The Other Evil Empire
According to Cold-War speak, Poland was a Soviet "satellite." And then, the Wall came down, and Poland and all the other "satellites" were freed, and turned into glorious democracies with the encouragement of the U.S. and the then-Pope's blessing.
Not quite. It seems clear that Poland just changed orbits, and has been revolving around the American sun. After all those years as victims of the "Evil Empire", one would have thought that they would have been incapable of doing the kind of things that their Soviet masters did on a regular basis.
And yet, when the U.S. asked them to hold some people in a secret CIA prison there, where they could be tortured while the Americans denied that they were doing so, Poland was more than willing to oblige.
Now, a court has ordered that the Polish government pay two of those men $262,000 for, essentially, doing the U.S. bidding having detained them at the secret prison. But, to me, the real newsworthy thing about this thing is what the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs said about paying that money: "We have to do it. We are a law-abiding country." And then, the clincher: "They will have a hard time using it, as they are still in jail." (In Guantánamo, of course.)
This extremely cynical comment by the Polish official speaks volumes about the mindset that is only happy to engage in violating international law and human rights for their American masters.
Not quite. It seems clear that Poland just changed orbits, and has been revolving around the American sun. After all those years as victims of the "Evil Empire", one would have thought that they would have been incapable of doing the kind of things that their Soviet masters did on a regular basis.
And yet, when the U.S. asked them to hold some people in a secret CIA prison there, where they could be tortured while the Americans denied that they were doing so, Poland was more than willing to oblige.
Now, a court has ordered that the Polish government pay two of those men $262,000 for, essentially, doing the U.S. bidding having detained them at the secret prison. But, to me, the real newsworthy thing about this thing is what the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs said about paying that money: "We have to do it. We are a law-abiding country." And then, the clincher: "They will have a hard time using it, as they are still in jail." (In Guantánamo, of course.)
This extremely cynical comment by the Polish official speaks volumes about the mindset that is only happy to engage in violating international law and human rights for their American masters.
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