Thursday, June 16, 2005

IPN: Szlajfer spied on his friends Michnik & others

Disgraced former ambassador-designate Henryk Szlajfer, whose collaboration with the communist secret police was confirmed June 14, spied on his fellow "dissident" friends Adam Michnik, Jacek Kuron, Karol Modzelewski and others, according to Polish television.

Michnik's "dissident" activity was as a Communist of the Leon Trotsky strain, and under which Szlajfer gained his credentials as an opponent of Soviet rule. He and the others later drifted away from Trotskyism.

The Trotskyists opposed Poland's democratic and Christian underground movements that led to the rise of the Solidarity trade union and Pope John Paul II.

Wiadomosci TV program reports that Szlajfer "refused" victim-of-communism status that would have exonerated him of incriminating allegations in the Soviet-era archives.

Critics of this blog, including a former US ambassador, accused the blogger of Soviet-like behavior when breaking the story about Szlajfer and his Trotskyist past. (Editors: Keep in mind that the Soviets used the pejorative "Trotskyite" when describing disciples of Red Army founder Leon Trotsky, whom Stalin assassinated in 1940.)

Szlajfer never used victim status in his defense, and denies everything.