Papers: CIA knew of Eichmann whereabouts

[syscom3]

After reading this, I just shook my head thinking "what in the world were these CIA officials thinking of?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060606/..._records_nazis

WASHINGTON - Determined to win the Cold War, the CIA kept quiet about the whereabouts of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in the 1950s for fear he might expose undercover anticommunist efforts in West Germany, according to documents released Tuesday.

The 27,000 pages released by the National Archives are among the largest post-World War II declassifications by the CIA. They offer a window into the shadowy world of U.S. intelligence — and the efforts to use former Nazi war criminals as spies, sometimes to detrimental effect.

The war criminals "peddled hearsay and gossip, whether to escape retribution for past crimes, or for mercenary gain, or for political agendas not necessarily compatible with American national interests," Robert Wolfe, an expert on German history and former archivist at the National Archives, said at a news briefing announcing the document release.

In a March 19, 1958, memo to the CIA, West German intelligence officials wrote that they knew where Eichmann was hiding. Eichmann played a key role in transporting Jews to death camps during World War II. "He is reported to have lived in Argentina under the alias 'Clemens' since 1952," authorities wrote.

But neither side acted on that information because they worried what he might say about Hans Globke, a highly placed former Nazi and a chief adviser in West Germany helping the U.S. coordinate anticommunist initiatives in that country.

Two years later, when Jewish authorities captured Eichmann, the CIA pressured journalists to delete references to Globke.

"Entire material has been read. One obscure mention of Globke which Life omitting at our request," CIA Director Allen Dulles wrote in a Sept. 20, 1960, internal memorandum, after Life magazine purchased Eichmann's memoir.

Among the other findings:

_Former Nazi officers such as Heinz Felfe, who served in the "Gehlen organization" — the West German intelligence service which in its early years was sponsored by the U.S. Army and then the CIA — were typically hired by the Soviet Union to be double agents.

_The CIA routinely misled U.S. immigration officials in the mid-1970s about the role of CIA agent Tscherim Soobzokov and his connection to Nazi war crimes.

The documents were among the latest released under a 1999 law — resisted by the CIA — that called for disclosure of government records related to war crimes committed by the Nazi and Japanese governments.

"CIA has been struggling with the nettlesome problem of how to balance the public's interest in the historical record of CIA's connections to Nazis, and an intelligence agency's need ... to protect the identities of sources," said Stanley Moskowitz, a former CIA official who is now a consultant to the agency.

"The passage of time has shifted the balance," he said.

Material relating to Japanese war crimes were scheduled to be released later this summer.

[Twitch]

The Long Beach paper had that story a couple days ago. I read it with a shrug since Operation Paperclip after the war was rationalized so liberally so that there was plenty of "looking the other way" and ignoring blatant Nazis if they were working for us. The OSS was fully one half staffed by ex-Nazis in the late 40s. Many had their backgrounds sanitized by the US government.

If it is to be believed, Allen Dulles, under the cover of covert plans called Operation Sunrise, Overcast, and Paperclip, actually brought SS intelligence officers to the US as early as 1943 for the purpose of collaboration on the advanced technology and to bolster US intelligence ops.

[FLYBOYJ]

Originally Posted by Twitch

The Long Beach paper had that story a couple days ago. I read it with a shrug since Operation Paperclip after the war was rationalized so liberally so that there was plenty of "looking the other way" and ignoring blatant Nazis if they were working for us. The OSS was fully one half staffed by ex-Nazis in the late 40s. Many had their backgrounds sanitized by the US government.

If it is to be believed, Allen Dulles, under the cover of covert plans called Operation Sunrise, Overcast, and Paperclip, actually brought SS intelligence officers to the US as early as 1943 for the purpose of collaboration on the advanced technology and to bolster US intelligence ops.

I believe Allen Dulles was involved in the Kennedy Assassination, but that's for another thread...

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Read this other day as well.

To answer your question though, the CIA was not thinking of anything when they did it. As in all CIA type sercret squirrels no matter what country they come from, they do as they please whether there government knows anything about it or not. They just do there own thing and dont care about others.

Does a lot have to do with national security? Yeah, but what the hell does a Nazi fugitive have to do with national security? Nothing.

[Twitch]

I believe that ex-Nazis WERE effective in the early days of the OSS. There were no other individuals with experience and indigenous cover background to perform the tasks required. It simply remains to be answered whether the intel gathered was worth the rationalization of being in league with the devil, so to speak. We'll never know.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Interesting view on the matter. Like I said they will do whatever, get in bed with whoever to do what they do.