POSSIBLE COVER-UP TO SHIELD NAZIS IS FOCUS OF RENEWED U.S. INQUIRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00885R000800990019-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 19
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/
?
Possible Cover-Up to ShieldNazis
Is Focus of Renewed U.S. Inquiry,
:Conirmted with evidence that key
files were tampered with, the Govern-
ment has reopened investigations into a
possible cover-up involving suspected
Nazi war criminals living in America.
.Tbe investigations are being con-
ducted by the Justice Department and
the General Accounting Office. They
concern allegations of a conspiracy to
protect former Nazis and collaborators
who may have been smuggled into the
United States by American intelligence
agencies for cold war operations
against the Russians.
. Charges that the American authori-
ties mishandled investigations of war
criminals date back at least 10 years.
But the G.A.O. concluded in 1978 that it
could find no evidence of a conspiracy
to impede the Inquiries. Nearly 200
cases remain under investigation by a
trait of the Justice Department, the Of-
flee of Special Investigations.
Documents Under Review
By RALPH BLUMENI'HAL
other former Nazis arrived an
cargo planes, after being listed on the
waybills as freight.
Woe collaborator accused of killings
was identified and barred from emi-,
grating to America on five separate oc-
casions .by American counterinte11i
gene agents. Yet with the help of other
agents, be finally gained entry to this
Vixiftus first made public on the
CBS News program "00 Minutes" last
Sunday his charges that hundreds of
Nazi collaborators were illegally
brought into the country after World
War II to form an anti-Soviet spy army.
Masterminding the efforts, he said, was
a highly secret covert operations
agency close to the State Department
called the Office of Policy Coordination.
Mr. Loftus, who has written a book
about his findings as a war crimes in-
vestigator, provided a draft of the book
and documents to Representative Bar-
ney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat
on the Immigration Subcommittee of
the House Judiciary Committee. The
book is tentatively scheduled for publi-
cation later this year.
-Congressional investigators are also
reviewing new information provided by
a former prosecutor in that office, in-
cluding longsecret military documents
setting forth links that American intelli-
gence agencies had with Nazis and their
East European collaborators..
Episodes described in the documents
and other information collected by the
former prosecutor, John Loftus, include
these cases:
-IAn Army officer working in Intelli-
gence after World War 11 acknowledged
allowing some Nazi collaborators to fal-
sify their applications for American
visas in exchange for providing intelli-
genceinformation.
,9Some former Nazis entered the
United States through lightly patrolled
Canadian and Mexican border cross-
fags while others were routed through
Argentina and other cooperative Latin
American countries.
Mr. Loftus is now himself the subject
of justice Department inquiries into his
disclosure of possibly confidential ma-
terial, accordin l to a department offi-
cial. Mr. Loftus, now in private law
practice in Boston, denied releasing
any material not properly cleared by in-
telligence authorities.
'Just Provided Records'
STAT
The tampering was discovered a year
later by Mr. Loftus, who found material
that the accounting office later said it
had never seen. Mr. Loftus also found a
note in one of the files : "Do not disclose
to G.A.O. until notified to do so." The
note was signed only "General Cam.
sel" and the Justice investigation is
aimed at learning where the directive
originated. One Justice Department of-
ficial said the Defense Department was
queried months ago but had been slow
in responding.
Denials From Two Departments
Both the Justice and State Depart-
ments denied last week that they had
attempted to impede any investigation.
The accounting office, basing its find-
ing only on material it had been shown,
concluded in May 1978 that no "wide.
spread conspiracy" existed to frustrate
investigations of people suspected of
being war criminals. But it found that
nine suspected war criminals had
worked for and been paid by the Central
Intelligence Agency or the State or De-
fense Departments.
After the disclosure last week that the
files had been tampered with, Repre-
sentative Peter W. Rodino Jr., chair-
man of the House Judiciary Committee,
called on the accounting office to reopen
its investigation and the office com-
plied.
"it looks like we were misled," said
John Tipton, the accounting office's
senior evaluator who also headed the
1978 investigation. The withholding of
the material from him last time, he
said, "would lead to the fact that there
might be a conspiracy, yes."
!Started Making Our Contacts'
Meanwhile, he said, "We've already
started making our contacts" for the re-
opened inquiry. He called the task
"pretty big -- big as hell" but said be
bad no idea yet how long It might take.
To the annoyance of the House Immi-
gration Subcommittee, the 1977-78 in-
vestigation took 14 months, about half
of which, Mr. Tipton said, was con-
sumed in gaining access to the intelli-
gence files. This time, he said, a new
statute provides that access to files can
be barred only on the ground of national
security by Presidential decree.
The flurry of new investigations
comes about a decade after a series of
disclosures raised questions about sue.
"I just provided Congress records
they were supposed to get four years
ago, "be said.
In the reopened Government Investi-
gations, the Justice Department an-
nounced last week that its criminal divi-
sion was looking into the removal, ap-
parently by the Defense Department, of
certain intelligence information from at
least two files in military archives.
The files were checked by the Gen-
eral Accounting Office, an investigative
arm of Congress, as part of its conspir-
acy inquiry from early 1977 to May 1978.
They dealt with two Byelorussian
Emigres under Justice Department in-
vestigation for atrocities in the Nazi-oc-
cupied region of western Russia. The
two, Emmanuel Jasiuk and Franz
8ucbel, have since died.
- - - -Approved For Release 2007/0412a_:.CIA- RQP86B.0.08 -
 Approved For Release 2007/04/25. CIA-RDP86BOO885ROOOouu 0019-1
aCBS rno.
John Loftus, a former Justice De-
partment prosecutor, charged that
suspected Nazis had been Illegally
admitted Into the United States.
provided to the iudicf Comriiittee
. offer new insights into links between
American intelligence agencies and
some of the Nazi emigres, according to
Mr. Loftus and Congressional staff
members familiar with the material.
One document cites the case of an
Army intelligence officer who acknowl-
edges permitting Nazi collaborators to
falsify visa applications in exchange for
intelligence information.
. Clandestine Recruitment
Another account tells of a State De-
partment officer who came across a.
clandestine American recruiting effort
aimed at some of the Nazi collabora-
tors. Thinking he had uncovered im-
lighted to blow the whistle on a rival
agency. However, it turned out to be an
operation of his own Office of Policy
Coordination.
"It was comical," Mr. Loftus said.
'There's a document by an Army intel-
ence officer saying, 'Here's one arm
o the C.I.A. hunting Nazis and another
recruiting them.' '
Much of the recruiting, -according to
Mr. Loftus, was carried out by the
petted war criminals in America and policy coordination office under Frank
the effectiveness of investigations by Wisner, a wartime intelligence official
who
the Immigration and Naturalization was appointed director by State all ll in tary of Service. After Congressional 8 George a Marshall in
principally ter instigated nggresssformer l? Although Mr. Winner's office was
sentative Elizabeth Holtzman, now the funded by the C.I.A. and was eventually
merged into the agency, it operated in- .
in-
Brooklyn District Attorney, the Office
of Special Investigations was created in dependently and even today, Mr. Loftus
1819 to centralize the said, its ts files remain partly inaccessible
According to Alan Ryan Jr., director to the C.I.A.
of the office, his staff is currently inves- this
Among dichotomy those who b g to docufrom .
tigating 197 people suspected of being according to -
war criminals to determine if they lied former was as Stanislau of f the yp Stanklevich,
orus -
about their past to gain entry to the scan Ce tral Council deputy 1944 who rep .
cocmtry or win citizenship. A total of 548 tome re sian
carried out orders ut of the Nazi S.S.
cases have been investigated through of the Nazi S
April and charges have been brought to massacre Jews. In camps for against 26 people. Seven of those are the war, he applied or immipersons gration on to
after
facing deportation and four others fad
E action died. No one has yet been de America but each time, according -
ported. Mr. Loftus, American conmterintelli
gence "kept blowing the whistle on
Mr. Loftus served with the office as a him." However, Mr. Loftus said the
prosecutor from May .1879 to May 1981, records showed that other American
principally investigating Byelorussian agents directed him to other possible
emigres who were suspected of partici- entry points. Although formally barred
pating in atrocities during Nazi rule by a immigration court decision, he fi-
from 1941 to 1944, when the region was nally gained entry as a farmer with the
recaptured by Soviet forces. On "60 help of a little cardboard flag on his ap-
Minutes" and in other interviews last plication identifying him as an em-
week be said he had learned that at ployee of Radio Liberty, sponsored by
least 300 Byelorussian Nazis were now the C.I.A. He later became a citizen and
living in the United States, having died recently in Queens while a Federal
slipped in as displaced persons or been investigation was pending.
smuggled in by American intelligence Another former Justice Department
agencies for what proved to be largely rosecputor has questioned whether the
abortive anti-Soviet spy operations. latest round of investigations can re.
Considerable information on the solve the Byelorussian community was gathered "History questions. shown that neither Con-
by a 26-year-old French-born Jew who gress nor Justice can handle this," said
worked undercover for the special in- Martin Mendelsohn, a former deputy
vestigations office. The aide, Marc director of the special investigations of-
Masurovsky, said that while posing as a fice. What was needed, he suggested,
historical researcher with a grant from was a top-level White House investiga-
the National Endowment for the Hu- tion by the President's national security
man ties. he met with Byelorussian adviser.
emigre leaders in this country to track However, a White House spokesman
down and authenticate original 1940's said yesterday that there were no plans
documents needed for the prosecutions. to take the investigation away from the
The documents and other information Justice Department.