COLLABORATION CONFIRMED: Szlajfer withdraws ambassador candidacy

Henryk Szlajfer has quit his candidacy to become Poland's ambassador to the United States after the Polish Institute of National Remembrance confirmed he was a secret police collaborator in the 1970s who spied on his friends.

Szlajfer continues to protest the allegations, which our companion blog, Fourth World War, first reported in the US on April 30.

Poland's Wiadomosci TV program reported Szlajfer's withdrawal on June 13, using images from this blog in its story. It also used images of documents from the Institute of National Remembrance, known by its Polish initials IPN.

The IPN announced that Szlajfer was an "operational contact" (kontakt operacyjny) in the 1970s with the cryptonym "Albin."

Szlajfer denies all, saying he would appeal the IPN court ruling. Even so, and despite approval from the Foreign Relations Committee of Poland's lower house of parliament and from the US State Department, he immediately withdrew as ambassador-designate to Washington.

This blog, Polish Collaborators, was created to cover the controversy that followed the original Szlajfer story on Fourth World War.