EDITORIAL – CIA defying law by not releasing Nazi papers

Last time we checked, the Cold War was over. We won. And while Russia’s still picking up the… Last time we checked, the Cold War was over. We won. And while Russia’s still picking up the pieces, we’re stuck cleaning up its side effects, like Afghanistan.

But the Central Intelligence Agency doesn’t seem to realize that. Instead, the CIA is refusing to release files concerning its dealings with former Nazis after World War II, despite a 1998 law dictating that it must do so.

The New York Times reported that the agency has released more than 1 million pages concerning its dealings with former Nazis. But that still leaves hundreds of thousands of pages it needs to declassify.

Now, it’s no secret that, in the course of collecting intelligence, the United States hasn’t exactly kept its hands clean. Spying requires deciding to deal with people who are, at best, unsavory, and are, at worst, criminals. What’s best for national interests and what’s ethical are often distinct. The current question isn’t whether the CIA should have dealt with such people, but whether it should fess up to having done so.

Most of the concerned parties — the former Nazis and the CIA agents that dealt with them — are probably dead. The CIA’s qualms about declassifying and making these records public stem not from an unwillingness to reveal the identities of its agents and contacts, but rather from an attempt to keep its procedures hush-hush. While there are legitimate concerns behind keeping intelligence procedures quiet, we hope that the agency has updated them in the past 60 years.

Other concerns raised by these papers involve the procedures required to obtain them. Currently, the CIA will only provide papers and information concerning individuals and contacts who the requesting government group can prove were war criminals, and won’t release information that doesn’t relate to specific war crimes.

Yet the Nazi SS was declared a criminal organization after World War II, and anyone who was a member is automatically a war criminal. Selectively releasing information and putting the onus of proving someone a war criminal on a government inquiry group is tantamount to defying the law.

The CIA is attempting to whitewash history, and is using some pretty inadequate excuses to do so. Instead of clinging to secrecy, it needs to come clean about its dealings. To do any less would be an insult to the casualties of World War II and the Cold War.