STUDY REPORTED SHELVED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120076-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 76
• Publication Date: February 23, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

1 1, 1 AL -1111 1i.111
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/04: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120076-7
F RTI CLE APPEARED
NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE _-$ 23 February 1984
seized archives of Benito Mussolini.
Mr. La Vista died in Arlington, Va., in
Stuay Reported Shelved 1951 at the age of 44.
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL John Loftus, a former member of the
Justice D rtment s Office o oecial
The State DeQartatent investigator _veest ations dealuzg with war criau-
whose 1947 report said the Vatican had nail, saidhe ad no dooubft"~~r ewe r
assisted is the escaT)P off Nazis ma G
~ve`uawlitingly stualedonto Amery
' can tnte-IIigence operations that were
_ia2aig use of the very ~eppi
' Bo- g, aCo _V Govern
meat documents andformerofofficials. .
s result, me sources say, the re-
port by the investigator, Vincent La
Vista, appears to have been ultimately
shelved without the wider investigation
he recommended. . However, . docu-
ments show that American diplomats
took up aspects of his report with an
envoy of Pope Pius XII and with offi-
cials of the international Committee of
the Red Cross. Both promised to look
into the matter, records show.
In the report, Mr. La Vista called the
Vatican "the largest single organiza-
tion involved in the illegal movement of
emigrants." He said that the Vatican
had brought pressure on Latin Ameri-
can countries to take in Nazis and that
the justification of the Vatican for its .
participation in this illegal traffic is
simply propagation of the faith.".
Allegations Were Denied
Two church historians, the Rev. Rob-
ert Graham and the Rev. Pierre Blet,
dismissed the allegations in the report
as "nothing but air" and "artificial and
false." Father Blet also questioned ac-
counts that . Walter Rauff, a former
Nazi official said to ha B
l
,040-1X y 1o ,preserve
tie secrecy oftnce links.
a .24!&Z
Mr. Loftus
ostonla~er wh
h
,
o
as
wntten a c aag.._np that ve rus-
sian Nazis were smu
ggle~ mto tl+e
td$tates also said that accordin
documents e d seen. Am ri ,p
ii tligenc e had gone to the Vatican for
Aei is fir
tie escape o azjs
wor or the end....
Ass evidence that . Mr La Vista had
run acres intelligence overatior , Mr.
Loftus cited the case of Ferenc Vajta,
the Aunaarian Nazi.
In his report, Mr. La Vista said:
"The Hungarian Communists are
also trying to hunt down the Hungarian
fascist, Vajta, Ferenc, who, so their
Propaganda says, is living in great
state at the Grand Hotel Rome, under
the very eyes of the Anglo-American
authorities. However,. Vajta is not at
the Grand Hotel, but, according to
fairly reliable sources, in one of the
many monasteries in the Rome area."
In December 1947, half a year later,
Mr. Vajta, who had been an aide to Fer.
enc Szalasi, the executed Hungarian
Nazi leader, was discovered living in:
New York, A- Congressional inquiry
determined that he had entered the
United States on a diplomatic visa
issued by the American consul, in Ma.
drid.
eve
mobile death vans, had been given ref- Another State Department document
obtained by Mr. Loftus indicates
uge in church convents before escaping American concern about illegal em'.
to Chile, where his extradition is again gration of Nazis to Latin America and
being sought. the possible role of the Vatican.
A Vatican spokesman, the Rev.
Romeo Panciroli, called the state.
meats of the historians "a sufficiently
clear reply" to the issue and the Vati-
can indicated that the statements con-
stituted its official reply.
Mr. La Vista, a lawyer, worked at the
beginning of World War II as an inves-
tigator for the Army 4Ur Forces and in
1945 was assigned to the embassy in
Rome under the Division of. Foreign
Activity Correlation, a State Depart-
ment intelligence office. He was as-
signed to trace looted Nazi wealth in a
secret operation code-named"Safeha-
ven" and'he also headed the American
team that studied and microfilmed the
almsley Jr.,
counselor for economic affairs in the
American Embassy in Rome, sent
Washington a followup on the La Vista
report in the form of a secret memo-
randum of July 16, 1947, prepared by
the American Embassy in Buenos
Aires.
The Buenos Aires memorandum
cited an Istituto di Snt. Jeronimus a
Via Tomacelli 132 in Rome that the La
Vista report gave as the address for a
Vatican Croatian relief organization
"engaging in or suspected of engaging
in illegal emigration." .The memoran-
dum called the institute the headquar.
tars of a clandestine movement of
Yugoslav Ustaschi war criminals from
Italy to Argentina. The memorandum
stated: "It would appear that neces-.
nary sums come from Vatican circles,
who had previously actively supported!
this organization in 1923.1941. Member.
ship of'Ustasclla' and Catholic religion
are compulsory for help and assistance
in leaving Italy." -
The memorandum listed several
Croatians and a Frenchman - Drago
ii:reruzir, Juan Percevick, Dr. F. Todt,
and Marquis Eric de Surville - who it.
said arrived in this manner in Argen.
tins by ship from Italy.: ^ . _
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/04: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120076-7