Free Republic

Poland has embarked on one of the biggest defence spending increases of any Nato member. The programme was launched by Bronislaw Komorowski, the president, in a signing ceremony that symbolically took place not far from the Belarus border. “Poland will be more secure and more credible as an ally and a key country in our part of Europe, able to defend its own territory and able to help others,” Mr Komorowski said during the ceremony in April. At a time when most Nato military budgets are under severe strain because of the economic crisis, Poland is undertaking a thorough modernisation...

A U.S. Patriot missile battery has arrived in Poland as part of an agreement to upgrade the NATO ally's air defenses, the U.S. embassy said on Monday, in a deployment likely to irritate neighboring Russia.The battery, manned by up to 150 U.S. troops, will be stationed for about one month four times a year in Morag, northern Poland, close to Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad. Its main mission is to train Polish military personnel. U.S. troops were unloading 37 railway cars of equipment on Monday, the embassy said. U.S. and Polish officials are due to visit the site on Wednesday and...

Poland will unveil its first US Patriot-type missiles battery at a military base in the northern town of Morag on May 26, a Polish defence ministry spokesman said Tuesday, AFP reports. "Ceremonies associated with the first rotation of the Patriot missile battery will be held Wednesday, May 26, in Morag", spokesman Janusz Sejmej said in a statement. Asked by AFP, the defence ministry's press service declined Tuesday to provide further details. The Polish military base at Morag, in the Mazurian Lakes region, is some 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Warsaw and just 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the border...

The recent crash of a Polish military transport that killed most of Warsaw's senior civilian and military leaders was not only a human catastrophe for a key U.S. ally. NATO sources said that, in addition to the loss of nearly 100 pro-U.S. Polish leaders, the crash provided Moscow with a windfall of secrets. The crash killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski in western Russia on April 10 and decapitated Poland's military, killing two service chiefs, key military aides and several national security officials, many of whom were carrying computers and pocket memory sticks that contained sensitive NATO data. Perhaps the most...

Powell Praises Poland’s Contribution to Iraq Coalition David Gollust, Voice of America, August 2, 2004 Secretary of State Colin Powell, ending a week-long European and Middle East trip in Warsaw, has praised Poland's role in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. He discussed the future of the 2,400-member Polish contingent in talks with senior Polish officials, including President Aleksandr Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Marek Belka. Poland, which commands a multi-national force of more that 6,000 peacekeeping soldiers in southern Iraq, has said it is counting on withdrawing a substantial number of its own troops early next year, after elections for a...