LETTER (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP01-00569R000100110028-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 18, 2009
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: December 3, 1984
• Content Type: LETTER

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/18: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100110028-0
Central Intelligence Agency
3 December 1984
I must apologize for the delay in responding to your 12 October
1984 letter from Jerusalem, which I received 29 October.
Your request for a search of CIA files has to be handled according
to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Since the
Agency's Information and Privacy Coordinator, Mr. John H. Wright, is
responsible under law for FOIA requests, I am sending him your letter
for action.
I should add that in light of your report that Trebitsch-Lincoln
died in 1943, the files of CIA--which was not established until
September 1947--are unlikely to have information on him. On the other
hand, there may be information on him in the World War II operational
records of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which have been in
CIA's custody. I'm glad to report that these OSS files have been
recently declassified and are now being transferred to the National
Archives. Several hundred cubic feet of these OSS records are already
at the Archives and open to researchers as part of Record Group 226;
CIA will transfer the remainder in increments over the next six months
or so.
If you wish to inquire about the OSS records at the National
Archives I would suggest that you contact:
Mr. John E. Taylor
National Archives
Washington, DC 20408
(Telephone [phone]),
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/18: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100110028-0
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/18: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100110028-0
W !
I'll send Mr. Taylor, who is the expert on these (and other modern
military) records, a copy of this letter and of your 12 October letter
to me.
I hope this will be of some help in your research.
Yours sincerely,
J. Kenneth McDonald
Chief historian
cc: Mr. Wright
Mr. Taylor
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee
1 JKM
HS Chrono
1 - Mr. Wright, IPD/OIS/DA
1 - Mr. Taylor, NARS
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/18: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100110028-0
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/18: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100110028-0
W 0
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
[phone]
Chief Historian
Central Intelligence Agency
WASHINGTON D, C, 20505
I am currently engaged in research concerning the Hungarian-horn adventurer,
Ignatius. Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln (1879 - 1943).
Trebitsch-lincoln spent his last years mainly in China where he was said to be
a Japanese agent, He died in Shanghai in October 1943, In October 1946, in a
trial before a U. S. court in Shanghai, Hermann Erben, former U. S. citizen,
who acknowledged he had been a German spy in the service of the 'Bureau
Erhardt spy network in the Orient, stated that Trebitsch- Lincoln had been
a spy for the Nazis in World War II.
I wonder whether the files of the CIA contain any information which would serve
to verify this statement -- or any other information concerning Trebitsch-Lincoln ?
If so, could I be permitted to see any relevant papers ?
I should greatly appreciate your help.
Yours sincerely,
QG
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/18: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100110028-0