Military Information Services (WSI)

Before the 2003 Act

According to the explanatory memorandum to the government’s WSI bill (Sejm print no. 897 of 19 September 2002), before 1990 the military intelligence and counterintelligence services operated on the basis of unpublished departmental instruments. Their first, partial statutory basis came from Article 2 of the Office of State Protection Act of 6 April 1990.¹

On 25 October 1991 Article 15 was added to the Universal Duty to Defend Act of 21 November 1967, recognising the existence and tasks of the WSI. The Minister of National Defence Office Act of 14 December 1995 (Art. 5(1)) confirmed that the WSI reported directly to the minister, and the Act of 22 January 1999 on the Protection of Classified Information classed the WSI among the state protection services.¹

There was no separate WSI Act. The explanatory memorandum states that work on one had gone on for more than ten years; the new Act was intended to regulate the service’s status comprehensively and to ensure parliamentary oversight.¹

The Act of 9 July 2003

The Act established the WSI as a separate, specialised formation within the Armed Forces, with the status of a special service and a state protection service, competent in matters of defence and the security of the Armed Forces. The WSI’s activities were subject to oversight by the Sejm (Art. 1).⁴

The Head of the WSI reported directly to the Minister of National Defence (Art. 9). The minister appointed and dismissed the Head after consulting the President, the Prime Minister, the College for Special Services and the Sejm Special Services Committee (Art. 8(1)).⁴

The WSI’s tasks included identifying and countering threats to the independence, territorial integrity and defence of the state; detecting offences falling under the jurisdiction of military courts, including espionage and terrorism; obtaining information relevant to defence; protecting units and soldiers, including abroad; and electronic intelligence and counterintelligence, cryptanalysis and cryptography (Art. 3(1)). Apart from tasks relating to the protection of classified information, the WSI performed these tasks solely for the Armed Forces or in their interest (Art. 3(2)).⁴

The Act distinguished the following divisions: analysis and information, military intelligence, military counterintelligence, protection of classified information, support, military representations, and command and staff (Art. 10).⁴

Liquidation (2006)

The Act of 9 June 2006 – Provisions Introducing the Act on the SKW and the SWW was promulgated on 23 June 2006 and entered into force on 8 July 2006. With effect from 30 September 2006 the WSI Act ceased to have effect (Art. 3), and the liquidation of the WSI was entrusted to the Commission for the Liquidation of the WSI (Art. 4).^2,5

According to the reasoning of the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgment of 27 June 2008, the Liquidation Commission was appointed by the Minister of National Defence. The Verification Commission consisted of 12 members appointed by the President and 12 appointed by the Prime Minister; the President designated its chair from among them.³

The Verification Commission checked the truthfulness of statements made by WSI soldiers and employees concerning the acts listed in Article 67(1) of the Act; verification was carried out by four-person teams.³

The Report (2007)

An amendment of 14 December 2006 added Articles 70a–70d. Within a deadline set by the Prime Minister, the chair of the Verification Commission was to draw up a Report on the activities of WSI soldiers and employees, and of military intelligence and counterintelligence units before the 2003 Act came into force, that went beyond matters of national defence and the security of the Armed Forces.⁶

The Report went to the President, the Prime Minister and the deputy prime ministers; the President passed it to the Marshals of the Sejm and the Senate and, after consulting them, made it public in the official gazette “Monitor Polski”, which meant lifting its security classification (Art. 70c). Supplements to the Report after the Commission had finished its work were to be prepared by the heads of the SKW or the SWW (Art. 70d).⁶

By a decision of 16 February 2007 the President made the Report public (M.P. 2007 item 110).⁷

Before the Constitutional Tribunal

By a decision of 17 December 2007 (K 9/07) the Tribunal discontinued proceedings brought by a group of MPs, because the applicants had lost their seats at the end of the Sejm’s 5th term; it therefore did not examine the provisions on the merits.⁸

In its judgment of 27 June 2008 (K 51/07) the Tribunal held that Article 70a(1) was unconstitutional insofar as it did not guarantee the persons concerned access to the files, did not ensure a right to be heard before the report was drawn up, and did not provide for judicial review of the decision to make public the personal data covered by the report. It found Article 70a(2) incompatible with Article 32 of the Constitution (the principle of equality). It held the other challenged provisions, including Articles 70b, 70c and 70d, to be constitutional.³

What we do not cover

We do not summarise the contents of the Report or assessments of the WSI’s activities: this entry describes only the legal bases, tasks and procedures that follow from legislation and court rulings.^3,7