Office of State Protection

The Office of State Protection (Polish: Urząd Ochrony Państwa (Polish pronunciation: [ˈuʐɔnt ɔˈxrɔnɨ ˈpaɲstfa], UOP)^[1]) was the intelligence agency of Poland from 1990 to 2002, when it was split into two new agencies.

Foundation

The UOP was founded on 6 April 1990 as a department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Krzysztof Kozłowski served as the UOP's first chief from 1990 to 1992.^[2] In 1996 UOP was transformed into a separate government agency under the supervision of the prime minister. It was responsible for intelligence, counter-intelligence and government electronic security, including telephone wiretaps.

Reasons for formation

The UOP replaced the communist-era Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), I Departament People's Republic of Poland Ministry of Internal Affairs – intelligence, II Departament People's Republic of Poland Ministry of Internal Affairs – counter-intelligence, whose responsibilities had additionally included the suppression of opposition to the government prior to 1989.

Agency split

In June 2002, the agency was split into two separate entities – Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego (Internal Security Agency), which deals with internal security of the country, and Agencja Wywiadu (Intelligence Agency), which deals with foreign intelligence.

Chiefs

• Krzysztof Kozłowski (1990 – 1990)
• Andrzej Milczanowski (1990 – 1992)
• Piotr Naimski (1992)
• Andrzej Milczanowski (1992)
• Jerzy Konieczny (1992 – 1993)
• Gromosław Czempiński (1993 – 1996)
• Andrzej Kapkowski, p.o. szefa UOP (1996 – 1996)
• Andrzej Kapkowski (1996 – 1997)
• Jerzy Nóżka, p.o. szefa UOP (1997 – 1998)
• Zbigniew Nowek (1998 – 2001)
• Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, p.o. szefa UOP (2001 – 2002)
• Andrzej Barcikowski (2002)

See also

• Instruction UOP nr 0015/92

References

External links

• Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego homepage