o.s.s. plans tipoff of nazi collaborator stepan bandera

8/12/2019 O.S.S. Plans tipoff of Nazi Collaborator Stepan Bandera

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T O .B7743 : Runich

R O Y B,-51,Amzon

SUBJECT: Stefan BANDMA._

R R -60641 LI S 7 46

1) As you know, the purpose of Colonel ANTOTIUK'srecent v is i t to IISfET was to aid the U.S. authorities in thedetect ion of BAvt[510Vs viereobouts Source Josephine repor tst h a t ARTONIUK is now devoting all his energies to theaccomplishment of this -:ne aim and,. needless tc emphasize,BANDERA's del ivery in to the Soviet hands would be the crown-ing success in ANTONIUK s career as an intelligence officer:We should , therefore, not underrate the determination f thb -Soviets to br ing th is to pais . The at tached repor t was passedby ANTONIUK to G-2 , USFET. I t is of considerable interest

; inasmuch as i t l i s t e one ' IT T SKO, Yaroslav, (also spelled

STECHNO STECZKO and STECZO). who is about to be arrested in Munich and broUght to UISC Oberursel, for interrogation.The fol lowing comment upon l ikely implications of STETSKO sArres t , offered by our USFET-repreeentat ivey-can-he-a=eptedas inspired by official USFET sources.

If STETS 0-reveals BANDERA's hideouts, G-2off icial ly wil l probably t ry to p ick him up and deliver him

to the Soviets I think, however, that they would wink atA3ANDERA's being t ipped off . Some people here are worr ied

about the possibility that STETSKO may be a soviet penetrationagent who wil l repor t to the RI S all information given to , UISC so they are bound to go ahead on whatever inforMatien-, - , he g ives . I f BAUDERA is found the-Poli t ical Adviscr, t t r.f tecio Would umdoUbtedly concur in his delivery to the Soviets.) ' ------7-1)---/R-II-ef-the-sorious-cempromise:whiCh nodoubt would result toAmerican interests in any form of col-laborat ion with UHVR, should BINDESA be turn& over to the

Soviets by the U.S. authorities and, on the other hand; - co n -

s ider ing the equal ly ser ious effects on Soviet-American re=lotions-likely to ensue from open U.S. connivance in the un-hampered continuance of his anti-Soviet activities on Germansoil, we shou d take spocial pains t steering a judicious

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ECLASSIFIED AND RELEASED BY

CENTRAL INTELL BENCE AGENCYSOURCES M E I N D D S E X M7T 1 N3B NAZI WAR CRIMESDISCLOSUREACtDATE

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28 October 9 .


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middle-ccurse. The following course suggests self as bestSui ted to avoid ei ther pi t fal l . 4) You should contact the Lynx group and, referringb ck to yor l st r eeting vhen you nade at abortive attenntat drawing them cut regarding BANDER A s present whereabouts,point out that the secrecy surrounding his movements would inthe long view create mere harm than good. You would point cutthat rather than asking a di rect quest ion nod courting anotherrebuff , you prefer red to place yourself squarely on record asgreat ly concerned as regards BAYDERA s security ut equallyunable to mater ial ly contr ibute to i t s p reservat ion, becauseyou had tot been taken into the complete conf idence of the UHVR.Yomdid no hare the view that irre p arable damage would hecaused by BANDERA s extradition, although it. would doubtlesslyconst i tute a heavy blow to the prest ige for the Ukranian move-ment. Your main concern was, however, to establish a perfectunderstanding with tbe-UBVR that. BANDERA, once captured, wouldInevi tably be handed over to the Soviets by the U.S author i t ies.It would then be too late to intervene and oom e4ag protestawould be absolutely tc no avai l . ,The UHVR would only have toblame i tse lf in hat case.- ny emands -.ade.on you for a specificunder taking to guarantee BANDERA s secur i ty, visa vie the U.S.authorities, should be declined,, even if UHVH sees fit to let

you in on the secret Of his whereabouts.

- 5 -- rn-baSe-STETSKO-should-coPe-forward .with inforMationI containing a lead to BARDERA s A.diug place, we shall try to

inform you on time. If we eve reason to, believe that coverageof that lead is l ikely to resul t in ANDERA s Capture, we.thall

. have to lay out our poUrse cf aCt ion in the.light:ofi-our con- .Meting interests in th e natter. Tipping . o ff BAFORA, it thisshould be decided upon, Wouldhave to be on . with Utmost dis-

cretion obviating the remotest posSdbility that his escapei.e

t raced back to a U.S. . agency, In ant icipat ion of such cont in-gency, you should now cast about.fcr Secure neans of passing .such information, taking . into-acteunt,. of ccurae, that shoulany in t mation of our connivance in DAiTERA s escape reach theears of the tHVB, we ceUld expect wi thcer tainty that theSoviets would learn about i t sooner or later . ThiS dilemma .could best be avoided we believe,.if the tip-off be aunchedinto THVR channels through an elaborate chain of notional and/oractual cutouts.

Distribution: 1 7 AB-43, Uunich (Attach)

1 -=J7 SFET Det.- SC,JVashin g to Attach) 1 - Registry

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LU E

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20 November 1948_ .

SUBJECT : Search forB DERA leader of the

R F

: 12X-787 ash 4345

1 ) The r isk o f compromise in a t tempt ing to H O I P BANDERA ei ther d i rect ly o r ind irect ly has been kep t downto the abso lu te minimum. G-2 MEET i s def in i t e ly loa thto comply with the Soviet request to find BANDER& and torepatr ia te him as a war oriminal . ; This, we have beengiven to unders tand unofficially of course, and we canbe reasonably sure that a warning passed to a U H V R rep-resen tat ive wi l l no t be considered aa-an act o f badfaith on our part if , by et remote chance, G-2 USFETshould learn about it .

2 ) As far as oompromising ourselves vie a vie theSoviets i s conned , we have taken pains no t to le tth is Warn ing appear in the l ight of an official t ip-off ,bu t ra ther in the natu re o f a gene ra/ observat ion . OnceBANDERA has been apprehended we would decline to be inany way connected with the case, a point we stressed inID S '767. In ti l ia connection we shduld like to mentionas an ' interesting Side-light that It Col Dasher recentlyexpressed to AB 52 his disappointment that G-2 OT T hasfailed to honor its pledge to Colonel ANTONIUK to makeever* conceivable effort to locate TAFTERA.

3): 'Rair question whether there are compellingreasons for us to help BANDERA directly or indirectly,can be answered in the affirmative if you accept thepromise that we are def in i te ly in teres ted in cau t iously .cultivating our contacts with the UBVR if not along : l inesof active cooperation, then with at least the objectiveto keep ourselves in fo rmed o n what i t s p lans are and to -what ex ten t i t has succeeded in bu i ld ing up and serv icingce l l s in the Ukra ine . We asked HIIKENNT;how our relation-sh ip wi th the CHM, at p resen t and in the fu tu re , wou ld be

'affected if the Americans were to lend a hand in the cap-tu re and repatr ia t ion o f BANDERA to the Sov iets . He saidbe could answer th i s ques t ion in one word: FINITO. Inorder to enable you to appraise the importance of BANDERAin the hierarchy of Ukranian Underground leaders - and we

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i r respkt ive of i ts many fact ions who differ in methodsrather than in the main object ive - we have requested

LONNY to prepare a study which you will find attachedherewith.

4) In a t tempting to visual ize the effects of theloss of BANDERA through American connivance there isone more consideration which should be brought to yourat tent ion. The URVR is avowedly a terror is t organizat ion,determined to accomplish its objectives by terroristicmeans. (That appears to be one of the main reasons forthe pre-occupation of the Soviet-Intelligence with Ukran-

ian ra ther than other d iss ident groups l ike e .g . , tCaucasians .) I t should therefore not be ruled out thatthe UHVR would want to retaliate by terroristic means andthat its suspicions would fasten on the American repre-sentatives with whom they have been exclusively dealing.

Distribution:

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o.s.s. plans tipoff of nazi collaborator stepan bandera

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