U.S. BLESSED WITH OSS SPY IN VATICAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201160018-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: August 3, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
fth OS5
ARTICLE ~P
ON PAGY_3~L.?.1-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201160018-2
aucan
.. By Thomas O'Toole =_.
waawnston post Staff writer
When he : went' to: work for. the
Vatican in -mid-1944, VirgillO Scat
.tolini :.also .went;, to work for the-.
f Strategic Services, .war-.,
Office o
time precursor ?of -the- Central In
telligence' Agency.
.Overnight, Scattolini became a
prize soepro ifica n
wso p d valuable-.that
were e
the OSS kept'one man in Italy do-'
ing nothing but translating and
cabling them to Washington r?.
The verbatim accounts of private '
meetings between -Pope. Pius XI-I
and church"leaders' were -priceless
pieces -?of European -. intelligence..
Scattolini's' recitations of the- pope's
secret audiences with -the .German
and:. Japaneseambassadors to the
Holy- See rang-.so true that the ca-
bles' were _ rushed to the. White
House for president Roosevelt: f
Keep.. them ; coming, Roosevelt'.
secretary,' Grace :Tully, wrote .the:
OSS- in.- January 1945: "The: presi
dent finds -this- material.- most ::in
teresting' and reads every one care-
f
ll
u
y
"Scattolinl - was the intelligence
source for the- first peace feelers j
from' Tapan:.and the. first signs of
:..aiiari?rresi in war-torn. Germany.,
c
in
- -
S
in ed
..
catwl
i
-
of what.the Russians were tellings
ki -- that
,:yScattolini flashed 'the news-
ea
axis;withGermany and that Japan's;
e
e
n
?. industrialists' were gaining influ
a m
over uap
There ivas only one problem .with
t
--
s
,;
'Scattolini's ,intelligence. repor
s true Scattolini made it
`
wa
none -
He concocted his priceless dispatch>
es- because he' needed .the $500 - a
-month-lie OSS was paying. Scattolini
in;tented -papal meetings.; He -fabricit-
ed diaapgue. He lied for the better pof.4a year about what.went on inside
tfie Tatlean r ''. s
'`1VY~cb the'OSS realized how badly. -itdad been taken, two of its top officials
bwtied :-the : Scattolini.. file.--1,700..1 ca-
?'hies-~and:.documents--on a- farm
THE WASHINGTON POST
3 August 1980
`.' A1he' Scattolini -'file; was unearth
:around 1960 and returned to.the Cl
`where'it lias resided in-secrecy for
:year9 The identities of the ages
..who buried and then dug up the fi
are, still unknown- Sources say, t
documents were given back to t
cIAbg: orie of the people who buri
`themi:as part payment'for being
'hired,by ,the CIA.
The-historic. embaerassment'is widely
;distributed in the . U.S intelligence
.community. Two presidents (Roose-
v_eltand- Truman) 'died:-not knowing
that.,f4'.\ atican files' they:_read'so av-
idly: were; false. :.Best-selling books
were_published about American intel
1..~ {Ce:eXploits includingwhat' came
out of. the Vatican;:their authors una-
.ware,gf,Scattolini and.hi?;_fraud.
The names of those-taken in by Scat-
?,
of
, sham read like a~who's who of
toliniss~
- intelligence.', They- included
OSS Chief Maj. Gen.. William .J.; (Wild
jBill) Donovan and James Jesus Angle-
tori; celebrated head of CIA counterin-
~telligence_for a- quarter: of a: century.:
He,:was `Scattolini case officer in.
Rome in :1944 and 1945 '"
"J his pperation_ provides an unusual
illustration of a papermill or fabrica-
tion operation," .reads an. understated
footnote to the Scattolini..file
w-ritteii:.ir;c1949. "It also-illustrates the
dander"ot: accepting at face value the
.product of an intelligences operation
which has not been secured by ade-
'quate counterespionage; investiga-
:.tion '
;The Scattolini file is now in the pub-'
lie domain.. due largely to a quest for
information about the Vatican's' role
in -World War II by a. Jesuit priest
named Robert- Graham.- A -native of
San Francisco and.a Vatican historian
for' the last15 years, Graham -tracked
down, the Scattolini- file-and sprung it
loose from the CIA.last year with 'a
`Freedom of Information Act request.
The:-same file was made available to:
The Washington Post after a similar
: FOr request this year.-.
,. Graham:_said, not,
"It was a, farce,"
long ago.- ` 'To -think: that ; President
Roosevelt, the State Department -and,,
the" Joint Chiefs of"Staff were;; fed'
these complete fabrications"=it's in=
m`credible."
.:There is no evidence anywhere in
the CIA's Scattolini file, that any
American intelligence agent ever met
him.-Angletoirwas his control officer,
but Angleton, then an OSS first lieu-
.tenapt,'never -laid eyes on Scattolini.
Angleton's "cutout" or -contact was an
-Italian named Filippe. Setaccioli who
collected Scattolini's_;.::reports ;and
',Tlie"away Setaccioli` described him,
Scattolini -was In direct contact with:
the Vatican's. secretary _Af;state, who.
then -ivas:."-l sgr.';:Giovanni.. Battista
blontini;aater_Pope Paul ?VI, %Amorig.
'-:other , hings,1%ontini;'.kept the Vatican'
archives-: where:Scatlolint; said the
nuteg of',the. pope's aiost-sec~et a ~
In:-.fact,` according to, Grai,a,.'- -.1
minutes were? kept of any audience
Pope Pius XII ever had. Even today,
the Jesuit historian said there are no
records anywhere in .the Vatican of.
audiences by Pius XII with- dipiomats,
church leaders or anybody else.
''If he kept any records- we sure
don't have them." Graham said. "Even
when Churchill came to see the pope
after the fall of Rome (in 1944) . . . u'e
have no record-of their conversation.".
-That didn't: deter Scattolini. He
transcribed no fewer than '20 :audi-
ences he.saidthe pope held and sent
them along -to the OSS.-He passed on
the exact dialogue of audiences the
.pope supposedly had with Roosevelt
aide Harry` Hopkins, U.S. 8th- Army-
generaj llarkClark,:U.S. Ambassador
-Myron Taylor, vicar general Norberto
,de' Boynes, Japanese ambassador. Ken
I-Iarada and'U:&-Army general Dwight
Eisenhower: Nobody caught up with
the fiction.. ' .. . ..
A -one-time writer of pornographic i
plays. Scattolini brought high skills to 'l
the task of inventing papal dialogue.-'
IIe had.the. pope say he was consider-J
ing the. nomination of New York's
Cardinal Spellman'to be Vatican se&
retary of state., The appointment,
Scattolini's. pone said, could lead to
--Spellman's election as-the:firstAmeri-:
can pope:??_ =. '.
Scattolirii's ;papal dial'o~ue- offered
;grand speculations. He, had the pope
tell Cardinal Pietro Fumasoni Biondi:
"Defeat will change `Japanese mental-
'
ity for the'-be.tter;:it it will develop the
,bestqualities_of that people and Ja
pan will become -promising -ground -for
the propagation of Catholicism',..
But Scattolini'made, a. major mis-
take: that-proved his undoing: He in-,,
v a: Vatican -meeting between.
American.ambassador')VMyron Taylor,
and Japanese ambassador Ken-Harada
at which; he said they 'discussed; the
possibility. of peace in the.Pacific."-It
was the first face-to-face' meeting of
any American and Japanese diplomats
since Pearl - Harbor. U.S. intelligence
circles wereagog at Scattolini.'s dis-
patch.:
So startled, in-fact, that somebody
.asked the State- Department to-cable
Taylor in Rome for,more details of his,
historic -meeting with Harada. '.Back
came Taylor's historic reply"l-hawe
co11TII1*
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201160018-2