U.S. ADMITS IT HELPED BARBIE FLEE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370030-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: August 17, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370030-9
APPEAPM
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
7 August 1983
admits
it ~.elped
By
said. Moreover, the French had filed
murder, terrorism and massacre
charges against him as early as 1944
with the U.N. War Crimes Commis-
sion, and Barbie was listed on the
Central Registry of War Criminals
and Security Suspects.
But Ryan concluded that CIC offi-
.cers had no reliable information un-
til May 1949 - two years after Barbie
was first employed - that Barbie
was suspected ? of war crimes or
crimes against humanity. Until then,
the U.S. intelligence officers proba-
bly thought that the murder charges
-grew out of Barbie's role in the
deaths of French Resistance fighters,
according to the Justice report.
However, the Army officers first
-obstructed justice in 1950 the re
ort
p
,, -said,' when France sought extradi-
The Justice-Department report-ex-, tion of Barbie from the US. hi h
By Aaron Epstein no -o inion as -to Barbie's g
InWIrn WG3*"ron av.rm pressed commissioner for Germany
Theoffi=
.
guilt or innocence,-but it condemned cers decided that "Barbie should not
WASHLNGTON - U.S. intelligence 1 the actions of about half a dozen U.S. be placed in Ethel hands _of Ithel
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f fi e
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officers obstructed justice by con_ A
rmy
nt
g
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r
p to
-
Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie,
from French . prosecutors and by
helping him escape to 'Bolivia, Jus-
tice Department investigators re-
ported yesterday.
The investigators' 218-page report,
accompanied by hundreds of-;docu-
ments,-was the first official ' govern=
ment adtiission of U.S. "misconduct
in shielding Barbie, a former SS and
Gestapo officer known as "the butch-
er of Lvon."
The State Department, acting on a
recommendation from Justice De-
pa-;meat special assistant Allan A.
Rya.-. Jr.. chief investigator of the
U. -fiarhie ties. sent a formal note to
exr:cssir.g "deems regret' for
c-' cet?~.; Barbie. 1 he French Em-
"ass',- :r. Washington said its govern-
ment bad no immediate comment.
U.S. protection of Barbie, who was
a paid informant for the Army
Counter-Lntelligence Corps (CIC)
from 1947 to 1950, delayed his trial in
France for 33 years, Ryan said.
Barbie, who will be 70 in October,
was expelled from Bolivia in Febru-
ary and is in a French prison await-
ing trial. He is accused of ordering
the slaughter of 4,000 French Jews
and the deportation of :,500 persons
to Nazi concentration camps while
he was a top Nazi officer in Lyon
from 1942 to 1944.
-
i n. Iay-
Barbie's whereabouts from French "" '?" "++e- ". fume
authorities. lor, chief of U.S. military intelligence
The report, however, excused the
CIC for hiring Barbie after World
War II as an:informant who spied on
the German Communist Party and
on French and Soviet activities in
the US.-controlled zone of Germany.
- Although U.S. intelligence officers
are "subject ? to valid criticism by-
those who find use of a Gestapo offi-
cial under any circumstances repre-
hensible." the report said, the re-
cruitment of Barbie "did not amount
to the knowing use of a war crimi-
nal."
"The decision to use Barbie was a
defersibie one, made in good faith by
those who believed that they were
advancing legitimate and important
national security interests," the re-
port said.
France, Great Britain and the Sovi-
et Union similarly used former Nazi
officials in Germany after World
War II and are in no position to
criticize the United States, Ryan said.
Yesterday, in response to the re-
port, the Soviet Union criticized the
Justice Department. -
"The officers of the Justice Depart-
ment have drawn a conclusion
which is striking in its cynicism,"
the official Tass news agency said. "It
was recommended that the U.S. ad-
ministration only express its 'regret'
to the government of France."
Army intelligence officers knew
before hiring Barbie that be was a
former Gestapo officer and that be
was wanted for murder, the report
in the US.-controlled zone of Germa-
ny, told the director of intelligence
for the high commissioner in June
1950 that Barbie had not been em-
ployed by the CIC since 1949 and that
the CIC had not been in touch with
him since late April 1950, the report
said. .
Both statements were false, Ryan
said. Actually, Army intelligence of-
ficers knew Barbie's whereabouts
"at all times" from April 1947 until
March 1951, when they arranged Bar-
bie's escape to Bolivia under a false
name through a form of under-
ground railway for defectors known
as the Rat Line.
Why did the U.S. officers shield
Barbie? Ryan gave this explanation:
"Surrender of Barbie would embar-
rass CIC by revealing that it had used
a former Gestapo official, and would
risk the compromise of CIC proce-
dures and information should Barbie
decide to reveal what he had learned
in over three years of CIC employ-
ment."
Barbie, as the manager of-a Boliv-
Li-~. a - ~.. v ti 1-..
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370030-9