LETTER TO BERNARD MCMAHON FROM CHARLES A. BRIGGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M01152R000100100012-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 8, 1985
• Content Type: LETTER

25X11
(V7fJ 7S7
SECRET-
Central Intelligence Agency
Mr. Bernard McMahon
Staff Director
Select Committee on Intelligence
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear B
OLL: 85-0765/1
We recently provided your Committee with copies of sanitized
versions of eleven papers dealing with Dr. Josef Mengele.
Members of your staff also read these same documents in their
unsanitized form. One of these documents referred to an article
which had been submitted for publication in a classified
intelligence report titled the International Narcotics Review.
This article was not published in the Review, but is now a
matter of interest to Senators Arlen Specter and Alfonse
D'Amato. We intend to suggest to Senators Specter and D'Amato
that they review this document under the auspices of your
Committee.
This letter transmits to your Committee a copy of the
article together with a brief explanation of why the article was
not published. The author is an overt employee of this Agency.
Sincerely,
Char es .gs
Director, Office of Legis ative Liaison
HCD reviewed: not responsive NWC Disclosure Act
ALL PORTIONS OF THIS DOCUMENT
ARE CLASSIFIED SECRET
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SUBJECT: Letter to Bernard McMahon, Staff Director, SSCI
Distribution:
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DD/OLL:ELS:mlg (8 March 1985)
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/24: CIA-RDP87MO1152ROO0100100012-2
IgrICLE AFFEAR13
pp Pll(lE
2b February 1985
Menge le Link to Drug Trafficking
Is Reported in C:.I. A. Documents
By'RALPH BLUMENTHAL :-- _
The Central Intelligence Agency
began receiving reports in 1471 that Dr.
Josef Mengele, the Nazi war criminal,
was heavily involved with partners in
illegal narcotics trafficking in Para-
guay, according to declassified Gov-
ernment documents.
The documents, provided in censored
form by the CI i~ for a Senate inquiry,
indicate that agency officials in Para-
guay gave credence to the reports and
forwarded them to headquarters ,in
:Washington, which, in turn, queried
:other Federal investigative agencies
on the matter as recently as 1979.
The partially blacked-out documents
do not establish the truth of the reports,
and leave many-questions unanswered
about Dr. Mengele, who was chief doc-
tor at the Auschwitz death camp, .
where millions perished- Among these
questions'are to what extent the infor-..
nation was pursued in the search for
one of Nazi Germany's .most notorious
-fugitives.
'No One Pursued This' -
"They just let.the information.bang
there," -said -Senator . Alfonse:~ M.
D'Amato, Republican of the New Yorks
"No one' pursued , this.'-'. ..:Senator'
D'Amato obtained the -documents -in
coniunction with-Senator:Arlen Spec-
ter, Republican of Pennsylvania.. 'The
two Senators.-said they-would discuss
the documents at a news conference set
for today in Washington. :..-.
A spokesman for the C.I.A.-in Wash-
ington said late yesterday that?theirr
formation about Dr. Mengele was-
disseminated "as appropriate" to other
Government agencies, including the
State and Defense Departments, the
'flatter Information Sought
The documents, which were obtained
'by The New York Times, offer these, -
new accounts, among others:
9The C.I.A.'s Strategic Narcotics'
Team approached other Federal ages-
des in 197;1 for further information on
-reports of drug trafficking by Dr. Men=.
gele, seeking to back up an article that
the team had submitted for publication
in the International Narcotics. Review.
The article was later withdrawn and
could not be immediately located by
'
the -
agency,-. according to Senators
D'Amato and.Specter. -
qA:1974 C.I.A. debriefing of a source
who interviewed Nazis -in Paraguay
produced information that Dr. Mengele
had undergone plastic surgery and ap-
peared to be much younger than his
age, which would now be 73. The source
also -reported that a. photograph in
Paraguayan passport files showed Dr.
Mengele after the, plastic surgery.'`:..'
9The same source, possibly a writer
from.the context of the document also
/reported an account that ? around 1968
Dr. Mengele was living in Paraguay
w?th Martin Borman,- Hitler's desig-
nated successor, who is believed by
most-authorities to have died in Berlin
A w a r d ' .
$1.114111141 '
In." a' separate "..development, ,The
Simon -Wiesenthal Center announced
yesterday that a $1 million reward was
being offered for information leading
?to the capture and extradition of. Dr.
Merigele.
Martin Mendelsohn, a lawyer for the
the center, an institute for the study of
German war crimes that is based in
Los Angeles, said the money had been
put up by donors who wished to remain
anonymous, but who would be identi-
th
e cente WY not want
Customs Service and the Treasury. Dr. Mengele dead and was not seeking
The spokesman, Kathy Pherson, said vigilante action. The $1 million comes
she could not discuss whether or not the. in addition to rewards pledged earlier
information was- forwarded to other ..that total p75,000.
governments, such as West Germany, According :to one C.I.A. document,
which has an outstanding warrant for Dr. Mengele arrived in Paraguay for
Dr. Mengele's arrest the first time around 1951 and lived
there and in Brazil, Argentina and Uru-
guay:? He has been sought for extradi-
tion by West Germany since' 1962, ac
cording to one of the C.I.A. documents.
The West Germans also have a war-
rant for his arrest to stand trial on war
crimes charges.
Israeli intelligence teams also re-
portedly were seeking Dr. Mengele in.
the 1960's. The United States, which
has no jurisdiction to try war crimi.
nals, recently announced a Justice De-
partment investigation into reports
that Dr. Mengele may have been in
'Army custody in 1947. ...