Operation “Samum”

What the media report

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAccording to National Geographic Polska, six officers of the CIA, DIA and NSA were in Kuwait tracking the movements of Iraqi troops, and after the invasion on the night of 1–2 August 1990 they made their way to Baghdad.¹

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesOn the Polish side, only Colonel Gromosław Czempiński is said to have known the details of the operation; on 13 October 1990 he arrived in Baghdad under an assumed name as a new member of the embassy staff.¹

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAt around four in the morning on 25 October 1990, two Toyotas belonging to Polish companies are said to have set off towards the Turkish border. The Americans were supposedly travelling as Polish workers returning home, with Polish passports and new names. The article admits that it is not known how the Iraqi exit visas were obtained.¹

What is not known

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAccording to the same article, the name “Samum” was coined for a feature film, so it need not be the operation's original code name. The author notes that we will probably never learn the details of the intelligence methods used.¹

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesThe media link this operation with the later reduction of Poland's debt and with the strengthening of the alliance with the USA, but cite no documents for this. We do not repeat these connections as facts.¹