Reply #21: How Was The CIA Formed? By absorbing the Nazi war criminal infrastructure.

[Octafish]

Agree with you completely, Parche.

How Was The CIA Formed?

By absorbing the Nazi war criminal infrastructure

by Jared Israel


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On Oct 8, 1998, the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act became US law. This legislation:

“...calls for the establishment of the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group to locate, identify, and make available to the public Nazi war criminal records.” <1>

The IWG’s task was to organize previously classified documents from the OSS, predecessor of the CIA, as well as from the CIA and other intelligence sources, and to make these documents available to the public. These were to include documents relating to possible collusion between US government organizations and Nazi war criminals.

Millions of pages have been released but very little information has trickled down to the broad public. And this trickle has been presented in a way calculated to minimize public awareness of the extent to which the Nazi apparatus was recruited in order - literally - to *become* the US covert operations and intelligence apparatus (the CIA etc.)

This story centers around the figure of Reinhard Gehlen.

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Who was Reinhard Gehlen, and how did US intelligence use him?

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From April 1942 on, Gehlen was head of German Armies East, the Nazi Army’s intelligence corps in conquered Soviet territory. Commenting on the release of some previously classified documents concerning Gehlen, the IWG wrote:

“Working immediately after the war with Army Intelligence, the Gehlen Organization became the responsibility of the CIA, which continued the relationship until 1956. One document released by the IWG on June 26, 2000, shows an early connection between the Strategic Services Unit (predecessor of the CIA) and Gehlen’s group. The SSU searched for members of Gehlen’s organization in POW camps and extensively interrogated them. As the Cold War developed during 1946, American intelligence officials found themselves lacking recent experience with Soviet intelligence activities and decided to use German experts on the Soviet Union - even though some may have been war criminals.”<2>

The above paragraph includes not one false statement; yet it is completely misleading. This suggests that the IWG’s talent may lie in disinformation rather than research.

1) The statement that the Gehlen organization was “working...with Army Intelligence” is misleading because “working with” implies equality of power: one does not “work with” men hiding from the law. The Nazis recruited by US intelligence were wanted for the worst war crimes; they were “employees” whose alternative was the hangman's noose. Surely they did what they were told.

2) The use of “working with” is also misleading because it suggests that Gehlen’s Organization (the 'Org’) was separate from the Strategic Services Unit and later from the CIA. This is not true. Gehlen’s Org became a decisive, perhaps *the* decisive component of the CIA’s worldwide apparatus. Its thousands of highly experienced operatives, much older than incoming CIA recruits, had to have a big effect on the culture of the CIA. Thus, US intelligence was Nazified.

3) The statement that, “As the Cold War developed during 1946, American intelligence officials found themselves lacking recent experience with Soviet intelligence activities and decided to use German experts on the Soviet Union - even though some may have been war criminals,” is false for three reasons.

a) First, it states that the advent of the so-called Cold War preceded the decision to use Gehlen. But in fact, the relationship between US intelligence and Gehlen began before World War II ended. That is, it began considerably before the ‘outbreak’ of the Cold War.

b) Second, under the terms of the agreements at the Potsdam Conference, <2A>

"5. War criminals and those who have participated in planning or carrying out Nazi enterprises involving or resulting in atrocities or war crimes shall be arrested and brought to judgment. Nazi leaders, influential Nazi supporters and high officials of Nazi organizations and institutions and any other persons dangerous to the occupation or its objectives shall be arrested and interned."

As we shall see, Gehlen and his Foreign Armies East organization did participate in "planning or carrying out Nazi enterprises involving or resulting in atrocities or war crimes."

CONTINUED...

http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/gehlen.htm

An excellent read on the subject is Blowback - America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effect on the Cold War by Christopher Simpson.

While We the People are at it, we should look into changing the name of the Bush Center for Intelligence.