Aftermath of Poland aircrash:NATO worries

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 significant compromise,
according to a NATO intelligence source, is that
the Russians are suspected of obtaining
ultrasecret codes used by NATO militaries for
secure satellite communications.
The compromise of the codes is considered what
electronic spies call a "break" for Moscow code-
breakers. New NATO codes almost certainly were
issued to allied militaries immediately after the
crash.
But if the Russian electronic intelligence service,
known as the Federal Agency of Government
Communications and Information, was able to
recover and use the communication key code
from the wreckage, electronic spies will be able to
decode months' or perhaps years' worth of
scrambled communications that are routinely
gathered electronically for just such an occasion.
The coded communications, if decrypted, would
reveal some of NATO's most intimate secrets,
such as plans for defenses and even the identities
of agents or allied eavesdropping sources.
Other Polish and NATO secrets also were
believed to be aboard the jet, and so far Russia's
government is refusing to cooperate fully with
Poland's government in providing details on the
cause of the crash, or even to turn over the
Polish jet's black boxes.
Additionally, Poland's interim government has
not pressed the Russians for answers to
questions about the crash, such as why Russian
aviation authorities, without any investigation,
ruled that pilot error caused the crash minutes
after the jet crashed short of the runway in fog at
Russia's Smolensk airport. Polish security and
aviation authorities also were denied access to the
crash site.
Public pressure is mounting on Warsaw to call
for an international commission to investigate the
crash. Tens of thousands of Poles already have
signed a petition calling for the international
probe.
Many Poles, who need little encouragement to be
critical of the Russians based on past enmity,
have taken to calling the crash the "second
Katyn," after the 1940 Katyn Forest massacre
when Russian agents killed more than 21,000
Polish officers in an effort to decimate the Polish
military.
Mr. Kaczynski, who was viewed as politically
more anti-Russian than current leaders, was on
his way to Katyn, about six miles from Smolensk,
to mark the anniversary of the massacre..Source:washingtontimes