A TALE OF TRUE GRITZ

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202390007-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: February 14, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202390007-0
ARTI= AFFZAM. NEWSWEEK
016 PAGE STAT 14 FEBRUARY 1983
A Tale of True Gritz
On a steamy night last November, four Americans and a
dozen local commandos slipped across the Mekong River from
Thailand into Laos. Their mission's private code name, Lazarus,
thinly disguised its aim: to prove that missing U.S. servicemen
long thought dead were still alive in Indochina. Three days out,
though, and still far short of that
goal, Lazarus ended in a jungle
ambush that sent the men scram-
bling back across the river. And
when details of the operation fi-
nally leaked out last week, their
leader, former Green Beret Lt.
Col. James G. (Bo) Gritz, found
himself regarded by all sides as less
a bloodied hero than an embar-
rassing nuisance.
Operation Lazarus was appar-
ently only the latest in a series of
cross-border raids run by private
American citizens hoping to con-
firm longstanding rumors of sur-
viving POW's. Gritz-who served
during the Vietnam War with the
Fifth Special Forces Group-in-
STAT
doubt there are many American POW's still alive. Nevertheless,
Gritz has attracted substantial private backing, reportediy in-
cluding technical support from Litton Industries, an important
defense contractor, and $30,000 in cash from actor Clint
Eastwood. (He has also received $10,000 from actor William
Shatner-but for the rights to his life story, says Shatner, not
support for the raid.)
While agreeing that a few of nearly 2,500 officially missing
Ken Luba -.Los Angeles Times
Eastwood, Gritz: Derring-do with private backing
dicated that Operation Lazarus was made with the knowledge,
and informal support of U.S. officials. "The FBI has helped me,"
he recently told the Los Angeles Times. "The CIA has helped
us," and so, he said, had the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok. Those
claims are denied in Washington; State Department officials
Americans may still be held pris-
oner in Laos, Cambodia and Viet-
nam, mainstream U.S. POW
groups are critical of Gritz's tac-
tics. "We had only just managed
to build any rapport at all with
the governments," says George
Brooks, chairman of the National
League of Families of American
Prisoners and Missing in South-
east Asia. "We're desperately
afraid that commando raids will
undo it." Spokesmen for the U.S.
attorney's office in Los Angeles-
which last year declined to pros-
ecute Gritz after an investigation
of his activities-now say they are
reviewing new information about
possible breaches of U.S. law. Offi-
cials in Thailand say they have authorized border troops to use
"anymeans" to stop further private forays. Meanwhile, Colonel
Bo is already reportedly back in the jungles along the Mekong,
vowing that Operation Lazarus will rise again. _
SPENCER REISS with bumu reports
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202390007-0