Office of State Protection

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Template:More footnotes Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". The Office of State Protection (Polish: Urząd Ochrony Państwa (Script error: No such module "IPA"., 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

See also

References

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  1. ↑ Słownik procedur parlamentarnych Script error: No such module "webarchive"., Kancelaria Sejmu, Template:ISBN, p. 401
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".

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External links

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