Documents Shed Light on C.I.A.'s Use of Ex-Nazis - New York Times

Documents Shed Light on C.I.A.'s Use of Ex-Nazis - New York Times: "June 6, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 6 — The Central Intelligence Agency took no action after learning the pseudonym and whereabouts of the fugitive Holocaust overseer Adolf Eichmann in 1958, according to C.I.A. documents that shed new light on the spy agency's use of former Nazis as informers after World War II.

The C.I.A. was told by West German intelligence that Eichmann was living in Argentina under the name 'Clemens' — a slight variation on his actual alias, Klement — but kept the information from Israel because of German concerns about exposure of former Nazis in the Bonn government, according to Timothy Naftali, a historian who examined the documents. Two years later, Israeli agents abducted Eichmann in Argentina and took him to Israel, where he was tried and executed in 1962.

The Eichmann papers are among 27,000 newly declassified pages released by the C.I.A. to the National Archives under Congressional pressure to make public files about former officials of Hitler's regime later used as American agents. The material reinforces the view that most former Nazis gave American intelligence little of value and in some cases proved to be damaging double agents for the Soviet K.G.B., according to historians and members of the government panel that has worked to open the long-secret files.

Elizabeth Holtzman, a former congresswoman from New York and member of the panel, the Interagency Working Group on records concerning Nazi and Japanese war crimes, said at a press briefing at the National Archives today that the documents show the C.I.A 'failed to lift a finger' to hunt Eichmann and 'forced us to confront not only the moral harm but the practical harm' of relying on intelligence from ex-Nazis.

She said information from the former Nazis was often tainted both by their 'personal agendas' and their vulnerability to blackmail. "Using bad people can have very bad consequences," Ms. Holtzman said. She and other group members suggested that the findings should be a cautionary tale for intelligence agencies today."