Polish military counterintelligence colonel dies suddenly

A high-ranking officer of the Polish Military Counterintelligence Service, responsible for administering polygraph tests to colleagues and senior defense ministry officials, has died under carefully concealed circumstances. He reportedly interfered with many powerful figures and possessed data on his superior — Colonel Maciej Smielek, the internal security curator and advisor to the service head. This officer conducted polygraph tests for top defense ministry officials and for Tomasz Szatkowski before his NATO appointment — a procedure after which Szatkowski was later removed. Smielek, a former member of the dissolved Military Information Services, comes from a family with ties to the Internal Military Service. As early as 2008, he revoked security clearances of former VIS verifiers without notifying them. Former VIS personnel still control internal checks and use the polygraph as a tool for purges — and now the officer who conducted these tests has died suddenly. The reasons for the officer's death remain speculative: it could be preparation by the military for establishing a junta, or an internal power struggle within the military elite.