During the 1980s a group in Poland that Lech Walesa led, called "Solidarity," was apparently secretly supported by the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] of the Republican Reagan administration. As the Chair and Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies [CSIS]'s Transnational Threats Project, Seth G. Jones, recalled in his 2018 book, A Covert Action: Reagan, The CIA, and The Cold War Struggle in Poland:
"Dick Malzahn and other CIA operatives overseeing QRHELPFUL...had assets. But how would they infiltrate money and material into Poland?...Since a direct hand-off of aid from CIA to Solidarity would have risked discovery, case officers and their assets used `ratlines,' in CIA parlance...The operatives utilized smugglers, philanthropists, publishers, and others to move supplies into Poland...The use of assets maximized secrecy by hiding the hand of the CIA...
"Sweden was a primary point of origin for QRHELPFUL infiltration. Somewhere between one quarter and one half of all material entering Poland arrived from Sweden...In 1983 [U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director] Bill Casey flew to Sweden to ask Prime Minister Olof Palme for assistance. Casey wanted to establish a pipeline to funnel supplies to Solidarity on a regular basis...Palme agreed to help. The CIA now had top cover to use ports, ships, and smugglers to move material to...Solidarity...
"...The CIA obligated nearly $1.5 million to Solidarity in fiscal year 1983...In Bonn, a German CIA asset...codenamed QACARROTTOP, passed CIA money from his foundation to a Catholic clergyman...QACARROTTOP also gave funds to the Solidarity offices in Paris and Brussels using CIA money masked as foundation donations...Moscow and Warsaw were accurate in assuming the CIA was involved in aid to opposition groups..." (end of Part 4)
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