Flap over Trifa Broadcast Continues

Ramifications of Radio Free Europe’s (RFE) interview with alleged Nazi war criminal Archbishop Valerian Trifa that it broadcast last May have mushroomed into formal requests for five separate federal and Congressional investigations. The requests by Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D.NY) followed RFE’s notices of dismissal to two of its employes in Munich. Germany, and White House silence on developments enveloping a National Security Council (NSC) specialist, Paul Henze.

In letters calling for the investigation, Holtzman declared RFE is dismissing two of its Rumania broadcast division employes, Edgar Rafael and Jacob Popper, for publicly protesting the Trifa interview. She also asked tightening of federal supervision over tax-supported RFE and Radio Liberty(RL, that broadcast to Eastern Europe and to the Soviet Union.

Setting forth specific charges against RFE, Holtzman, who heads the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and International Law, urged inquiries in addressing Rep. Dante B. Fascell (D. Fla.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on International Operations; Elmer B. Staats, U.S. Comptroller General; Dr. John Gronouski, chairman of the U.S. Board for International Broadcasting that oversees RFE and RL; Dr. Glenn Ferguson, RFE/RL president, with offices in Munich; and U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti.

CONCEDE ‘MISTAKE IN JUDGEMENT’

Authorities of both the board and RFE have acknowledged that RFE’s interview and its broadcast constituted a “mistake in judgement” since it did not mention that Trifa was facing trial in Detroit related to his alleged role in the massacre of some 4000 Jews in Rumania in World War 11. Trifa, now head of the Rumanian Orthodox Church faces revocation of his naturalized U.S. citizenship should the trial find him guilty of having withheld information from U.S. authorities about his past.

In addition to requesting the inquiries, Holtzman has sharply criticized the White House for not responding to her second letter to President Carter calling for disciplinary action against Henze, who represents the NSC at the Board for International Broadcasting. According to the board’s records, Henze told a meeting last August, following protests against the Trifa interview, that “concern” about it is “silly” and that it “certainly isn’t serious from the point of view of the White House.”

Holtzman’s first letter to Carter was answered by a NSC staff secretary which Holtzman described as “inappropriate, inadequate and inaccurate” and “suggests that the White House attaches little importance” to the issue.

With more than a week having passed since her second letter, Holtzman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the White House by its silence and by not dissociating itself from the Henze remarks, indirectly means that NSC chairman Zbigniew Brzezinski “does not think Henze did anything wrong.” She said that “if they (the White House) do not dissociate themselves specifically, their silence constitutes approval and acceptance of his (Henze’s) remarks.”

RESPONSE BY RFE/RL OFFICIAL

Asked by JTA to comment on her letters, RFE/RL senior vice president William Buell, in Washington, said that “the whole episode” has been “very painful” and he is “very unhappy about the publicity the story is getting.” Saying that “the interview as broadcast was a mistake in judgement,” Buell added, “my boss” — Ferguson — “has accepted responsibility for it as a mistake.”

“The concept of interviewing this man (Trifa) at all was a question of judgement, “Buell said. Noting RFE/RL has a Rumanian service and that it was marking the 50th anniversary of the Rumanian Orthodox Church, Buell added, “it was poor journalism in interviewing him without putting the man in context.” Buell then referred to the “charges outstanding against him” for the program in Rumania.

However, Buell supported RFE’s notices to fire Rafael and Popper but pointed out that they have not been dismissed. The works council of selected RFE/RL employes in Munich will review the notices, a requirement under West German law, Buell said. Both the works council and management must agree before dismissals can be made.

Buell volunteered that Rafael and Popper, both Jewish, are naturalized U.S. citizens, and that the director of the Rumanian service, Noel Bernard, is also Jewish. “The reason for the personnel action,” Buell said, is that Rafael and Popper “made slanderous accusations against Bernard. and management as a whole that were quite unfounded.”

He added that Rafael and Popper made the accusations “to the press, Congress and Jewish organizations — all kinds of charges of anti-Semitism against Bernard which were ridiculous on their face.” Of about 50 employes in the Rumanian service, Buell said, “12 are of Jewish background and 11 were hired by Bernard.”

REQUESTS BY HOLTZMAN

Having discussed the issues with Buell, Holtzman wrote Fascell that the Trifa broadcast “was not simply just an inadvertent judgemental error but represented a conscious management decision made over staff objections that was part of a pattern of such questionable decisions with respect to both substance and personnel made over the past several years.” She also said that “employes have been harassed and threatened for attempting publicly to expose what they consider to be the facts of this case.”

To Ferguson, Holtzman observed that Bernard, “who admittedly was responsible for assigning and broadcasting the Trifa interview, has not even been formally reprimanded,” while Rafael and Popper “who raised public concerns about RFE’s handling of the matter, have been fired.”

She wrote Ferguson “the clear implication is that you are protecting the wrong-doer and firing the whistle-blowers.” She also wrote Ferguson she found it “almost impossible to believe that Mr. Bernard was unaware of the charges pending against Trifa at the time he conceived of and broadcast the interview.”

In this connection, she noted that “in addition to feature stories which RFE ran an Trifa on Oct. 28 and Nov. 21, 1976, nine news stories on his case have been edited by the central newsroom in Munich and distributed to the 21 language services for broadcast during 1976 and 1977.

To Gronouski, she observed that “since the RFE/RL officials have chosen to totally disregard your entreaties, I am concerned that the board does not have sufficient legislative authority to properly carry out its oversight functions.” Gronouski, who is a former Postmaster General, had strongly criticized the interview.

Holtzman asked Staats, who heads the General Accounting Office, to investigate whether the board’s role with RFE/RL “needs to be more precisely defined,” and “what sanctions are at the board’s disposal if RFE/RL management chooses to disregard the advice of its board or chairman.” Holtzman’s letter to Civiletti was not immediately made public.