A professor from Poland recently denigrated a Polish American leader, revered by most, but even grudgingly respected by those who held him in somewhat less esteem. It is an incident reminiscent of the spurious claims made by the infamous U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. More about that a little later, but first some background about a process known as "lustration."

In ancient times lustration referred to purification rites of the Greeks and Romans. Today, it has come to mean policies aimed at limiting the participation of former communists, particularly those who were informers for the secret police, in other words a kind of political purifying.

The first lustration legislation was passed by the Polish Parliament in 1992, but was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Tribunal, a judicial body similar to the Supreme Court in the U.S. After a few other efforts, a new law was adopted in 1996. The Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) was given some key powers over the process and exercise of lustration Again, though, key articles of the law were found to be unconstitutional in 2007. Today, the whole thing is in question and some observers feel the secret police files should simply be opened to the public and let the chips fall where they may. Others think the release of all of the personal and confidential information contained in the files would cause unacceptable harm to innocent people.

While lustration in Poland is somewhat of a dormant issue, there are those in the United States, particularly on the West Coast, who contend that communist agents remain active here and that lustration should be adopted in Polonia. Their favorite initial source of information is the so-called Wildstein List, named for Bronislaw Wildstein, a reporter who secretly copied the information from the national archives. It contains the names of some 162,617 individuals who are believed to have worked for the Polish intelligence services. However, it also includes persons who the secret police wanted to recruit, but were never successful in that effort.

Naturally, this lustration process has some innate faults. Even a cursory examination of the Wildstein List reveals that it includes many common names, giving rise to errors in solid identification. Others were persons from whom it was hoped information could be obtained. Likewise, the security or secret police are known to have contrived some reports, mostly for the purpose of their own aggrandizement and promotion.

In California, accusations against a Polonian leader, hotly contested until this day, ultimately drove him from his positions and completely out of the state. Others less prominent have allegedly suffered similar indignities.

And now to the current situation. In its vetting inquiries about Polonia, Dr. Slawomir Cenckiewicz climbed to the top of the list of accusers, proclaiming a bombshell at a press conference dedicated to Stephen Korbonski, author of books about the Polish experience in WWII. Cenckiewicz announced that the IPN has found two documents indicating that Edward J. Moskal, the longtime President of the Polish National Alliance (PNA) and the Polish American Congress (PAC), who deceased five years ago, was a contact for Polish intelligence, which at that time was under control of the Soviets. Many observers believe that Cenckiewicz failed in his investigation approach and, in fact, his claims left a deep scar on his prior achievements regarding the subject of collaboration with Polish Communist authorities in Poland. The documents submitted by Cenckiewicz simply did not show anything which would actually indicate any activity for the communists by Moskal.

Nevertheless, the harm was done. Circulated immediately by Polish press agencies in releases about the conference, an article immediately appeared on March 25, 2010, in Rzeczpospolita [The Republic], a major newspaper. It was eagerly repeated by other parts of the media as a sensational story.

There are no kind words with which to describe the "revelation" by Cenckiewicz. He is a fool and the accusation is absurd.

I attempt to refrain from becoming personal in my editorial writing, but it is impossible in this situation. As then Director of Public Relations for the Polish National Alliance, I worked and socialized closely with Edward J. Moskal for almost a decade, even traveling to Poland with him after the nation won its freedom. It would be difficult to find a greater and more dedicated American and Pole than he was.

Edward Moskal, a WWII U.S. Army veteran, struggled long and hard for the causes of both the United States and Poland. For his efforts, he was honored on numerous occasions by government and church in both nations. Among his greatest accomplishments was his fight for the inclusion of Poland in NATO, an endeavor in which I remain proud to have worked under his leadership. It was a political battle that certainly did not please the communists, whom he detested.

Although there are those who disagreed with President Moskal’s methods, his opinions or his tendency toward hyperbole, even they would never question his loyalty and patriotism. The suggestion by Cenckiewicz is a sin of the most dire kind. He is in serious need of "purification."

Edward J. Moskal, by his life and his deeds, deserves to be recalled as a great and patriotic Polish American.