SMOLEŃSK ATTACK
ARTUR STELMASIAK
Disclosure of evidences of professors investigating the Smoleńsk airplane crash seems to be a coordinated action of ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’, the team of Maciej Lasek and prosecutors
Officers from the Chief Military Prosecution in Warsaw have made an impression of alleged independence so far. Their investigation often questioned findings of experts from the commission of Jerzy Miller. One can only mention divergences about gen. Andrzej Błasik.
The situation changed radically after the high-profile case of trinitrotoluene. At that time, the prime minister Donald Tusk expressed his disapproval of informative policy of prosecutors. Now, when quotes of the government are falling pell-mell, it is high time for another counterattack. Its purpose is not substantial discussion but ridiculing people who question governmental findings about the air crash.
Ridiculing professors
However, what is the worst, is the fact that the Chief Military Prosecution joined the choir, where ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ and the team of Maciej Lasek have been speaking with one voice for a long time. Their last actions seem to be fully coordinated. First, the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ published a text, later prosecution revealed whole evidences of professors from the parliamentary team, and then dr. Lasek gave his speech at a press conference during which he ridiculed ‘unprofessional’ experts of Antoni Macierewicz.
- I think that it concerned disqualifying all people who think that the investigation of Smoleńsk is being carried out in unreliable way. First of all, it is all about discrediting scientists cooperating with the parliamentary team for explaining causes of the air crash at Smoleńsk – says an attorney Bartosz Kownacki, a proxy of a few families of the casualties. However, Poles who are interested in the air crash at Smoleńsk, noticed quickly that in the revealed evidences there was nothing new. Prof. Wiesław Binienda, prof. Jan Obrębski and prof. Jacek Ronda said it many times during public scientific conferences about the air crash. So, why did we have a media battue on the scientists?
The answer is simple. The governmental team for promoting official findings about Smoleńsk needed a success. However, dr. Lasek was not able to generate such a high interest of the public opinion. He needed help from the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’, and later military prosecution. Only the last chord of the media spectacle was the pronouncement of Maciej Lasek, who repeated everything at the press conference, which had been written by the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ earlier.
- What happened in relation to the publication of the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’, is a well-prepared action, whose aim was to discredit me, prof. Obrębski and prof. Ronda – emphasizes prof. Wiesław Binienda. – If prosecutors have something to hide, they do it like with coffins: they solder and later it turns out that there a different person in the coffin.
The second bottom
The artificial cause of this media battue, has the second bottom. For, in a few weeks, there is going to be a big scientific conference about the air crash at Smoleńsk. Last year it was attended by over a hundred scientists from the best Polish technical universities and many from abroad. Also the chairman of the Polish Science Academy – prof. Michał Kleiber submitted a proposal of organizing a big conference under the patronage of the Polish Science Academy, in which experts of both dispute parties would express their opinion for the first time.
However, nobody from the team of Lasek is competent to undertake a discussion, for example, about the investigations of prof. Binienda. There is no expert in the governmental team, who could refer to the results of mathematical models, which were used for defending three doctorates in the USA. However, it is not an obstacle for dr. Lasek to say that members of the team of Macierewicz have doubtful qualifications, and they draw conclusions without any evidence.
There is a peculiar and unexpected situation in the light of science, when a Pole with the Doctor’s degree undermines competences of professors of the international fame. prof. Binienda has already published 12 books and received a dozen rewards, including three from NASA. Whereas dr. Lasek has not published any book, and there is no information about his rewards. Also, his practical experience remains a lot to wish. Before the accident at Smoleńsk, he had only investigated air incidents and a few crashes of gliders and small airplanes. And when journalists have asked him recently, whether he had been to Smoleńsk at all, he answered that there had been no need. Whereas the accredited colonel Edmund Klich by MAG said on the radio on the same day, that nobody of Miller’s commission had been to Smoleńsk.
It turns out that all evidences which were collected by the Polish commission, come from the Russians. They even could not measure the altitude correctly, at which the Smoleńsk birch broke, not saying about an investigation of the wreckage or the fragments of the wing. What is more, in order to illustrate his report, they had stolen photos from internet without the author’s consent.
- Therefore, it is impossible to confront experts of Macierewicz and experts of Lasek because Lasek has no experts – emphasizes Janusz Wojciechowski, the euro-deputy of the Law and Justice party. The politician notes aptly: - What experts investigated the birch? – It is not known. It is not known who was investigating the wreckage, who was investigating the presence of explosive materials, who recognized the voice of gen. Błasik.
During three and a half years of the investigation of the cause of the air crash at Smoleńsk, prosecutors often showed their independence from the governmental findings. Unfortunately, the last moves of procurators point out to the fact that also this institution becomes an official governmental tube of version of events.
Nearly three years ago, the chief of the Chief Military Prosecution colonel Ireneusz Szeląg said proudly that the uniform was obliging: ‘A Polish officer is afraid only of God, history… and sometimes his wife’. Now, officers from the Chief Military Prosecution appear without uniforms now, and on the list of their fears there is the biggest fear of their own mistakes…and the pressure of Donald Tusk.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 39/2013