The Wikipedia article for Alexandr Wolszczan (the astronomer who first discovered an extrasolar planet) says that he admitted to being a paid spy from 1974 from 1988. The cited article is this:
http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/1827933,11,item.html
Can anyone here who reads Polish tell me whether the article actually says this?
Cheers,
Joey
Not reading Polish myself, but Google’s translation of the page seems to bear it out.
No. The second paragraph says that he cooperated with the (Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB)) internal intelligence agency [my bit: of the Polish People’s Republic]… So no… not a spy, but I guess working for a communist intelligence agency may hint of this, as usually people who worked for the SB, gave information about others who went or acted against the communist ideology.
… Kind of like the Hitler Youth… You see anything suspicious, report it. Then a whole bunch of goons come over and and at best take them away, beat them up (read - interigate), and release them, and at worst, they’re killed by torture.
To add, not at one point in the article does it mention SPY (“szpieg” in polish).
Hope this helps
Here’s a bit more on the kerfuffle in English.