Polish defence official blamed for false Iraq missile claims

WARSAW: Poland’s top military commander has blamed a former defence ministry spokesman for making false allegations that the country’s troops found recently manufactured Franco-German missiles in Iraq, daily Gazeta Wyborcza said on Tuesday.

In a secret report, which was sent to Prime Minister Leszek Miller the day before, the chief of staff put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak, who resigned over the matter on October 7.

On October 4 Mleczak, who was in his post for several years, said that Iraqi police had notified the Polish troops of the missiles, and on October 1, expressed that they seized four Roland missiles bearing French markings, made in 2003, in a house near Al-Hillah, south of Baghdad. The announcement sparked a denial from French President Jacques Chirac, talks with Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller at the EU’s Rome summit and an apology from Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski.

Poland’s top military commander, Chief of Staff General Czeslaw Piatas, then said Polish forces had made an "error of interpretation" when they said they had found French missiles in Iraq manufactured this year.

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http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/oct2003-daily/15-10-2003/world/w12.htm