Former Cia Official Says Ex-nazi’s Role in Slave Labor Camp Should Be Overlooked in Return for His L

In a blatant apologia for the utilization of Nazi war criminals by the United States, Ray Clines, who was the number two man in the Central Intelligence Agency from its inception until his retirement in 1969, said that accused Nazi war criminal Arthur Rudolph’s role in a slave labor camp should be overlooked in return for his later contributions as a missile scientist in the American space program.

Clines said in answer to a question by Ted Koppel, host of ABC-TV’s “Nightline” program which aired October 18, that Rudolph and others who may have murdered thousands of innocent victims during World War II had paid their debts to society by providing security and technology gains for the American government.

The Justice Department announced on October 16 that Rudolph, a German-born National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) official, who in 1965 was made director of the Saturn V program that produced the rocket that carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon, had quietly surrendered his citizenship and left the United States for West Germany, rather than face charges that he had persecuted slave laborers at Dora-Nordhausen, a Nazi concentration camp and rocket factory in the Harz mountains.

Rudolph had been director for production of V-2 rockets there. A third to one-half of the 60,000 prisoners in the camp died because of the inhumane conditions under which they were forced to work.

WAR CRIMINAL EXPERT CRITICIZES REMARKS

Appearing on the live program with Clines, Nazi war criminal expert Charles Allen, Jr., attacked Clines’ remarks. Responding to Clines’ defense of Rudolph, Allen labeled it as a clear statement by the CIA, justifying utilization of Nazi genocidists by United States intelligence. Clines complained on the air that Allen, Koppel, and another guest, Allan Ryan, Jr., former director of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) of the Justice Department, all displayed anti-CIA bias.

Eli Rosenbaum, former OSI attorney who developed the Rudolph case, and former New York State Governor Hugh Carey, who was with the liberating forces at Dora-Nordhausen on April 11, 1945, also made brief appearances.

Clines attempted to shore up his defense of Rudolph by bringing up the name of Reinhard Gehlen, Nazi chief of intelligence on the Russian front who later ran the CIA’s anti-Soviet espionage/sabotage operation in Europe.

When Clines went so far as to describe Gehlen as a close personal friend, Allen faced him down. “I don’t care if he was your friend,” Allen said. He added that Gehlen’s record as a mass murderer during the Holocaust is clear in history, and that the CIA later used him. The role of the CIA and other American intelligence agencies in using Nazi war criminals after the war has been dealt with in detail by Allen in a series of articles in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin.

ISSUE OF CIA HANDBOOK

Answering another of Koppel’s questions, Clines denied that the CIA instruction handbook advising Nicaraguan Contras to commit political assassinations, is related to the knowledge gained from the CIA’s utilization of Nazi war criminals. Allen again confronted Clines, pointing out that the first counter-insurgency training at Fort Meade, Md. was derived from the anti-guerrilla Nazi experience. Allen said there was provable utilization of accused Nazi war criminals for counter-insurgency training. He said he and others had put it on the record that the CIA was the primary user.

Clines was the featured speaker at the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) convention September 3-7 in San Diego (discussing the People’s Republic of China). Allen described WACL to the JTA as “the major international fascist organization at the highest level.” Past speakers have included well-known racists, anti-Semites and fascists, such as Theodor Oberlander, the notorious SS Commander and accused Nazi war criminal.