NBC EVENING NEWS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200730009-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 27, 2008
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: June 9, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200730009-9
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
9 June 1983
U.S./EX-NAZI BROKAW: NBC News investigative reporter Mark Nykanen has
uncovered a close connection between Nazi Klaus Barbie and the
United States in the days immediately following World War Two.
At the tire, Barbie was wanted by the French for atrocities that
he directed against French citizens during the occupation. But
he wound up a U.S. spy. Here is Nykanen's report.
NYKANEN: According to sources close to the investigation, the
cover-up began in 1948 in this house near Augsburg, Germany.
They say Klaus Barbie ran a spy network from here after
persuading U.S.. military intelligence that he could be a
valuable asset is the cold war against communism. But sources
say there was.a problem'using Barbie as a spy. The French
wanted him for- war. crimes. -So to cover up Barbie's spy work,
military intelligence brought a former Nazi spy, Josef Merk,
into Barbie's network as a-front-man. Information gathered by
Barbie would be attributed to Merk. A source at the Justice
Department says the invesigation has been hampered because some
reports from Merk and Barbie were destroyed. Those that still
exist have only Merk's name on them. So investigators can't
tell exactly what Barbie contributed. Serge and Beata Klarsfeld
are the Nazi hunters who found Barbie living in Bolivia in 1972.
The Klarsfelds, paid consultants to NBC News, say these
classified U.S. and French documents show that U.S. officials
lied to the French about Barbie's whereabouts. The documents
recently were obtained by the Justice Department. One of them
is this French goverment report dated February 18, 1950, marked
secret. It says the U.S. offered to provide Barbie as a witness
in the trial of a Frenchman accused of being a Nazi collaborator
on the condition that Barbie be returned promptly. The French
declined and again insisted that he be returned to France. The
U.S. response: at least six letters denying knowledge of his
whereabouts. The last letter, dated January 31, 1951 says, 'We
are continuing our efforts to locate Barbie.' But the
Klarsfelds say three weeks later, U.S. officials gave him a
temporary travel document and a new identity, Klaus Altman. He
then escaped to Bolivia. SERGE KLARSFELD: ...The kind of sad
story where the killer, if he has something to sell, is, has
more importance than the victims.
NYKANEN: Within months of Barbie's escape from Germany, Joseph
Merk, the spy partner who knew exactly what Barbie has done for
U.S. intelligence, died at the age of 36 in this Bavarian
castle, a center for U.S. spying in post-war Germany. His
family says he was murdered to keep him silent. They say U.S.
officials told them he died from a poisonous bee sting. Roman
Catholic Chuch records in his home town list his cause of death
as heart attack, question mark. KARL STREHLE (Roman Catholic
Priest): It is questionable if he died of natural cause or he
was murdered.
NYKANEN: Dr. Rudolph Thannheimer was the German physician
called in to examine Merk's body. Then, he said, Merk died of a
heart attack. Now, after a silence of nearly 32 years, he says,
COiVTZNU: D
Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200730009-9
 Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200730009-9
oz.
'I don't know how he died.' Thannheimer would not talk to us on -
camera, nor would he answer any other questions about Merk's
death saying, 'I don't want to be involved in this thing.'
Sources close to the Justice Department investigation fear that
when Merk was buried, so were many of the secrets of Klaus
Barbie's role as a U.S. spy. Mark Nykanen, NBC News,
Friedrichshafen, Germany.
BROKAW: And Nykanen reports tonight that France now has denied
a U.S. Justice Department request to talk with Barbie.
Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200730009-9