4
~STI~LE APPEARED ~
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64ASHINGTON POST
21 June 1986
Poles Level Charges
At U.S. Diplomat
Step Is Latest in .-lnti-.-Imerican Campaign
By Jackson Diehl
Washington Post Poreign Service
WARSAW, June 20-Polish au-
thorities today accused a U.S. dip-
lomat here of "extradiplomatic" con-
tacts with "antistate opposition" and
showed film of him on television in
an escalation of a month-long series
of public attacks on the Reagan ad-
ministration.
State-controlled television and
the official news agency PAP ac-
cused Stephen Donald Mull, a sec-
ond secretary in the political sec-
tion of the U.S. Embassy here, of
being "a staffer of U.S. intelligence"
who had met with various opposi-
tion figures as well as with an ac-
cused spy named as Bogdan Chary-
ton, aPolish citizen. PAP said that
Charyton had been arrested and
had acknowledged passing on sen-
sitive information to American in-
telligence.
The official reports made no
mention of any investigation of the
U.S. diplomat or action against him.
However, in an unusual step, state
television showed film of Mull walk-
ing out of the embassy and meeting
with several opposition figures. A
U.S. Embassy spokesman had no
immediate comment.
The accusations were the second
television attack on the United
States in two days and added to
what western diplomats here have
described as a growing anti-Amer-
ican propaganda offensive since ear-
ly May. The campaign has unfolded
in the weeks before an important
communist party congress and has
signaled both the poor state of U.S.-
Polish relations and an effort by
communist leader Wojciech Jaru-
zelski to appeal to party hard-liners,
the diplomats said.
"There are elements here that
don't think it's worth trying to im-
prove relations, and this is meant to
please them;' a senior western dip-
lomat said. He added: "It's been an
irritation for Washington."
The new official hostility has re-
versed aslight warming trend in
U.S.-Polish relations marked by the
visit here in March of former U.S.
ambassador to Poland Walter Stoes-
sel, the highest American official to
meet with Jaruzelski since 1981.
Since then, Polish officials have
been disappointed by the failure of
the Reagan administration to [tYt
continuing economic sanctions
against Warsaw, while U.S. officlals
say they have waited in vain for
Jaruzelski to respond to the visit
with a gesture of his own.
Recent developments, said the
western diplomat, "have tended to
block anyone trying to move at'a
positive sense on Polish relati~onst"
He added that "the attitude in
Washington is to wait and see whit
happens in the next month."
The most striking Polish attack
on t e eagan a ministration ea
ear ier t is mont , en rrovent-
ment spokesman Jerzy Urban, in an
interview with he Washin ou
os~ unteere con irmation t t
a C~s yon the Polish A.rm~'s_~
era stn a escape with pla o
the im osition of martial law and
out awm o t e o f ant trams
union in the all of 1981.
Urban argue tat the United
States could have prevented martial
law by warning the world of the 1?0l-
ish government's plans and said the
incident proved the Reagan admin-
istration sought upheaval in Poland.
The State Department dismissed
this charge, but the Polish official
media have kept the story alive
with a stream of follow-up articles
and commentaries.
Urban has also made fregaent
statements since last month about
an officially backed plan to send
thousands of sleeping bags and
blankets to New York for the city's
homeless. The initiative has been
accompanied by extensive media re-
ports about the problem of home-
lessness in the United States and
the Reagan administration's alleged
lack of concern for the poor.
Other public-relations moves in
the last two weeks have included
the preparation of a new "white pa-
per" on the government's estimate
of damage caused by U.S. economic
sanctions against Poland, imposed
since 1981, plans by state television
to broadcast a film depicting por-
nography and eccentric behavior by
Americans, and a charge by Urban
that the U.S. Embassy may have
known the whereabouts of Solidar-
ity underground chief Zbigniew
Bujak before his arrest May 31.
Some Polish sources have ex-
plained the campaign as part of the
government's effort to prepare a
favorable domestic climate for this
month's party congress, the first
since Jaruzelski assumed the com-
munist leadership in 1981. Though
Jaruzelski's control over the party
has not appeared at risk, the gen-
eral has appeared to cater a number
of recent statements and media
iniatives to hard-line dogmatists
who have opposed his policies.
"It's show-and-tell time for
(Mikhail) Gorbachev," added one
western diplomat, referring to un-
confirmed reports that the Soviet
leader will attend the congress.
"Jaruzelski wants to show that he's
in control and has blocked the con-
servative elements in the party."
At the same time, diplomats here
noted that the government offen-
sive was at odds with a notable
warming trend in Poland's relations
with other western countries and
its recent admission to the Inter-
national Monetary Fund after a 35-
yearabsence.
Recent statements by officials
have suggested a growing view that
Poland should concentrate on im-
proving political and economic re-
lations with Western Europe while
writing off the Reagan administra-
tion. In this sense, the media at-
tacks may signal a long-term
change in political strategy, several
observers said.
[In a related development, Sol-
idarity founder Lech Walesa was
summoned for police questioning
next week shortly after he applied
fora passport to travel to Italy,
United Press International re-
ported. Dissident sources said
Walesa was to be questioned on
possible links with Bujak.]
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/10 :CIA-RDP90-009658000201590004-4