Wjcongress Accuses Meese of Impeding Justice for Nazi War Criminals

The World Jewish Congress accused Attorney General Edwin Meese of protecting Nazi war criminals and impeding justice for Karl Linnas, the Nazi war criminal who came within hours Wednesday of receiving political asylum in Panama and escaping deportation to the Soviet Union to face war crimes charges.

While virtually the entire Jewish community was celebrating Passover, Meese decided to deport Linnas to Panama after 16 other countries had rejected asylum bids for the man found guilty in absentia in the Soviet Union of executing men, women and children in a Tartu, Estonia, camp during the Holocaust.

Elan Steinberg, WJC executive director, said WJC officials learned Monday night, during the Seder, of Meese’s intentions from government sources. The sources said Panama had agreed on April 10, five days earlier, to grant Linnas asylum but Meese did not act on the invitation until the Passover holiday began. Steinberg said. Panama withdrew the offer for asylum Wednesday afternoon.

NOT A COINCIDENCE

Had news of Meese’s intended action not leaked out, Steinberg said Linnas would now be “vacationing” in a free, safe haven in Panama, where he would have disappeared and escaped justice permanently.

“This was not a coincidence. It was an attempt to catch the Jewish community at a time when it could not react,” Steinberg said.

“Meese seems to show a greater sensitivity for Nazis than he does for their victims,” he said.

The WJC officials immediately contacted representatives of Panama in the U.S. the Ambassador, the UN Ambassador and the Panamanian Consul General in New York. The WJC also informed the Jewish community of Panama of the decision. On Tuesday, Eli Rosenbaum, WJC general counsel, Menachem Rosensaft, chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, and Brooklyn District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, who authored legislation for the deportation of Nazi war criminals, left New York for Washington to meet the Panamanian officials.

The Panamanian representatives said they were acting out of humanitarian reasons and were not aware of the significance of the case, Steinberg said.

Some 12,000 people died in the Tartu camp where Linnas was the camp commander. Witnesses have testified that Linnas would round up women and children in mass pits and shoot them in the head. “Linnas has more blood on his hands than any other Nazi war criminal in the United States,” Steinberg said. “The Panamanians were fooled and deceived by those attempting to help these war criminals. When they were alerted to the nature of this person, they reversed their decision within a matter of hours.”

Early Wednesday the Panamanian Embassy in Washington announced the plans for deportation would be delayed until the case could be further studied. Later in the day, the Consul General in New York issued a second statement saying Linnas’ request for asylum had been denied.

DISSENSION IN THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

“The Government of the Republic of Panama echoes the preoccupation of important sectors of the Hebrew community and the rest of the world that, as well as our country and our Government, reject and condemn the crimes committed by fascism,” the statement said.

With this, Panama became the 17th country to refuse Linnas asylum. And barring a decision by Meese to deport Linnas to the scene of his alleged crimes in the Soviet Union, that search will likely continue.

Meese’s missing signature on the deportation paperwork is the only thing blocking the execution of a Supreme Court order to deport Linnas to the Soviet Union. All appeals, except one which is still pending, to reverse the deportation order have been denied.

Meese’s decision to deport Linnas to Panama met with dissension from Justice Department officials who included Neal Sher, head of the Office of Special Investigations which seeks and prosecutes Nazi war criminals in this country, according to press reports Thursday.

Sher and others in the Justice Department have pursued Linnas’ prosecution and deportation for some nine years. He faced nine tribunals before he was stripped of his U.S. citizenship for lying about his past to immigration officials when he entered the country in the 1950s. He was then ordered to be deported to the Soviet Union. Linnas is currently imprisoned in lower Manhattan in an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) prison.

Meese’s handling of Linnas’ case is not the only war crimes case which has met with scathing criticisms within the Jewish community. Meese has dragged his feet for almost a year now on the Justice Department’s recommendation that Austrian President Kurt Waldheim be barred from the U.S. because of his Nazi affiliations during World War II.

Steinberg called Meese’s actions a “shocking pattern” of impairing justice for Nazi war criminals. “Nazi war criminals have a great protector in the name of Attorney General Edwin Meese,” Steinberg said.