Rivera Cable to Bern Embassy 22-Dec-1978 Sloppy OSI censorship

Rivera Cable to Bern Embassy 22-Dec-1978 Sloppy OSI censorship

TAGS: CGEN (GLAZAR, RICHARD)

Abraham Lincoln once observed that No man has a memory long enough to be a successful liar. The US State Department telegram below invites us to invent a variant of Lincoln's aphorism, namely that No government bureaucracy has a staff competent enough to perpetrate a successful fraud.

What is at issue here is whether or not the US Office of Special Investigations (OSI), headed by America's top Nazi hunter, Neal Sher, did or did not interview Treblinka surviver Richard Glazar of Bern, Switzerland, particularly on or about 11 Oct 1979 in Washington, DC. The Demjanjuk defense argued that the OSI had interviewed Glazar, that Glazar's testimony proved to be exculpatory, and that this exculpatory testimony was suppressed. Summaries of the defense arguments can be found on the Ukrainian Archive in the letters of John Broadley and of Ed Nishnic. The OSI reply to this accusation can be found in the letter of Neal Sher.

In support of the defense position are a number of telegrams and letters indicating interest in, and negotiation with, a witness in Bern, Switzerland. The Ukrainian Archive has copies of some 24 such telegrams and letters, two of which have already been posted on the site; namely what appears to be a Glazar letter to Moscowitz, followed by a Moscowitz reply to Glazar. However, the name and address of the witness who is writing or being written to has to be inferred, as it is always deleted from the copies of the telegrams and letters that have been released to the defense in response to FOIA petitions. Deleted almost always, that is!

In the priceless telegram below, the name of this mysterious Bern, Switzerland witness can be seen to have been deleted at least twice from the body of the message. However, the OSI appears to have overlooked that one line of the heading does contain the name, and that name is "GLAZAR, RICHARD." So the reader does not have to waste time looking, this revealing name has been displayed in blue, although of course in the original it had been typed in black like the rest of the letter.

This is an early telegram, apparently 22 Dec 1978, at a time when the OSI was still trying to discover the whereabouts of Richard Glazar. Both previous and subsequent telegrams and letters are consistent with the view that all communication with respect to Bern, Switzerland had to do with only a single witness who lived there.

To tie the telegram below in with other Ukrainian Archive documents � it is the second of 19 documents in Exhibit A of Ed Nishnic's 02-Feb-1989 letter (already cited just a few paragraphs above) to all members of the US Senate and House of Representatives protesting the suppression of exculpatory evidence by the OSI in the Demjanjuk case.

Sometimes individual digits or characters were barely legible in the available photocopy of the telegram, and so may be in error below. However, the running text was fairly legible and not susceptible to major misreading.

LIMITED OFFICIAL USE
Department of State

OUTGOING
TELEGRAM
8668

PAGE 01    STATE 322327
ORIGIN SCS-06

INFO OCT-01 EUR-12 ISO-O0 CA-01 INSE-00 /020 R

DRAFTED BY CA: SCS: RLRIVERA: JFM
APPROVED BY CA: SCS: LMDAY
DESIRED DISTRIBUTION
CA: HHORAN: INS-COLIT: EUR CE:RCPORTER
                     ------------------116676 23015ZZ /15
P 222224Z DEC 78
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY BERN PRIORITY

LIMITED OFFICIAL USE STATE 322327

E. O. 12065:   N/A

TAGS:   CGEN   (GLAZAR, RICHARD)

SUBJECT:   JUDICIAL ASSISTANCE. WAR CRIMES INVESTIGATIONS

1.   THE IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT
OF JUSTICE SPECIAL LITIGATION UNIT, HAS REQUESTED THE
DEPARMENT'S ASSISTANCE IN ASCERTAINING THE CURRENT LOCAL
ADDRESS OF [33 character blank appears here] IS A POTENTIAL
GOVERNMENT WITNESS IN A DENATURALIZATION TRIAL OF AN ALLEGED
NAZI WAR CRIMINAL IN THE UNITED STATES. [possibly a line
and a half of text deleted here]

2.   THE EMBASSY IS REQUESTED TO USE DISCRETION AND NOT, RPT
NOT, APPROACH [13 characters] WHO SHOULD BE UNAWARE OF THIS
INQUIRY.

3.   THE EMBASSY'S REPLY SHOULD BE CABLED TO THE DEPARTMENT,
CA/SCS, ASAP.   CHRISTOPHER

LIMITED OFFICIAL USE

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