CIA Agrees in Principle to Disclose Nazi Records

Sun Feb 6, 4:27 PM ET

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA (news - web sites), under pressure from Congress, has agreed in principle to release new documents detailing its ties to former Nazis who aided U.S. Cold War espionage against the Soviet Union, officials said on Sunday.

Facing demands for public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites), CIA officials have conceded that records on former Nazis who have not been accused of war crimes, including members of the German SS, should be subject to the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998, the officials said.

"This means the information we thought would come out when we wrote the law, will now come out," said Sen. Mike DeWine (news, bio, voting record), an Ohio Republican who co-authored the disclosure legislation.

The CIA, which had no immediate comment, has released some 1.25 million pages of documents about Nazi war criminals in compliance with the disclosure act, which requires government agencies to divulge records of war criminals to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group.

But up to now, the CIA has refused to disclose documents on ex-Nazis who have not been accused as war criminals. Members of the working group and U.S. lawmakers contend the law applies to any individual who belonged to an organization guilty of war crimes.

The records at issue include hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, including material on CIA dealings with former members of the Nazi party and the German SS, who joined the allied Cold War effort against the Soviet Union in Europe, congressional officials said.

The CIA's position changed late last week in closed-door discussions with working group members after DeWine, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanded that CIA Director Porter Goss appear before the panel to provide a public explanation of his agency's refusal to disclose the records.

Goss co-sponsored the 1998 disclosure legislation during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he led the chamber's intelligence committee.

It was not clear whether DeWine would cancel the judiciary committee hearing, tentatively set for Feb. 15.

A CIA spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said the agency was prepared to demonstrate flexibility.

"As we deal with issues of review and declassification, the question we ask is not what should we withhold but what can we release," the spokesman said.

CIA officials and members of the working group were due to meet on Monday at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to begin reviewing documents for possible disclosure.

Former Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, a working group member, and DeWine said the release of Nazi-related material was essential now that the United States is embroiled in a war on terrorism and battling insurgents in Iraq (news - web sites).

DeWine is expected to seek a two-year extension for the working group, which had been scheduled to dissolve at the end of next month.