THE BARBIE CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370086-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 86
• Publication Date: March 2, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370086-8
OH F`A F A-11-,;
The Barbie
Connection
From under a Rock
New York.
j T began many years ago, and all
1 wl,o care to know have learned
some of the story. But Washington
declines comment.
Toward the end of World War
II. U.S. intelligence was split by
By John L. Hess
conflicting goals: to find and pup-
ish enemy war criminals or to enlist
as many people as possible for arse
against the Soviets.
Among hundreds who slipped
through that crack was Klaus
Barbie, "the butcher of Lyons."
As a Gestapo chief, Barbie had
directed the deportation, torture
and murder of thousands. He is
said to have beaten to death with
his own hands the leader of the
French Resistance, Jean Moulin.
At the Liberation, Barbie made
his way to the American zone of oc-
cupation in Bavaria and was signed
up as an agent. A former U.S. Army
officer recalls paying him $1,700 a
month, which was high wages in
those years.
In 1949, the French learned
where he was and asked that he be
extradited. The U.S. authorities
stalled, then said they had lost
touch with him. He had in fact
been provided with phony papers
and spirited to Bolivia.
The French learned in 1963 tliat
Barbie was working in South Amer- .
ica with the CIA and West German
intelligence.
As an expert in Gestapo police
methods, he enjoyed close relations
with several military regimes. It
was not until a liberal government
took over in Bolivia last year that
Barbie was finally shipped to
France.
THE BALTIMORE SUN
2 March 1983
All of Europe now knows that
much of the story. But Washington
refuses to open the dossier on
Barbie, on grounds of national se-
curity. It might, on the contrary. be
very good for our national security
to open it.
Our view of secret services is
pretty much the James Bond story.
In truth, the secret services are
more like rocks in marshy ground;
tip one over and weird things crawl
out.
We got a glimpse of some of
these creatures in the Watergate
trial: E. Howard Hunt (himself an
author of spy thrillers), the incredi-
ble Gordon Liddy, the brutal
Cubans. We'll get another glimpse
in Seymour Hersh's forthcoming
book, "The Price of Power. Kiss-
inger in Nixon's White House." ,
Mr. Kissinger himself, inciden-
tally, served in Army intelligence`in
postwar Germany, but what I ' am
referring to here is Mr. Hersh's de-
scription of a breed of "false-flag"
CIA agents who doubled as gang-
sters and smugglers in South
America-
. One of them turned up briefly in
the plotting against President Sal-
vador Allende of Chile. This agent
was a drunk, a brawler, some sort of
racketeer and a terrible security
risk.
Add him to the list of criminals
and crimes that have been linked to
"The Company" only in the last
few years: the Wilson-Terpil Lib-
yan connection, the worldwide
Nugin-Hand banking scandal, a
car-theft ring in Southern Califor-
nia, a shady bank in the Bahamas,
an international swindler based in
Liechtenstein, and so on.
These are cases that have
emerged despite CIA efforts- to
keep the. lid on.
What else is hidden under those
rocks? And what for?
What, after, did Klaus
Barbie ever do foiif us? Our postwar
operations in Eastern Europe were
a bloody failure, and our dealings
with Latin dictators have been- a
disgrace..
We confuse intelligence with-co-
vert action, with romance and ad-
venture. But secrecy often engen-
ders crime and folly, not informa-
tion. Our most reliable source of in-
formation today as in the past has
been the humdrum study of com-
munications and publications. ?
Compare that with the help-
wanted ads now being run by an
unleashed CIA:
"Careers ... with new horizons!
Assignments in foreign lands that
challenge your every talent."
In short, more Gordon Liddys:
It sho~,)Id make us feel very inse-
cure.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370086-8