CIA papers: U.S. failed to pursue Eichmann | CNN

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CIA papers: U.S. failed to pursue Nazi

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States was told the location and
approximate alias of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann more than two years before
his capture but did nothing to pursue him, according to CIA documents released
Tuesday.


The release of the latest set of intelligence records is part of an
ongoing effort to declassify documents as part of the Nazi War Criminals
Disclosure Act of 1998.
Eichmann, mastermind of the "final solution" to
exterminate Jews, was captured by Israel and executed in 1962. (Watch
compromises made by intelligence agencies -- 1:46)
However, in
1958 the West German intelligence service informed the CIA that Eichmann was
living in Argentina using the alias Clemens, University of Virginia historian
Timothy Naftali said the newly released CIA materials indicate.
The West
Germans did not want to see Eichmann captured because they feared what he might
say about Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's national security adviser, Hans Globke,
Naftali said.
Globke had served in the Jewish Affairs department of the Nazi
government during World War II and was involved in writing laws designed to
remove Jews from German society.
"The CIA, which worked closely with Globke,
assisted the West Germans in protecting him from Eichmann," said
Naftali.
Eichmann remained at large until May 1960, when the Israeli
government discovered his whereabouts and captured him in Argentina, where he
was living under the name Klement.
Israeli agents kidnapped him from his
Argentine hideout and smuggled him to Israel, where he was tried, convicted and
hanged in 1962.
The Eichmann revelation is one of several outlined by
historians who are working with members of the Interagency Working Group
responsible for locating, declassifying and releasing U.S. documents related to
Nazi war crimes.
In another case, Ohio University historian Norman Goda
discussed records showing how former Nazi SS intelligence officer Heinz Felfe,
who was recruited by the Soviet KGB after the war, was able to join the West
German intelligence service set up by the United States. He eventually rose to
become chief of the division responsible for surveillance of the Soviets, the
records show.
"He was no common mole," Goda said in a press briefing at the
National Archives Building. Felfe was in charge of operations against the
Soviets while "he took his orders from the Soviets."
Goda said Felfe caused
"massive damage ... as large an intelligence disaster as occurred during the
Cold War."
Unlike previous releases, the documents made available Tuesday
were largely unredacted.
The interagency group credited former CIA Director
Porter Goss for changing the level of cooperation and allowing the release of
documents.
The group, chaired by Steven Garfinkel of the National Archives
and Records Administration, expects to complete its declassification efforts
early next year.
"We are not yet done, but we are continuing with the
important work of finding out what was done in the past so we can learn from it
for the future," said one of the 1998 bill's co-sponsors, Republican Sen. Mike
DeWine of Ohio, at Tuesday's briefing, according to prepared remarks.
The
group includes representatives from eight federal agencies and three public
members. Since 1999, the group says, it has overseen the release of some 8
million pages of U.S. government records related to crimes committed by the Nazi
and Japanese governments during World War II.