Operation: Simoom
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Operation: "Simoom" (Polish: Operation Samum) was a top secret Polish intelligence operation set in [Iraq]] in the 1990's.
In 1990 the CIA asked European intelligence agencies to assist pulling out three American operatives from Iraq before the gulf war. Major countries such as Russia, Great Britain and France refused to help in such a dangerous operaion. Only Poland agreed to help. The operation was very risky because if the cover were to be blown, all spies from both sides could be killed.
Poland sent few operatives to start working from absolute zero. Gromosław Czempiński became chief of this operation. The main plan was to recapture the hiding American spies and to give them Polish passports so they could escape from Iraq in a special bus for Polish and Russian workers.
The operation was very difficult because the Iraqis already suspected some kind of American-Polish intrigue and they captured a Polish engineer (who was also a son of UOP's operative). The entire operation was stretched to the limits to free the Polish prisoner.
Unfortunately an Iraqi soldier who was patrolling the border had studied in Poland and he knew Polish enough to communicate. When the bus arrived at the border he asked an American spy something, of course the spy didn't know Polish at all so he pretended to be heavily drunk. It worked perfectly. Operatives from both sides returned to their countries. As a reward for Poland, the USA's government cancelled half of Polish debt.
A few years later, Polish director Władysław Pasikowski made a movie about this operation.
