His communist collaboration confirmed, Szlajfer withdraws as Poland's envoy to US

Polish TV is reporting that Henryk Szlajfer abruptly withdrew as ambassador-designate to the United States June 14 after Polish sources independently confirmed his Soviet-era collaboration with the Communist secret police.

Szlajfer continues to deny all allegations, first raised in the US April 30 on Fourth World War.

Using images of this blog, the Polish television program Wiadomosci reported June 13 that Szlajfer informed on his friends, including fellow Trotskyist "dissident" Adam Michnik, in the 1970s. His secret police cryptonym was "Albin," according to the report.

The Associated Press reported on June 15 that senior Polish officials were reviewing the Szlajfer appointment.

The development breaks as a similar controversy swirls around former dictator Wojciech Jaruzelski was recruited as an agent of Stalin's GRU military intelligence service in 1946, and subsequently informed on his fellow military officers to the Polish secret police. As military dictator in the 1980s, Jaruzelski named his former control officer to be his Minister of Internal Affairs.

For details, see my sister blog, Polish Collaborators.