The alliance's leadership is reported to have asked for a change due to irregularities in the competition for its Joint Intelligence and Security Department's new Head of Intelligence Policy. As Rzeczpospolita's article reads, General Jakubczyk, a member of the competition committee, was proven to have favoured a Polish candidate. Some allegations related to his homophobic and racist behaviour were said to have surfaced as well.
As Polish Radio's sources informed - the case in question happened in early spring. The report on the matter is said to have reached the desk of General Sławomir Wojciechowski, Poland's military representative to the NATO and EU Military Committees. When he got the knowledge of the situation last month - he passed the information to Poland's Defence Ministry so that its leadership would decide what measures shall be taken.
The ministry has not commented on these reports yet, but speaking for Polish Radio, its representatives announced that a statement will be issued shortly. Meanwhile, the ministry's spokesman, Janusz Sejmej, confirmed on social media that the procedure for General Jakubczyk's dismissal from the position he held at NATO Headquarters had begun. "(His appointment to this position) is unfortunately yet another disastrous personnel decision by our predecessors" - Sejmej wrote on the Defence Ministry's X profile.
Generał Jakubczyk's dismissal continues the unimpressive string of Polish departures from high international military posts. Recently, the Polish commander of the Eurocorps in Strasbourg, General Jarosław Gromadziński, was dismissed from his post under a cloud of scandal. This happened after the Military Counterintelligence Service initiated "ex officio verification proceedings in the event of obtaining new information indicating that a person with a valid security clearance does not guarantee secrecy".
Furthermore, these are not the only embarrassments related to the Polish presence in international military structures. In recent months, the Polish ambassador to NATO, Tomasz Szatkowski, and Adam Bugajski, head of the security policy department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have competed to take their spots among the eight so-called NATO Secretary General technical deputies. Both made the shortlist, yet neither was picked. Szatkowski failed due to lack of support from Donald Tusk's government - and the Polish prime minister himself publicly accused him of improper handling of classified documents. In return, the recalled ambassador is preparing a GDPR-related lawsuit...
(mm)
Source: IAR
