LETTER (SANITIZED) FROM MICHAEL J. O'NEIL

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Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90B01370R000400620024-4
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
5
Document Creation Date: 
December 21, 2016
Document Release Date: 
December 3, 2008
Sequence Number: 
24
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
May 18, 1984
Content Type: 
LETTER
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90B01370R000400620024-4.pdf201.04 KB
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Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4 'n I .rLLG,-HE% ``' -Z, Hce CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Office of Legislative Liaison mhinn+nn n r ')nt5 8 July 1984 TO. Mr. Michael J. O'Neil, Chief Counsel House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligen House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 '..'\ \\LL- Dear Mr. O'Neil: Enclosed are the documents which you had sent us previously. Thank you. Sincerely, ORD C0~ c 8,60 STAT OLL 34-2550 STAT Liaison Division Office of Legislative Liaison 3.79 1 J33 PREVIOUS EDITIONS. Distribution: Original - Addressee 1 - OLL REcord 1 - OLL Chrono OLL/LD (18 July 84) STAT Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4 Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4 EDWARD ~. BOLAND. MASS.. CHAIRMAN ROMANO L MAZZOU, KY. NORMAN Y. MINETA. CALIF. WYCHE FOWLER, JR., GA. LEE H. HAMILTON, IND. ALBERT GORE. S,OHIO TENN. LOUIS STOKES, OHIO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES LOUIS DAVE NY C C. . BEI BEILENSO NSON, CALIF. ANTHONY PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE J. KENNETH ROBINSON, VA. ON INTELLIGENCE G. WILLIAM WHITEHURST, VA. C. W. BILL YOUNG, FLA. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515 BOB STUMP, ARIZ WILLIAM F. GOGGLING, PA. THOMAS K. LATIMER, STAFF DIRECTOR MICHAEL J. O-NEIL, CHIEF COUNSEL STEVEN K. BERRY, ASSOCIATE COUNSEL May 18, 1984 ROOM N408. U.B. CAI ITOL 1202)226-4121 STAT Office Legislative airs Central Intelligence Agency Washington, D. C. 20505 The attached letter raises allegations about the connection between the Department of Justice's investigation of Nazi war criminals and KGB persecution in Lithuania. I would appreciate it if you could locate someone from the Agency who could speak to these matters to the staff. Michael J. O'Neil Chief Counsel Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4 STAT Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4 STAT Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4 Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90B01370R000400620024-4 IN's \V \_- - ZUMBAKIS & ASSOCIATES Attorneys and Counselors SEVEN SOUTH DEARBORN STREET CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60603 S. PAUL ZUMBAKIS RIMA L. SKORUBSKAS THOMAS PETKUS Office Manager & Legal Assistant VIKTORIJA B. DIRGELA March 28, 1984 Hon. Edward P. Boland 2426 Rayburn HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 , 7 F_ if I'YiiJ i' iS 1131 EEG r"+?. t . I_. )] P.I I TELEPHONE 312/641.3426 LOCAL OFFICES 1445 SOUTH 50TH AVENUE CICERO, IL 60650 475 FRONTAGE ROAD BURR RIDGE, IL 60521 Dear Representative Boland: New samizdat materials, recently smuggled from the Soviet Union into the West, raise disturbing questions which you may want to consider. Recent samizdat publications have unequivocally established, the KGB's continuous cruelty toward ethnic and religious minorities in the Soviet Union. It ap- pears, nonetheless, that there may have been a cover-up in the Executive Branch regarding certain KGB activities which directly involve the government of the United States. It seems that, as a result of this cover-up, Congress may have been denied full access to relevant information. Are you aware ..that the notorious Soviet KGB is closely collaborating with the Department of Justice, Office of Special Investigations (OSI)? Have you been advised that the Director of the OSI did not find it necessary nor conven- ient to inform his superiors of the publication of a major KGB statement in the U.S.S.R. publication Izvestia concerning its participation in the work of the OSI? Do you know that the OSI's United States attorneys and their staffs enjoy a warm and cordial relationship with the infamous Soviet procurators and KGB agents who are instrumental in prosecuting the Soviet Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Pentecostals, and others behind the Iron Curtain? Are you further aware that each link of OSI cooperation with the KGB has been established in the name of a "Congressional Mandate?" I was shocked to discover on November 14, 1983, that Assistant Attorney General Stephen S. Trott, the chief of the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division, under whose auspices OSI is conducting its civil investi- gations, was totally unaware of a major Izvestia expose regarding the direction of OSI investigations by the KGB. Mr. Neal Sher, Director of the OSI, knew of the KGB statements in February, 1983, but had not felt it necessary to ad- vise or inform Mr. Trott of them for nine months. He only did so when con- fronted by three defense attorneys during a meeting with Mr. Trott. If Mr. Sher did not feel it to be his duty to inform his superiors, can he be expected to inform Congress of OSI's link to the KGB? The recently published samizdat, smuggled out of Soviet-occupied Lithuania, describes the cruel and harsh treat- ment of two Lithuanian Catholic priests who were jailed for their basic reli- Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4 Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4 gious beliefs. It describes the gallant efforts of 123,000 petitioners and their delegation sent to Soviet Premier Andropov, as well as the delegation's mistreatment by the infamous Procurator Bakucionis. "The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania" mirrors the New York Times Magazine story of March 18, 1984, which describes the teamwork of the KGB and U.S.S.R. procura- tors in persecuting and prosecuting Jewish dissidents. This pattern is estab- lished whether the victims are Helsinki Monitoring Groups, the Catholics, the Russian Orthodox, the Jews, or any other minority or nationality which the So- viet Union has targeted for discrimination and elimination. Furthermore, it ap- pears that, since the time former OSI Director Allan A. Ryan, .Jr. and Walter J. Rockler, on behalf of the OSI, made arrangements with Prosecutor General Roman A. Rudenlco and his first deputy, Aleksandr M. Rekunkov, on behalf of the Soviet prosecutors, for Soviet cooperation, one notes a marked increase in the persecu- tion of dissidents, with a proportionate decrease in the emigration of Jews Federal District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise, after considering extensive evidence relating to this issue in the case of United States v. Kungys, reached the conclusion that the OSI is acting as a "partner" of the Soviet Procurators and the KGB. The link is clear. It should be clear to anyone who studies the behavior of the OSI. But is that the Congressional mandate? Did Congress intend to have the Justice Department rely on the notorious KGB for information and evidence? In checking Congressional debates and the record on the issue, I find no such mandate. However, whenever the OSI is approached on this issue, its answer is clear: "We have a Congressional mandate." It is tragic to see the infamous Procurator Bakucionis mistreat and prose- cute Lithuanian dissidents on the one hand while working in close and warm contact with the OSI attorneys and their staff on the other. Other procura- tors, in other Soviet "Republics", who prosecute other dissidents, Jews and Christians and Moslems alike, work in tandem with the OSI. Shiransky, Sakha- rov, Petkus, and countless other individuals persecuted by the KGB/Procurator "Judicial System" are victims of the same individuals with whom OSI works so closely. I feel that our government should not lend credibility to the KGB's work, as I am sure we would not work with the Nazi Gestapo. I believe that OSI's collaboration with the KGB at a time when the Soviets are the most infa- mous anti-Semites in the world degrades and diminishes the tragedy of the Holo- caust. I direct your attention to this cancer within the Justice Department. is anyone in Congress checking what the OSI is doing? I suspect that you do not and will not tolerate the use of a "Congressional mandate" as a cover-up for work between the OSI and the KGB. I am convincr-d that the American people will not tolerate this cooperation. I am certain that the dissidents who rot in the Soviet Gulags do not appreciate the link between their persecutors at the KGB and the United States Justice Department. I would appreciate hearing your views on the matter. Enclosure: Documentation of statements made above cc: All Washington based and represented media Selected syndicated columnists SPZ/bj Approved For Release 2008/12/03: CIA-RDP90BO1370R000400620024-4