POLAND: Where Is Dead President Lech Kaczynski's Body, Really?

WSJ BLOG/ Marcin Sobczyk /

      More than eight months after former President Lech Kaczynski's tragic death in a Smolensk plane crash, his twin brother is still asking if the body in the crypt in Wawel Castle is the late president's.
    How can that be?
SOBCZYK : "The airplane’s wreckage was left exposed to the weather. Russia for months ignored Poland’s requests to cover it, Polish media report said. Body parts and personal belongings were found at the crash site despite the Polish health minister’s public assurances that Russian investigators had sifted meticulously through the soil."

POLAND: Kaczynski Supporters Clash With Police Over Cross In Warsaw.

AP/       Protesters, shouting "Defend the cross," fought with police and prevented officials from moving a cross erected outside Warsaw's presidential palace in memory of the late President Lech Kaczynski. The cross has become a shrine for  Kaczynski supporters after his tragic 10 April death in a plane crash in Russia. The government of President-elect Bronislaw Komorowski says the makeshift symbol should not remain in front of a state building and wants to move it to the nearby St. Anne's Church.

POLAND: Dead President's Sick Mom Only Now Learned Of His Death.

NYTIMES/      Here's a genuinely sad revelation. The mother of President Lech Kacyznski, who perished in a plane crash in Russia with 95 others, has just learned of her son's tragic death. Jadwiga Kaczynska, 83, has been hospitalized since March with heart and lung problems so doctors advised the family to not divulge the news until she was better. That day came yasterday. Six weeks after the crash with her health a bit better, the President's twin brother informed her that her son, her daughter-in-law and many others had died. Twin Jaroslaw never married and still lives with his mother. “I didn’t agree with him, but still, something like this must be a horrible experience for every son,”said a street vendor.

POLAND: New Details On Smolensk Plane Crash; Passengers in the Cockpit.

NYTIMES/     New details have emerged about the Polish plane crash in Russia that killed 95 and Polish President Lech Kacyznski including the revelation that two or more passengers were in the cockpit shortly before the pilots tried to land the aircraft in dense fog. Officials revealed that unidentified passengers were talking in the cockpit 16 to 20 minutes before the April 10 plane crash and that pilots had been warned at least once of poor landing conditions.

POLAND: Polls Predict Komorowski First Round Win.

REUTERS/ WASH. POST/      A new poll predicts acting President Bronislaw Komorowski, would win by 52% in the first round of the June 20th presidential election, beating Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of deceased President Lech Kacyznski.

POLAND: Controversy Erupts Over Presidential Burial.

BBC/    Public dissent is growing as people protest the decision to inter recently deceased President Lech Kaczynski along with his wife in a crypt in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow, which holds the remains of Polish kings and heroes. Famed Polish director Andrzej Wajda said the decision “could cause the deepest splits in Polish society since 1989.”  Opposition to the burial plan increased the probability of a state funeral attended by world leaders but marred by protests. “Wawel is the heart of Polishness, and nobody should be buried there, especially President Kaczynski, who was a divisive person. He deserves to be buried with dignity, but not there,”  claimed one protestor.

POLAND: Crash Assures Dominance Of Tusk/ Komorowski's Party.

BLOOMBERG/  Because of the deaths in Smolensk of President Lech Kacyznski and Left Democratic Alliance party candidate Jerzy Smajdzinski, Bronislaw Komorowski is the sole surviving contender of the nation's three major parties. “This changes the whole political dynamic,” said anaylst Marek Matraszek. “Does it cement Civic Platform’s dominance? That’s a very strong possibility.”

POLAND: President Lech Kacyznski Clashed Often with EU, Russia.

NYTIMES/    Profile of President Lech Kacyznski, 60, who died with 95 others in the Smolensk plane crash that decapitated much of Poland's leadership. Kacyznski often created tensions with Moscow and Berlin after Poland joined NATO in 1999.  "His approach is to first destroy and then think about what to build,” said Lech Walesa in 2005. Kaczynski was a euroskeptic who's popularity had faded recently. He faced a difficult re-election in October.

POLAND: 1ST UPDATE: President's Body Returns After 96 Die In Smolensk Plane Crash, As Nation Mourns.

BBC/1ST UPDATE/  His brother Jaroslaw kneeled before the casket of the dead president after it arrived in Warsaw following the tragic Smolensk plane crash that killed 96 and almost decapitated the Polish leadership. “The modern world has never seen such a drama,” said Polish PM Donald Tusk. “Many of our friends and acquaintances have died.”This is so very much like Katyn, where our head was cut off," said former President Lech Walesa. An inquiry led by PM Vladimir Putin himself is looking into why the pilot of the 20-year-old Russian Tupolev airliner refused to divert as the plane tried and failed to land three times before clipping some trees and crashing short of the runway. The delegation was on its way to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the notorious Katyn Massacre of 22,000 Polish officers by Russian agents. Some are calling the new tragedy the Second Katyn Massacre.

POLAND: Why Tusk Bowed-Out of Presidential Race.

GLOBALPOST/ Analysis/
Donald Tusk has recognized that Poland's most powerful position is prime minister while the presidency is largely symbolic. So Tusk's decision not to run has opened-up the field of potential candidates against President Kacyznski.

POLAND: Prime Minister Tusk Exits Presidential Race.

BLOOMBERG/
In a somewhat surprizing announcement but one that has been rumored for weeks, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared that he would not make a bid for the presidency later this year. Tusk was the leader in recent opinion polls. Tusk lost the 2005 election to current President Lech Kaczynski.

POLAND: New Law Cracks Down On Commie Symbols.

AP/GOOGLE/
Poland's President Lech Kacyznski has approved legislation that allows fines or imprisonment for up to two years for possessing or buying communist symbols. Left-wing lawmakers and others criticize the law as ill-defined and hard to implement.
A Law and Justice Party senator, Zbigniew Romaszewski, said the law was needed because the atrocities committed by communist regimes are being forgotten, allowing the flourishing of businesses that sell images of Soviet leaders, state symbols like the hammer and sickle and the red star. "Communism should be treated just like Nazism," said Romaszewski.

POLAND: Walesa Suing President Kaczynski For Slander.

BBC/
Solidarity founder Lech Walesa is suing Polish President Lech Kaczynski for having called Walesa a communist-era agent. Walesa wants Kaczynski to apologize and pay 100,000 zlotys ($37,000)in damages.

Biden Reassures Poland

NYTIMES/
Vice President Joseph Biden said the United States guarantees Poland’s security. “This strategic assurance is absolute, absolute, Mr. Prime Minister.” It is “a solemn obligation,” and he added, “Make no mistake about it: Our commitment to Poland is unwavering.”
Poland’s leaders, President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk said they were pleased by the new missile agreement. Tusk called the defense system “a very interesting concept and a very much needed one."
For Poland, the type of missile system is not the important factor but that American soldiers come with equipment. Poland figures that if it were ever attacked the United States would be more likely to respond if Americans were there.

Poland's President Signs EU Treaty.

BLOOMBERG/
Poland's President Lech Kaczynski, a noted Eurosceptic, signed the Lisbon treaty. Kaczynski said in a speech just before the signing he was "deeply convinced" that the "great experiment" of the treaty would be successful.

Poland's President In No Hurry To Sign EU Treaty.

WSJ ONLINE/
According to a statement released by President Lech Kaczynski's press office, an aide told public radio "nobody says we need to urgently rush" the Lisbon Treaty ratification process.
The aide, Wladyslaw Stasiak, the Polish president's chief of staff, said the president will eventually complete the process.
"Those who say the signature now, even before breakfast, will change something on the E.U. stage are wrong. No, it really doesn't matter," he said.

More Pole/Czech Reaction To Missile Shield Rejection.

AP/
"Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back," the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski said he was concerned that Obama's new strategy leaves Poland in a dangerous "gray zone" between Western Europe and the old Soviet sphere.
"No Radar. Russia won," the largest Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, declared in a front-page headline.

Poland's Kaczynski Expounds On Soviet War Crimes.

KYIV POST/REUTERS.
At a ceremony at Westerplatte on the Baltic coast, where the Germans fired the first shots against Poland on Sept. 1, 1939,President Lech Kaczynski compared the Soviet Union's murder of 20,000 Polish officers in the forest at Katyn and elsewhere to the Nazi genocide against the Jews.

"What's the comparison between the Holocaust and Katyn? There's one thing linking those crimes, though their scale was different. Jews perished because they were Jews. Polish officers perished because they were Polish officers," he said.

"It's not Poland that has to learn the lesson of humility. We have no reason for that. Others have -- those who caused this war," Kaczynski told war veterans and government officials.

Polish President Very Unpopular. 64% Disapprove!

WARSAW VOICE.

The latest survey from researcher CBOS shows that a majority of Poles, 64 PERCENT, are NEGATIVE about President Lech Kaczyński, while only 24 percent support his work.

Probe Set For Insult To Poland's President.

The Warsaw Voice.

An investigation has been ordered after a member of Parliament called Polish President Lech Kacznski “a small man full of complexes who compromises everything he touches.”

Kaczynski allegedly refused to shake hands.