Polish President Killed in Plane Crash

Awful news.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of others in a high-level delegation were killed Saturday when their plane crashed on landing outside the western Russian city of Smolensk, officials said.

Russian state television reported that the Tu-154 jet crashed about a kilometer short of the runway on its fourth attempt to land in heavy fog at the Smolensk-Severnyi military airport, shortly before 11 a.m. Moscow time.

Reports of the number killed in the crash varied. Polish officials put the figure at 88, while Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said 96 had died and Russia's Investigative Committee said the total was 132.

"We still cannot fully understand the scope of this tragedy and what it means for us in the future," said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Piotr Paszkowski. "Nothing like this has ever happened in Poland."

"We can assume with great certainty that all persons on board have been killed."

Passengers included the president and his wife as well as other top officials. Slawomir Skrzypek, president of the National Bank of Poland, was also on board. Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Pszkowski said that the army chief of staff and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer were also on board the plane.

Assorted reaction here.

A nation is in shock.

Lech Walesa:

Former Polish president Lech Walesa, who headed the Solidarity movement, called the crash "inconceivable".

"The Soviets killed Polish elites in Katyn 70 years ago. Today, the Polish elite died there while getting ready to pay homage to the Poles killed there," a shaken Walesa told AFP.

Aviation expert Vladmimir Putin will personally head the investigation. Color me suspicious.

Despite Attack, Poles Refuse to Cut and Run from Iraq

God love the Poles, who've quickly become a reliable and steadfast ally of the United States.

In spite of the Polish ambassador being wounded in an attack on his convoy, they refuse to knuckle under to the terror goons in Iraq. Some other European nations, as well as the Democrats in the Congress and Senate, should take heed.

Poland to keep troops in Iraq despite attack

Poland will not withdraw its 1,000-strong troop contingent from Iraq after the Polish ambassador was wounded in an attack on his convoy in Baghdad on Wednesday, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said.

"Desertion is always the worst option," Kaczynski told reporters. "This is a difficult situation, but those who became engaged and were there for years and then withdraw are making the worst possible mistake."

The Polish ambassador, General Edward Pietrzyk, was wounded and one of his bodyguards was killed when his diplomatic convoy came under attack in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday.

Kaczynski and his twin brother Lech, Poland's president, are conservatives and strong allies of the United States who support extending the Iraq mission beyond the end of the year even though most Poles want to bring the troops home.

Some opposition parties in the European Union's largest ex-communist state are calling for the end to the mission and the Wednesday attack could bring the issue into the campaign for a snap parliamentary election on Oct. 21.

Kaczynski urged the opposition to rally behind the government, saying any internal split would encourage more attacks on Polish officials or troops in Iraq.

"This should not be used in the election campaign because it would be the worst outcome if terrorists would have an effect on what happens in a democratic country," he said.

When You Reach The Bottom Of A Hole . . . .

Havel enrages Poland by proposing early elections
Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has angered Polish politicians as he said he was not carefully watching the latest developments in Poland, but early elections with international observers should be held there as soon as possible, the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported Tuesday.

WARNING: GENIUS AT WORK.

The idea has upset Polish politicians from all parties, the daily writes.

Havel defended the idea of the elections monitoring in today's statement for daily Gazeta Wyborcza, but he apologised to those who might interpret his words as an offence.

"I have the impression that free elections should be held as fast as possible," Havel said when launching the Polish edition of his latest book Strucne, prosim (Briefly please) in Cracow.

Nothing like having a writer with an impression.

"I believe it would be in the interest of all Poles and Polish democracy, if international observers were invited," Havel said, adding that early elections and the presence of observers were nothing shameful.

"If someone in Poland has comprehended my marginal remark as an attack on Polish democracy, an expression of doubts about Polish democracy or even an offence of the Poles, then I am naturally very sorry for it and I apologise very much," Havel said in his statement for Gazeta Wyborcza that Havel's offices provided for CTK.

Just what in Hell kind of reaction did you think they'd have?

"But I think that there really do not exist two types of democracies, the ones that are imperfect and that need observers, and the others that are perfect and that do not need them and that even consider the idea of being monitored offensive," Havel told Gazeta Wyborcza.

He said sending observers to elections is one of the good international habits and that every mutual check, if solid, without a bad motive and without a beforehand prepared conclusion "is in our common interest."

It would truly speak to the common interest if you'd STFU, fool.

Havel's spokesman Jakub Hladik told CTK he saw no reason to comment on the reactions by Polish politicians and Polish press to Havel's statement.

Of course not. Why should the man who was more interested in reaching an accomodation with the Communist regime, rather than Czech freedom, apologize for something so minor as pissing off the Czech's closest friend and ally?

Former Polish president and critic of the current government Lech Walesa said it was a good thing that a neighbour, a prominent politician, took interest in Polish events.

"However, I think we can manage our affairs without the advice. There is no threat here of what goes on in the Third World or in dictatorships," Walesa said.

Zbigniew Romaszewski, a Senator for the ruling Polish party Law and Justice, said Havel's statement was out of place.

"I regret it as I know Havel a bit. I have always held him in high esteem," Romaszewski said.

The daily said many Polish politicians were of the view that Havel had been misinformed on the current situation in Poland.

In diplomatic-speak, they view Havel as being merely piss-ignorant. Sad state of affairs for a man so involved with Charter 77.

A part of the Polish radical opposition wants to make the most of its past contacts, including Havel's poor knowledge, it said.

"Hatred for the government of the Kaczynski brothers has so much blinded its foes that instead of toppling them rapidly, they are willing to accept any help," Rzeczpospolita writes.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra told the paper he saw no jeopardy to democracy in Poland.

Vondra said he saw no necessity to invite international observers to the Polish elections.

A similar position was voiced by other Czech politicians and experts.

"I think Havel has exaggerated this," Czech analyst Rudolf Kucera said.

What is going on in Poland, does not have the character of any dramatic political crisis, Kucera said.

Early elections started to be talked about in Poland after the summer collapse of the governing coalition. The decision may be made on Friday when a vote on the dissolution of parliament is to be taken.

Heh. And Havel just may have unified the Polish government.

But one question comes to mind: Will Havel have same or similar words about the 2008 Soviet Russian presidential election?

Old Europe Put On Notice?

Vaclav Klaus and Lech Kaczynski focused on Czech-Polish economic and cultural relations . . . .

Klaus calls for joint efforts of Czechs, Poles in EU
Czech President Vaclav Klaus Wednesday pointed to the importance of cooperation of the EU member states on the regional level and of their joint efforts in the EU.

Klaus, on an official visit to Poland, said at a meeting with Polish Senate Marshal Bogdan Boruszewicz that the result of the June EU summit did not fill him with optimism, the Polish news agency PAP reported.

At the summit Poland came up with the proposal to extend the validity of the current EU voting system until 2020 after which a new system envisaged in a draft European treaty would take effect.

Poland demands more voting power in the EU, pointing to the size of its population. Poland believes that the new voting system envisaged in the EU's new draft treaty will give large countries such as Germany too much influence.

Wanna see Old Europe really fill their panties? Suggest Demand one nation, one vote.

Of the EU's 27 member states, the Czech Republic alone has offered Poland support in its bid to reopen a debate on the voting system.

The summit in the end did not comply with Warsaw's demand but it agreed to postpone the new voting system's introduction until 2017.

Boruszewicz praised an important role of the regional cooperation within the Visegrad Four that includes, apart from Poland and the Czech Republic, also Slovakia and Hungary.

Klaus said that the more was achieved within the group the better but pointed to disputes that exist in the group.

Boruszewicz said he was satisfied with the Polish-Czech consultations on the U.S. plan to station a missile defence base on their territory.

Klaus said that the Czech Republic's approach to the U.S. proposal shows the importance it attaches to trans-Atlantic relations.

To stand on two feet - in the USA and the EU - is especially important for the countries with such geographical position as Poland and the Czech Republic, Boruszewicz said, adding that it would be appropriate to think about the strengthening of the east European policy.

It is reasonable to consider cooperation between the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, Klaus said.

Hmmm. All countries which have recently told Soviet Russian president Vladimir Paranoid and his lackeys to STFU.

Klaus will end his three-day visit to Poland on Thursday. The main topics of his discussion with Polish President Lech Kaczynski are Czech-Polish economic and cultural relations, the EU and the planned stationing of the U.S. missile defence base in the Czech Republic and Poland.
This story is from the Czech News Agency (CTK)

That stench emanates from Old Europe's panties. Host elements of the US missile defense system?!? Why . . . why . . . that might make Putie mad at us!

Old Europe, your loyal apparatchik kameraden José Manuel Barrosa has said that the European Union is now an empire.

I agree. Empire of the Tax Consuming Toothless Tiger.

Poles to EU: Nope

Poles smudge EU agreement before the ink has even dried
A deal on Europe’s future, stitched together at last week’s bad-tempered summit, began to unravel yesterday after the intervention of the EU’s most unpredictable leader.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Polish Prime Minister, who sent his brother Lech, the President, to the summit, stunned Brussels by declaring his determination to renegotiate the compromise. The twins spent much of last week’s detailed negotiations on the phone to each other and Lech had said that his brother was content with the package. But Jaroslaw, who demanded extra voting power for Poland, insisted yesterday that the deal had not taken full account of Poland’s demands.

Now he wants a permanent mechanism that allows a minority of dissenting states to be able to delay EU decisions for up to two years. His latest outburst has alarmed EU leaders, who were hoping for a trouble-free passage to a final text in October and a signing ceremony in December. An Inter-Governmental Conference will open on July 23, with representatives from all 27 EU nations to write the EU reform treaty, which critics say will be a thinly disguised version of the failed EU constitution.

With general agreement on the contents, all seemed to be going smoothly until Jaroslaw Kaczynski, referring to the deal to delay new voting weights for each country, said: “We have to finally resolve this issue at the Inter-Governmental Conference.” The European Commission responded furiously. “This was clearly settled at the European Council last week,” a spokesman said. “A mandate is a mandate and a deal is a deal. Now it is time for IGC to finish its job.

The Dutch and le Froggies gave you a mandate two years ago; and that was to shove the EU constitution up your brain.

Portugal, which takes over the EU’s rotating presidency from Germany tomorrow, said: “There was a deal at the highest level and we hope that deal will be respected.” A German government spokesman added: “The outcome of the summit was unanimously backed and Poland agreed to it.”

Ahhh, the European Commission is furious with Poland. They got their jaws tight over Iran, too.

Expect an Up yours! to be sent from Warsaw to Brussels, perhaps via Berlin, in the near future. Then the EU/EC can send the Poles the tried and true s t e r n l y ... w o r d e d ... l e t t e r.
Then the Fwench - led by the ever-intrepid Koslings - can spring into action and surrender save the day.

Previously on JWF

Tweaking The Heinies

The stuffed shirts in der Fatherland motherland have their Windeln full.

Poland riles Germany with a lewd take on the motherland
A glossy magazine cover depicting a bare-breasted Angela Merkel suckling the nationalist twin rulers of Poland reignited tensions between Berlin and Warsaw days after a bad-tempered European summit nearly collapsed because of Polish resistance to a German blueprint on how to run the EU.

The last time Germany had a blueprint on how to run Europe . . . .

The right-wing Warsaw weekly magazine Wprost, which backs the conservative nationalist regime of the prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and his twin brother, the president, Lech Kaczynski, has the cover of its latest issue as a montage showing "a beaming chancellor Merkel as "Europe's stepmother" baring her breasts to nourish the infant Polish twins.

In an article in the magazine, a Polish government official reacted to the weekend summit in Brussels, at which Poland stood alone threatening to wreck a deal and won big concessions from Mrs Merkel, by arguing that Germany was treating its eastern neighbour "neo-colonially" and refusing to accept it as a European partner. He accused Mrs Merkel of "humiliating" Poland at the summit because she was "full of complexes herself".

There's more. Enjoy.

Note: I am a Heinie and therefore not offended by use of the term in the post's title. If you're a Heinie and are offended, grow up and develop a sense of humor. Ja?

The Dawn Compromise

Angela Merkel demonstrated her skills as a tough negotiator, as did Lech and Jaroslav Kaczynski.

Tony Blair turned into a French Poodle as Nicolas Sarkozy had no trouble out-smarting Blair.

The Czechs, Slovaks and Lithuanians subtly demonstrated that New Europe will be a force to be reckoned with.

But who really came out a winner from the EU's Brussels summit?

Europe's Marathon Talks Clinch a Deal
[....]

A showdown between Merkel and Kaczynski brought the summit to the brink of failure. Merkel heaped on the pressure by saying that she would launch treaty negotiations without Poland, but once a compromise deal was reached, she had to deal with other countries' resistance to what they felt had been too many concessions to Britain.

Once a deal was finally hammered out, all the heads of states pronounced themselves pleased. Polish President Lech Kaczynski praised the diplomatic skill and "solidarity" of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Tony Blair. Sarkozy said he had worked hand in hand with Merkel and described the deal as "good news for Europe." He said it was a key achievement to have struck a deal with Poland. "After all, we didn't want to leave the biggest country in Eastern Europe behind."

The agreement is crucial for the EU. After the collapse of the constitutional project, following its rejection by France and the Netherlands in 2005, the bloc was caught in a state of paralysis. But Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel had been determined to revive the plans to streamline the EU when Berlin took over the presidency in January. She has spent the past six months trying to hammer out a deal for a slimmed down treaty that could be accepted by all 27 members. And she finally succeeded. The member states have agreed to an intergovernmental conference which will give the deal a legal framework. The treaty will then be ratified by the member states and should come into force by 2009.

Poland Wins Concessions

As expected, the biggest hurdles to overcome were Poland and Britain. Poland felt that its role in the future European decisions would be diminished while bigger countries, in particular Germany, would have a greater say under the new "double majority" voting system. Under the new system, decisions made by the European Council will no longer be made unanimously but rather by a combination of 55 percent of EU states, which have to represent at least 65 percent of the total EU population.

In the run up to the summit Poland's undiplomatic rhetoric, including its repeated references to the Nazi occupation during World War II, shocked and enraged many EU leaders. Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Poland's population would have been much bigger than its current 38 million if it weren't for the fact that millions of Poles died during the war.

The compromise with Poland includes the postponement of the new voting system until 2014, and it will now not be fully implemented until 2017. In essence, it means the Poles can maintain their current level of influence in the EU for another 10 years. Under the current system Poland has 27 votes on the EU's decision-making council, compared with 29 for Germany, although its population is twice as big.

Warsaw was also offered pledges of solidarity in the event of any future energy crises, a major concern as Poland is dependent on Russia for much of its energy supplies. Indeed, German-Polish relations took a dramatic turn for the worse when former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder* signed a Baltic Sea pipeline deal in 2005 that bypassed Poland. The Poles felt Germany and the EU was ignoring their concerns about being over-reliant on Russia for energy supplies.

The agreement was only reached after a dramatic struggle the likes of which has not been seen at an EU summit for many years. Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who did not travel to Brussels, seemed to be calling the shots from Warsaw. When he rejected Merkel's first compromise offer, which included a delay to the voting system until 2014 and more seats for Warsaw in the European parliament, it looked as if Germany's dream of a summit success would end in tatters.

A Surprise Ultimatum

But Merkel's reaction was swift: She presented Warsaw with a surprise ultimatum, threatening to move ahead with the treaty without Poland. Her move was a gamble, with Poland's allies the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia rushing to defend Warsaw, but it prompted a last-minute rush of mediation and finally Poland was convinced by Blair, Sarkozy and Luxembourg Primer Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who played the good cops to Merkel's bad cop. The German chancellor then presented her last offer to the Poles, and they accepted.

There's more.

*Just prior to leaving office, Gerhard Schröder signed a deal with Russia to build the Nord Stream pipeline. Shortly after leaving office, der Gerhard accepted a lucrative position with a consortium that is controlled by Russian energy monopoly Gazprom --- which is building the pipeline.

It Wasn't Supposed To Be Like This

The European Union is no closer to compromising on the EU constitution treaty than they were a week ago. In fact, there are more disagreements now than there was before the summit began.

EU Struggles for Eleventh-Hour Deal
The European Union negotiations on a new treaty have yet to produce any tangible results. While outstanding issues have not been resolved, the EU leaders have managed to create even more points of disagreement.

Everyone had warned that the negotiations at this week's crucial European Union summit were going to be tough. The EU leaders have gathered in Brussels to hammer out a deal to replace the now defunct European constitution. But while some may have been hoping against hope that the posturing at home would give way to compromise in Brussels, it seems that instead most leaders are digging their heels in and are even finding new issues to argue about.

The delegates to this week's European Union summit were told to take an extra shirt -- the talks are expected to go on well into Friday night, and even Saturday morning. Summit host German Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have presented a revised draft treaty to EU leaders late on Friday afternoon. Now they are going to have to pull up their shirtsleeves and look for a compromise.

The summit is intended to resolve the issues that divide Europe, but over the course of the last 24 hours it seems that European leaders have failed to make any headway on outstanding issues, but have added more points of division to the pot.

While Poland and the UK had already laid out their opposition to the treaty, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was one of its main promoters. But France's attempt to persuade EU leaders to drop a reference to the goal of "undistorted competition" in the treaty has succeeded in putting another spanner in the works.

Under the original proposal, one of the EU's main objectives was listed as an "internal market where competition is free and undistorted." But France persuaded Germany, current EU president, to put a full stop after "internal market" in the new treaty. This may have intended for domestic consumption, but the UK and the Commission have found it distinctly unpalatable.

There's more.

Don't Tread On Me

Warsaw was destroyed during World War II, and over 6 million Poles were killed. The Poles are playing the history card in their current dispute with the EU, but with reason.

ARE THE POLES THE TRUE EUROPEANS?
Looking in the Kaczynskis' Rearview Mirror
If Germany had never invaded Poland, there would be no need to talk about EU voting rights today, says Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. In Brussels there is irritation that Poland is playing the "history card" once again. But Germans in particular should be wary of being too quick to judge.

In the dispute over the voting rights in the European treaty, the Polish Prime Minister Jarolsaw Kaczynski has now come up with an argument that any German would find it difficult to contradict. "If Poland had not had to live through the (World War II) years of 1939-1945, Poland would today be looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million." The Polish leader was attempting to justify his demands for an alternative voting rights system, rather than the one proposed by the German rotating EU presidency.

There is no question that not only the history of Poland, but that of every European country, would have been much happier without the German invasion of Poland and its monstrous consequences. It should be remembered that during World War II there were an estimated 6 million Polish victims of the German occupation -- of which 5.7 million were civilians. In Poland alone, 2.4 million Jews were murdered.

Kaczynski made the statement on Polish radio on Tuesday but otherwise it didn't really resonate at home. However in Brussels and Berlin the comments were registered with concern and were seen as an indication the Polish government is now doing what it often does when it runs into trouble: plays the history card.

And this Thursday evening, when the Polish square-root idea is broached, one can expect this kind of reminiscing again. Warsaw is isolated and is threatening to use its veto. But anyone who thinks that a hopeless cause would make the Polish prime minister or president break out in a sweat doesn't know the Polish mentality. When there's nothing more to be done, that's when things really get going for people like the Kaczynskis.

The Catholic twins are caught up in the amber of history.

Memo to der Spiegel: Would you make such an idiotic distinction if the Kaczynskis were Jooos?

But what we might consider isolationism, and even parochialism, the Kaczynskis and most Poles see as a political defensive fortification. While amber conserves, it also protects from outside blows.

And it is a political defensive fortification that will be next to impossible to breach. Unless Germany gives up its quest for domination within the European Union.

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has called on the Kaczynskis to make a "leap into the present." "You will not be happy in the long-run if you are always looking in the rearview mirror." Juncker is right. But it is worth looking in the Kaczynskis' rearview mirror. Because what the Polish president and his brother, the prime minister, see there is not the same thing that Tony Blair or Jean-Claude Juncker, Angela Merkel or Jose Manuel Barroso see. For the Kaczynskis objects in the mirror appear closer than they really are.

In their rearview mirror, for example, it is the end of August 1939, a few days before the German invasion of Poland and a man by the name of Jozef Beck appears in view. He is Poland's foreign minister and he is receiving the US diplomat Joseph K. Davies in his office in Warsaw. The two are discussing the danger of war breaking out. Davies, previously US ambassador to Moscow, is pretty pessimistic, but Beck sees things differently. The Germans should come! If the Wehrmacht attacks, Polish troops will be in Berlin within three weeks. Davies thought Beck was completely crazy. And he turned out to be right. The Wehrmacht marched into Warsaw four weeks later, and the biggest ever program of destruction in the history of mankind got underway.

Davies urged Beck to form an alliance with Moscow. That was out of the question for the Poles, just as, in all their quarrels with Brussels, it would be out of the question for the Kaczynskis today. The pattern of thought is certainly similar: Before, it was the Germans and the Russians who occupied us, now the EU wants to pull a fast one on us. But how did the Kaczynskis come to this conclusion? A look in their rearview mirror provides some answers.

There's much more.

Those Failing To Remember History . . . .

For many Americans, the history of Europe - just as their own - is a mystery within an enigma; surrounded by a puzzle.

Ask about the Articles of Confederation, Continental Army, Federalist Papers or anti-Federalist Papers, or the Grand Army of the Republic and you'll most often be answered with a blank stare.

The same holds true with the Beer Hall Putsch, Munich Accords, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Operation Anthropoid, Yalta Conference, Potsdam Agreement and the Nuremberg trials.

However, to their credit, we must acknowledge that American Leftists and students, just like the inhabitants of Koslamistan, are very much aware of - and have adopted as their icon - Komrade Che.

In current events, the traditional media has paid little or no attention to the contentiousness that exists between Germany and Poland, or how it may affect the proceedings and outcome of the EU summit.

As a result, most Americans are clueless.

A History Of Betrayals
[....]

The divisions are probably the most important explanation for the exceptional patriotism of the Poles. While all modern European nations invent their own symbols during this era, the royal Polish throne and regalia were taken to Russia, never to be returned. Polish flags and coats of arms were banned, and singing patriotic songs became an act of high treason. The result, writes British historian and Poland expert Norman Davies, was a feeling of patriotism that exempted everything Polish from criticism.

This sentiment recedes slightly into the background only in 1918. With the final collapse of the monarchies in Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany, Poland regains its place on the map. The rebirth of the republic is celebrated frenetically by the population. But Germany views the loss of German-speaking territories in Silesia, Pomerania and Western Prussia -- part of Poland by the Treaty of Versailles -- as a great injustice.

Nazi Germany's attack on Poland on Sept. 1, 1939 inaugurates the darkest chapter in Polish-German history. Just six weeks later, the SS commander and chief of Hitler's Reich Security Main Office, [SS-Obergruppenführer] Reinhard Heydrich, announced the "liquidation of the Polish leadership." Jews, Sinti and Roma were not the only victims; Polish politicians and intellectuals were also exterminated. The Nazis erected death camps such as Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka on Polish territory.

The regime of occupation was brutal: Following the elimination of the Polish intelligentsia, the Germans shipped thousands of Poles to Germany as slave laborers. The SS and the Wehrmacht struck down the Warsaw Uprising in the Polish capital in 1944. It was the largest act of resistance against Nazi rule. More than 200,000 people died, and the city was razed to the ground house by house.

At the Yalta Conference in Crimea in February of 1945, the Poles were only granted observer status. Poland had been destroyed, and the Red Army was stationed within the country, which Stalin wanted to turn into a Soviet satellite state. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was prepared to recognize the provisional communist government and British resistance to the plan was weak. Poland fell into the Soviet sphere of influence.

At the Potsdam Conference, half of Poland's eastern territory was separated from the country and made part of the Soviet Union -- the very territories granted to the Soviets as part of the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact. The new Poland was compensated by land in the west -- territory which had previously belonged to the Germans. More than 10 million Germans fled or were expelled. Poles from the country's former eastern territories were resettled and move into the homes of the expellees.

The Communist rulers stoked Polish nationalism, but mostly they fanned the flames of anti-German fear. Their message was that only Poland's alliance with the Soviet Union could prevent the return of the German "crusaders."

Still the first step towards reconciliation came from Poland. In 1956, Polish Catholic bishops sent a letter to their German colleagues. "We grant and request forgiveness," they wrote -- at a time when German expellees were still openly demanding that the Oder-Neisse Line -- the new border between Poland and East Germany -- be redrawn.

The Ostpolitik or Eastern European policy of German Chancellor Willy Brandt broke with the dogmas of the Cold War. When he knelt down in front of a monument commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in December 1970, it caused a scandal within the German right. But in Poland, the gesture was hushed up. The iconic image of the kneeling chancellor became known to the public only during the 1980s: The Communists had no use for the new face the peaceful Germans were presenting to the world.

When General Wojciech Jaruzelski violently suppressed Solidarność ("Solidarity"), the first freely constituted trade union in the Soviet bloc, the German government under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt responded mildly, arguing that Jaruzelski effectively prevented a bloody Soviet invasion. To this day, many former dissidents have not forgiven the German left for Schmidt's words.

Nor will they anytime soon.

There's more.


Earlier, Polish Diplomat Speaks Out

Polish Diplomat Speaks Out

As Thursday's beginning of the European Union summit draws ever near, those pesky New Europe folks in Poland continue to seek a novel concept within the EU . . . equality among member states.

We Aren't Idiots
Mariusz Muszynski, the 43-year-old commissioner for Polish-German relations in the Polish Foreign Ministry discusses the Warsaw-Berlin impasse on the successor treaty to the failed EU constitution. He also accuses Germany of being more concerned with consolidating its own power than EU unity.

The Poles kind of have more than a little knowledge about such things.

The Polish government has thrown a wrench into German Chancellor Angela Merkel's efforts to jump-start the European Union's long-stagnant constitutional process with its adamant rejection of the "double majority" voting system that is currently outlined in the EU treaty. Despite a weekend of shuttle diplomacy that saw Merkel trying to persuade Polish President Lech Kacyznksi to come on board, Poland appears prepared to veto the landmark agreement at the EU summit in Brussels this Thursday and Friday that will be hosted by Merkel.

Warsaw is demanding a replacement of the proposed decision-making system of the European Council, which allocates votes in proportion to the population of member states, with an alternative "square root" system, which would increase Poland's voting weight in relation to its more populous EU neighbors like Germany and France.

------ ker-snip ------

Our concerns regard the distribution of power within the EU and our ability to influence the EU's development. Reforms, on the contrary, are material areas. Why should Poland agree to a decrease in its influence? We aren't idiots. Anyone surprised by the fact that we would like to increase our influence should not be engaged in politics.

Such mishegas, Polish logic!

There's more. And this diplomat minces no words.

When Grand Plans Unravel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it one of the goals of her European Union presidency to get the bloc's stalled constitution back on track. However Poland, worried about losing influence under new voting rules, has apparently made it a goal to stop her. And after a weekend of intensive diplomacy, Merkel seems to be no further forward, just days before a crunch EU summit where the treaty will be approved -- or not.

Merkel even admitted on Sunday after talks with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker that it wasn't impossible that the summit, which will take place Thursday and Friday in Brussels, will fail. She said that as current EU president she would naturally do her best to make sure that it succeeds, but that "a presidency can only be as successful as the willingness to compromise on the part of all the states."

Merkel had spent much of the weekend trying to persuade Poland to soften its position on the treaty's new voting system. She met with Polish President Lech Kaczynski at the German government's guesthouse, Schloss Meseberg, near Berlin Saturday and followed that up with a phone call on Sunday. However she made no progress.

"The positions have not changed," she said Sunday in reference to her conversation with Kaczynski, and said there were "serious problems" which still needed to be solved.

Kaczynski too said after the meeting that both sides were sticking to their guns. "I told the chancellor that the solution we have proposed is already a compromise," Kaczynski said in a statement broadcast by Polish television after the meeting.

Merkel has made it one of her main objectives for her EU presidency -- which runs until the end of June -- to resurrect the bloc's constitution which has been on ice since the Dutch and French populations rejected it in referenda in 2005.

Merkel is hoping to get approval for a revised EU constitution -- which will now be called a "treaty" -- at the summit this week. Germany wants the EU governments to agree to a roadmap to allow a slimmed-down treaty to be ratified by 2009.

If the draft treaty is adopted, the EU voting process will be changed so that it will be easier to make decisions in the expanded 27-member bloc. A new "double majority" voting system will be introduced whereby an EU decision has to be approved by 55 percent of the EU states, which must also represent 65 percent of the bloc's entire population.

The new system will significantly decrease Poland's influence -- and increase Germany's. Poland's population only comprises about 8 percent of the EU total of 490 million, compared to Germany's 17 percent.

Unsurprisingly, Poland, worried about losing power relative to its neighbor, is opposing the new system. It is threatening to use its veto at the summit this week to block any agreement on the treaty, and wants to re-open the discussion on how the voting system will work. It has proposed an alternative "square root" system which would base the number of votes on the square root of a country's population -- and give Poland relatively more clout vis-à-vis Germany.

The issue is seen as a potential dealbreaker at this week's crunch summit, which politicians had been hoping might lift the EU out of the doldrums it has been in since the constitution stalled. Merkel rejected the suggestion Sunday that the issue of the voting system could be excluded from this week's summit and left for detailed negotiations later in the year. "I do not see that as an option," she said.

Germany demanding appeasement from smaller states.

Blair and Sarkozy in a sweetheart deal.

And Gordon Brown apparently having at least some of the intestinal fortitude of Sir Winston.

I love it when a plan coms together.

Report Alleges CIA Had Secret Jails in Europe

The left is sure to get their panties in a knot over this one.

The CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate key terror suspects, shackling and handcuffing inmates, keeping some naked for weeks and reducing contact with the outer world to masked and silent guards, a European investigator said Friday.

Oh my, the horrors. Shackles and handcuffs!

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano did not address whether there were secret detention centers, but he disputed the report's characterization of the agency's activities.

"When you see words like apartheid and torture in the document, that tells you it's biased and distorted," he said. "The CIA's counterterror operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed and of benefit to many people — including Europeans — in disrupting plots and saving lives. Our counterterror partnerships in Europe are very strong."

Following a meeting with President Bush in Gdansk, Polish President Lech Kaczynski told reporters: "I know nothing about any CIA prisons in Poland." His predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who was president in 2001-05, said: "I deny it. I've said as much several times."

Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu, mentioned in a list of ranking officials who allegedly had knowledge of the prisons, dismissed Marty's report as "stupid."

Exactly.

The report, which did not give specific locations for the alleged jails, provided graphic descriptions of conditions.

It told of prisoners being kept naked for weeks, sometimes attached to a "shackling ring" in cells. Buckets served as toilets. Masked guards who never spoke were the only contact for those consigned to four-month isolation regimes.

Cells, sometimes equipped with video cameras, were cramped and kept extremely hot or cold, the report said. Prisoners had to listen to irritating noises, including "torture music," rock or rap as well as "distorted" verses of the Quran, it said.

Just brutal, isn't it?