[2] Several countries, such as the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France refused to help in such a dangerous operation; only Poland agreed to help.

Gromosław Czempiński [pl][3] became the commander of this operation, assigned to it by Polish Minister of Internal Affairs and first chief of Urząd Ochrony Państwa, Krzysztof Kozłowski.

[2] Czempiński had previously been a spy in the United States and either took part or led many operations against the Western intelligence services.

Since the spy did not know Polish at all, he pretended to be heavily drunk (another version states that the operative in question fainted).

[4] In at least two other operations, the Poles later aided another 15 foreigners to escape, mostly Britons, held hostage by the Iraqis as part of Saddam Hussein's "human shield" campaign to deter an allied invasion.