Poles Helped U.S. Spies Escape From Iraq Americans Had Been In The Region Monitoring Troop Movements In August 1990

Six U.S. spies stranded in Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 were smuggled to safety by Polish agents, reports The Washington Post.

Following the daring rescue, then-CIA Director William Webster carried to Warsaw a letter from President Bush announcing U.S. plans to push other governments to forgive half, or $16.5 billion, of Poland’s foreign debt, the paper said.

“It was high risk,” the newspaper quoted Webster as saying of the rescue operation, which was led by a Polish intelligence operative who had battled the CIA for 20 years on behalf of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

The Poles “deserve a lot of credit, it was a good beginning for our relationship in the future,” Webster told the paper.

According to the Post story from Warsaw, the six U.S. intelligence agents had been in the region to monitor Iraqi troop movements. They spent several weeks on the run in Kuwait and Iraq before being given refuge at a Polish construction camp in Iraq at the behest of the White House and CIA.

The Poles, who had ties in Iraq through construction projects that employed several thousand Poles, were approached after British and French intelligence agencies said they could not help because they were worried about their own nationals, the newspaper said.

The Poles provided the Americans with passports and drove them to the Turkish border, a trip that involved a close call with a Polish-speaking Iraqi security officer at a checkpoint.

A Polish technician driving some of the Americans leaped from the car, grabbed the officer in a bear hug and planted three kisses on the officer’s cheeks in a traditional Slavic greeting while moving him away from the automobile.

After exchanging pleasantries, the technician offered to show the passports, the Post said, but the Iraqi replied: “No problem. You are friends, you can go.”

It was not the only time the Poles came to the rescue of Westerners in Iraq, the story said.

Using skills and knowledge gained in the rescue of the Americans, it said, the Poles acted to free 15 other foreigners, mostly Britons, held by Saddam as human shields to deter an allied invasion of Iraq.