POLAND / USA : President Obama Finally Lands In Warsaw; Walesa Snubs Meet.

AP 2:02 English Video Report

   In Poland, President Obama honored those slain in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazis and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier  honoring the unidentified soldiers who gave their lives in past wars. 
    Obama also dined with 17 Central and Eastern EU leaders.
    He was snubbed by Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, who claimed no interest in a meeting that was little more than a photo-op but met with other members.
     President Barack Obama asked Poles to use the lessons they learned from the fall of communism to help fledgling democracies in the Middle East and North Africa.
    But Obama did not deliver a much desired USA visa waiver program for Poles visiting the USA.

POLAND: Former President Lech Walesa... Profiled.

GUARDIAN/ J.BORGER /

     "Sixteen years after leaving office, Walesa, 67, is still trusting his political instincts and shooting from the hip. You are never quite sure what you are going to hear.
    Poland's most celebrated living son is still in Gdansk, where he rose to fame. But his vantage point over the Baltic port these days is somewhat more elevated than his old worker's flat."
 AND : "Semi-retirement, running a pro-democracy foundation, has not mellowed him. He is as combative and abrupt with journalists as ever."

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.

Poles And Czechs React To Missile Defense Shield End.

GUARDIAN.UK/
"We are disappointed," said Eugeniusz Smolar, a former head of Warsaw's centre for international relations.
"I'm surprised," said Alexandr Vondra, the former Czech deputy prime minister and ambassador to Washington who led the shield project.
"The Americans only cared about their interests. They used everybody else," said Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and revolutionary leader. "It wasn't that the shield was that important, but it's about the way, the way of treating us."
Both the Poles and the Czechs have reputations as Eurosceptics, wary of the EU's biggest powers, Germany and France. That could change.

Lech Walesa Reflects On Poland's 20 Years Of Freedom.

DAILY TELEGRAPH.UK

Lech Walesa reflects on his life's work.
Twenty years ago, Poland became the first country in Eastern Europe since the WW2 to have a non-Communist prime minister, following the victory of Walesa's Solidarity movement in elections.

"My duty was to fight and to conquer and that is what I did," he says. "But the changes could have been better. Think about the scale of what we did here. It would be like you in Britain switching from driving on the left to driving on the right. We have changed from left to right and the cost was tremendous."

Eastern Europe Worries About Russia and Obama.

From The NYTimes.

Lech Walesa Backs Madonna Concert Protest.

Here we go again.

The upcoming concert is being called "an attack of the devil."

Unbelievable.

Poland's Lech Walesa... Longs for the Limelight

Poland's Lech Walesa still considers running for high office... despite opinion polls that show support only in the single digits.

Apparently, Walesa likes to keep in the news...even if it means recent disputes with historians,
the current Polish president and his own ally, Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

For Walesa, like once potent silverbacks everywhere (eg. Bill Clinton),...the twin lures of power and attention are addictive.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/poland/090623/walesa-watches-history-pass-him