Office of State Protection
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Template:Infobox government agency The Office of State Protection (Polish: Urząd Ochrony Państwa (pl, UOP)[1]) was the intelligence agency of Poland from 1990 to 2002, when it was split into two new agencies.
Foundation
The UOP was founded on 6 April 1990 as a department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Krzysztof Kozłowski served as the UOP's first chief from 1990 to 1992.[2] In 1996 UOP was transformed into a separate government agency under the supervision of the prime minister. It was responsible for intelligence, counter-intelligence and government electronic security, including telephone wiretaps.
Reasons for formation
The UOP replaced the communist-era Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), I Departament People's Republic of Poland Ministry of Internal Affairs – intelligence, II Departament People's Republic of Poland Ministry of Internal Affairs – counter-intelligence, whose responsibilities had additionally included the suppression of opposition to the government prior to 1989.
Agency split
In June 2002, the agency was split into two separate entities – Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego (Internal Security Agency), which deals with internal security of the country, and Agencja Wywiadu (Foreign Intelligence Agency), which deals with foreign intelligence. The abolishing of the office enabled dismissing several hundred people from service, without the possibility to use the appeal procedure. While budgetary restrictions were cited as the reason for the dismissal, but a political criterion was used as well.[3]
Chiefs
- Krzysztof Kozłowski (1990 – 1990)
- Andrzej Milczanowski (1990 – 1992)
- Piotr Naimski (1992)
- Andrzej Milczanowski (1992)
- Jerzy Konieczny (1992 – 1993)
- Gromosław Czempiński (1993 – 1996)
- Andrzej Kapkowski, p.o. szefa UOP (1996 – 1996)
- Andrzej Kapkowski (1996 – 1997)
- Jerzy Nóżka, p.o. szefa UOP (1997 – 1998)
- Zbigniew Nowek (1998 – 2001)
- Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, p.o. szefa UOP (2001 – 2002)
- Andrzej Barcikowski (2002)
See also
References
- ↑ Słownik procedur parlamentarnych Archived 2020-12-24 at the Wayback Machine, Kancelaria Sejmu, ISBN 83-909381-0-3, p. 401
- ↑ "Krzysztof Kozłowski nie żyje. Rozwiązał służbę bezpieczeństwa, milicję zmienił w policję". Gazeta Wyborcza. 2013-03-26. Retrieved 2013-04-01.
- ↑ Kopczewski, Marian; Ciekanowski, Zbigniew; Piotrkowska, Anna (2020). "Transformation of the special services in Poland in the context of political changes". Scientific Journal of the Military University of Land Forces. 52 (3): 568.
External links
- Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego homepage
Template:External national intelligence agencies Template:Polish intelligence agencies