Ryszard Kuklinski

From Wikinfo

Colonel Ryszard Jerzy Kuklinski, ( ca. 1930 - 10 February 2004), was a Polish army officer who provided the CIA with over 35,000 pages of Soviet secret military documents from 1972 to 1981 when he and his family were whisked out of Warsaw. Kuklinski volunteered his services without recompense.

Kuklinski's father disappeared after having been seized by the Nazi Gestapo in 1939 after the invasion of Poland.

The documents Kuklinski provided plans for surprise attacks on western Europe, nuclear war scenarios, details of almost 300 Soviet weapons systems, and details on the imposition of martial law over Poland. Kuklinski's information had dramatic effects on western policies toward the Warsaw Pact and in several cases were the basis for western reactions to Soviet political and military moves.

In 1994 Kuklinski's younger son and a friend disappeared mysteriously from a sailboat off of the coast of Florida. No reason for the disappearance was ever discovered and there were no signs of trouble from the boat.

Within 6 months Kuklinski's other son was killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident. The car was discovered a short time later and no fingerprints were recovered.

A communist court sentenced him to death in 1984. Poland overthrew communism in 1989 but the death sentence was maintained until 1995. The Polish government did not completely exhonorate him until 1997. He visited Poland 1998 where he received a hero's welcome by the then right-wing government.

Colonel Kuklinski became a US citizen and moved to the Seattle, Washington area. Kuklinski is the recipient of the Central Intelligence Agency's Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

On 6 February, 2004 Col. Kuklinski suffered a stroke and was hospitalized where he died on 10 February 2004.