WORST KEPT SECRETS OF THE BUMBLING BEAR - PART 2 (of 2)
URL for this article: http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/gehlen2.htm
(Note: Mr. Lee's article continues here)
UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES
Members of the Gehlen Org were instrumental in helping thousands of fascist
fugitives escape via "ratlines" to safe havens abroad --often with a wink
and a nod from U.S. intelligence officers.
Third Reich expatriates and fascist collaborators subsequently emerged as
"security advisors" in several Middle Eastern and Latin American countries,
where ultra-right-wing death squads persist as their enduring legacy. Klaus
Barbie, for example, assisted a succession of military regimes in Bolivia,
where he taught soldiers torture techniques and helped protect the
flourishing cocaine trade in the late 1970s and early '80s.
CIA officials eventually learned that the Nazi old boy network nesting
inside the Gehlen Org had an unexpected twist to it. By bankrolling Gehlen
the CIA unknowingly laid itself open to manipulation by a foreign
intelligence service that was riddled with Soviet spies. Gehlen's habit of
employing compromised ex-Nazis -- and the CIA's willingness to sanction this
practice -- enabled the USSR to penetrate West Germany's secret service by
blackmailing numerous agents.
..Slow to recognize that their Nazi hired guns would feign an allegiance to
the Western alliance as long as they deemed it tactically advantageous, CIA
officials invested far too much in Gehlen's spooky Nazi outfit. "It was a
horrendous mistake, morally, politically, and also in very pragmatic
intelligence terms," says American University professor Richard Breitman,
chairman of the IWG review panel.
More than just a bungled spy caper, the Gehlen debacle should serve as a
cautionary tale at a time when post-Cold War triumphalism and arrogant
unilateralism are rampant among U.S. officials. If nothing else, it
underscores the need for the United States to confront some of its own
demons now that unreconstructed Cold Warriors are again riding top saddle in
Washington.
[MR. LEE'S ARTICLE ENDS HERE]
*** (C) 'San Francisco Bay Guardian,' Reprinted for Fair Use Only ***
FURTHER COMMENTS ABOUT THE 'GUARDIAN' ARTICLE
ONE: CONCERNING FALSE INFORMATION
by Jared Israel
Mr. Lee writes that General Gehlen passed Washington false information about
a supposed Soviet buildup and adds that:
"Gehlen's disinformation strategy was based on a simple premise: the colder
the Cold War got, the more political space for Hitler's heirs to maneuver.
The Org could only flourish under Cold War conditions; as an institution it
was therefore committed to perpetuating the Soviet-American conflict."
First, this is speculation presented as fact. Who knows whether Gehlen
invented any particular piece of misinformation, or whether someone in the
CIA instructed him to 'invent' it.
Second, so what if CIA Nazis sometimes made false reports to heighten
tensions or make themselves look good. That sort of thing is always possible
in intelligence organizations. (Graham Greene's wonderful novel, 'Our Man in
Havana,' is about a British intelligence 'asset' in Cuba who manufactures an
entire spy network to keep himself employed.)
Indeed, the CIA is itself famous for telling tall tales about the misdeeds
of those resisting U.S. domination. Such statements help create a
provocative atmosphere in which aggressive policies seem justified.
The question is not whether the Nazis sometimes misled Washington, or
whether Soviet intelligence could sometimes use the Nazis against
Washington. The question is: what were and are Washington's plans?
Did Washington want to crush the Soviet Union and install puppet governments
throughout Eastern Europe and the Balkans? Does Washington now wish to turn
the Balkans into a safe rear while it moves NATO bases up to Russian borders
in order to facilitate 'low intensity war' against Russia? I would argue
that the answer to both questions is: yes.
The Nazi apparatus was and remains useful in carrying out these strategies.
TWO: HOW MUCH 'INVESTMENT IN NAZISM' IS TOO MUCH? OR: HOW MUCH IS JUST THE
RIGHT AMOUNT?
Mr. Lee writes:
"Slow to recognize that their Nazi hired guns would feign an allegiance to
the Western alliance as long as they deemed it tactically advantageous, CIA
officials invested far too much in Gehlen's spooky Nazi outfit. 'It was a
horrendous mistake, morally, politically, and also in very pragmatic
intelligence terms,' says American University professor Richard Breitman,
chairman of the IWG review panel."
'Feign allegiance'? What evidence is there that the Nazis were feigning? The
problem is Mr. Lee is proceeding from his assumption that Washington made a
mistake in recruiting the Nazis. This assumption is wrong; that is, it is
plainly contradicted by the evidence he presents. Like many people, he finds
it awkward to change his assumptions; so instead he offers, by way of
compromise, this notion that the Nazis were insincere. (Am I alone in
finding that the mind boggles at the notion of the insincere Nazi?)
And what if these Nazis did sometimes feign loyalty? Many employees 'feign
allegiance.' The question the employer asks is: are they getting the job done.
Says Mr. Lee, "CIA officials invested far too much in Gehlen's spooky Nazi
outfit." Earlier he refers to the "Gehlen gambit." And elsewhere he comments
that this was "more than a bungled spy caper"!
This language suggests that that Mr. Lee, like so many Americans, does not
fully grasp what is involved here. The 'people' whom Allen Dulles and Co.
rescued and recruited into the CIA were not spooky. This was not simply
'more than a bungled spy caper.'
These unimaginably vicious thugs were rescued to do a job.
Therefore the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had at the core of its field
staff, from the time of its creation, mass murderers. They were used all
over the world to do what they had done during World War II.
What had they done during World War II? What skills did they bring to the CIA?
Let us consider the Croatian Ustashe. These henchmen of a clerical-fascist
regime (the term "clerical" is used to describe the Ustashe because the
Catholic clergy controlled this fascist movement) carried out the slaughter
of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and 'Gypsies.'
"The Ustasa regime in Croatia and particularly this drive... to exterminate
and dispossess the Serbs, was one of the most horrendous episodes of World
War II. The murder methods applied by Ustasha were extraordinarily primitive
and sadistic: thousands were hurled from mountain tops, others were beaten
to death or had their throats cut, entire villages were burned down, women
raped, people sent on death marches in the middle of winter, and still
others starved to death..." ('Encyclopedia of the Holocaust,' Macmillan
Publishing Company, 1995)
Members of the Ustashe were among those whom U.S. intelligence 'rescued' and
whose ranks swelled the CIA and other U.S. covert and semi-covert
organizations.
THREE: WAS THE NAZI-CIA MARRIAGE A 'HORRENDOUS MISTAKE'?
Mr. Lee quotes IWG panel member Professor Richard Breitman to the effect
that the CIA-NAZI marriage was a:
"horrendous mistake, morally, politically, and also in very pragmatic
intelligence terms."
What does it mean for Professor Breitman to describe as a mistake something
that was elaborately planned? The recruitment of Nazi's required the
movement of thousands of war criminals, setting them up with new identities
and financing them for half a century at a cumulative cost of billions of
dollars. In the late 1980s and early 1990s they were dispatched with their
children to install fascist regimes in power in Croatia and Bosnia; these
regimes were universally - and amazingly - described in the Western media
and by Western leaders as 'democratic'. Repatriated Nazis were used to
install a government in Lithuania that honors pro-Nazi Lithuanians who
during World War II massacred local Jews, Orthodox Christians and Bolsheviks.
By what standard can all of this be described as a 'mistake'? Was it a
misake because it didn't work?
But it did work.
Or perhaps Breitman and Lee think it was a mistake because it was evil?
But what makes an evil policy a mistake?
Professor Breitman is using sloppy reasoning in order, one suspects, to
achieve a political effect. By labeling the Nazi-CIA marriage, with its
'ratlines' and 'captive nations', a mistake, he lets Washington off the
hook. "This was counter-productive," he tells us and we think, "Well, if it
was counter productive then in a sense Washington as suffered a fool's
punishment."
But in fact the U.S. Establishment never paid a price for the monstrous
crime of saving the Nazis and then unleashing them, once again, on the world.
Quite the contrary. It gained mightily from the ruthless use of Nazi
monsters. It gained a ready-made apparatus in Eastern Europe and the
Balkans. It gained the use of an army of covert operatives ready to carry
out any crime any place in the world.
Among other things, this apparatus helped destroy the Soviet Union, which
had been a major obstacle to the U.S. drive for world domination.
FOUR: IF NOTHING ELSE...
The author concludes with the following comment:
"If nothing else, it [that is, the revelations about CIA-Nazi ties]
underscores the need for the United States to confront some of its own
demons now that unreconstructed Cold Warriors are again riding top saddle in
Washington."
First, why should "nothing else" be done? Why does Washington have the right
to set up War Crimes Tribunals to punish people (for instance, Serbian
leaders like Milosevic) whose only crime is that they resisted Washington,
but when it comes to Washington's own very real war crimes - such as
rescuing and unleashing these Nazi monsters - "confronting some of its own
demons" is sufficient? (8)
And second, what about this "now that unreconstructed Cold Warriors are
again riding top saddle in Washington"?
"Again"?
If by "Cold Warriors" Mr. Lee means advocates of empire, then pray tell,
when did they leave the saddle? Does Mr. Lee mean that William Clinton was
not an Imperial warrior, but Mr. Bush is?
For all or part of its eight years in office, the Clinton administration
waged unrelenting proxy military wars against the people of Yugoslavia, the
former Soviet Union, Colombia, Congo, Rwanda, waged a war of sanctions
against 70 countries, routinely bombed Iraq while starving its children, and
so on. It continued to employ 'captive nations' Nazis in Yugoslavia and
Eastern Europe. It greatly developed the use of the National Endowment for
'Democracy', USAID and other government and semi-private agencies and NGOs
to create a Fifth Column apparatus in countries around the world.
To be sure, the Bush administration is continuing these efforts. But the
notion that Bush's foreign policy represents some sea change from Clinton's
foreign policy is without foundation in fact.
-- J.I. 21 May 2001
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FURTHER READING:
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(1) Concerning Allen Dulles and the Nazis, see: "Nazis in the Attic." The
article is broken into 6 parts. Parts 3 and 5 deal specifically with Mr.
Dulles.
The article begins at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/randy/swas1.htm
The sections that deal specifically with Allen Dulles are part 3, at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/randy/swas3.htm
and part 5 at:
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/randy/swas4.htm#5
Part 5 also deals with involvement of the Bush family, since the 1920s, in
helping the Nazis.
(2) For a brief introduction to the ratlines see 'The Vatican, Croatia and
the Nazi Gold' by Seán Mac Mathúna at
http://www.flamemag.dircon.co.uk/the_vatican.htm
(3) See excerpts from 'Blowback' by Christopher Simpson which can be read at
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/BareFists_B_CS.html and
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Pipelines_B_CS.html
(4) For more on U.S. support for Nazi butchers after World War II, see the
book, "Blowback: America's Nazis and Its Effect on the Cold War" by
Christopher Simpson, April 1988. You can find it on Amazon.com For more on
the Nazi-like state re-created in Croatia during the early 19900s, see
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/backin.htm#a
(5) Washington was a key force in creating the Albanian secessionist
movement in Kosovo. The evidence is there, every step of the way. We will
soon post an article, 'Dole Does Kosovo', which documents Washington's open
attempt to foster secessionism in Kosovo in 1990. Eight years later,
Washington used the cover of the Kosovo Verification Mission to import
intelligence operatives and military experts to (attempt to) train the
Kosovo Liberation Army so it could function as a modern Army. See:
* 'The Cat is Out of the Bag' by Jared Israel at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/ciaaided.htm.
and
* 'Why Albanians Fled Kosovo During NATO Bombing' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/keys.htm
This interview includes information unavailable elsewhere. It is well worth
reading if you want to understand just how sophisticated and ruthless 'poor,
mistake-prone' Washington really is.
(6) For more on General Gehlen, see
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/gehlen2-a.htm
(7) The assault on Yugoslavia has occasioned perhaps the most extreme
examples of the Washington's foreign policy doctrine, which might be
paraphrased as follows: "The lie is mightier than the sword."
Case in point: the Kosovo Liberation Army.
The U.S. and Germany created this terrorist group. It's strategy, as
described by the pro-NATO publication, 'Jane's Defense Weekly', was and
remains: to commit acts of terror in order to provoke a government response
which can be misportrayed as ethnic repression and thereby used to justify
NATO intervention.
In other words, the KLA is openly terrorist. In addition it is openly racist
- it appeals to and encourages hatred of Slavs (especially Serbs) and
'Gypsies.'
Here's the point: At a rally two years ago, Senator Joe Lieberman described
this bunch of terrorist-Nazis as follows:
"[The] United States of America and the Kosovo Liberation Army stand for the
same human values and principles ... Fighting for the KLA is fighting for
human rights and American values." ('Washington Post,' April 28, 1999)
The lie is mightier than the sword.
For more on Senator Joe Lieberman, see 'SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN - APOLOGIST
FOR THE FASCIST KLA' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/garris/duringthe.htm
8) On Slobodan Miloshevich, see 'KLA Attacks Everyone. Media
Attacks...Miloshevich?' Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/expan.htm
and "Statement of President Slobodan Milosevic on The Illegitimacy of The
Hague 'Tribunal'" Can be read at http://www.icdsm.org/more/aug30.htm
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