Nine Congressmen have written President Reagan asking him to inaugurate a special investigation of charges that the U.S. government protected Nazi war criminals at the end of World War II.
The letter, drafted by Rep. William Lehman (D. Fla.) came after the recent allegations that U.S. agencies provided protection for former gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, who is facing trial in Lyon, France.
“We need to get to the bottom of this matter,” Lehman said. “These are serious allegations that cannot be ignored and the Congress and the American people have a right to know the truth.”
STATEMENT BY THE CONGRESSMAN
The letter was co-signed by Reps. Phillip Burton and Don Edwards (both D. Cal.); Dante Fascell (D. Fla.); Hamilton Fish and Bill Green (both R. NY); Samuel Gejdenson (D. Conn.); Stephen Solarz (D. NY) and Sidney Yates (D. III.). It asked that the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations carry out the inquiry because of its “unique expertise.”
“We believe that our government has an unmistakable moral obligation to investigate the Barbie case in order to set the record straight on any involvement of the executive branch agencies in gaining the cooperation of Nazi war criminals in exchange for admission into the U.S. or for facilitating their entry into other countries,” the Congressmen wrote. They urged that “the U.S. must, once and for all, make clear what its position is on Nazi war criminals and their perpetrators.”
ADL TO TAKE ACTION
Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith announced in New York that it will file a request under the Freedom of Information Act to compel disclosure on charges that American intelligence agencies shielded Barbie and other Nazi war criminals after the war. Nathan Perlmutter, ADL national director, called Barbie “a Nazi skeleton in America’s closet.”
Abraham Foxman, ADL associate national director, said the ADL wants the American government to “make public information concerning allegations that this country, after World War II, protected Nazi war criminals, including Barbie, with false identities and new names, in return for their cooperation in providing intelligence on Soviet activities in Europe.”
The ADL’s request for information will be filed with the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, Defense Department and the Treasury Department.
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