56 Friday, July 23, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
U.S. Congressmen Begin Investigating Interpol's
Effectiveness and Links to Totalitarian States
By S.A. BARRAM
(Editor's note: S.A. Bar-
ram is ,a London re-
searcher who has written
many articles, including a
series in The Jewish News
(Sept. 5—Oct. 3, 1975), on
the Nazi past and present
of Interpol, the interna-
tional police organiza-
tion.)
Interpol used the Israel
membership as a "clean bill
of health" to demonstrate
innocence vis-a-vis the accu-
sations of Nazi involvement
levelled against the organi-
zation during the U.S. Con-
gressional hearings of the
House Appropriations Com-
mittee.
racial prejudice, the crea-
tion and dissemination of
false reports on innocent
groups and individuals
through Interpol's com-
munication network, en-
couragement of the dossier
system, arbitrary and dog-
matic handling of cases,
connivance with the
American Internal Rev-
enue Service to hunt U.S.
taxpayers abroad, etc.,
methods which are char-
acteristic of a totalitarian
police force, which does
not serve the protection of
law-abiding citizens, but
pursues the self-serving
purpose of accumulation of
power.
Seen in this context, Rep.
Beard's statement is well
The Washington bureau taken: "The 1938-1945 pe-
of Interpol, which is staffed riod has affected the modus
by Americans, defended In- operandi of the organiza-
terpol at the hearings. It ap- tion."
pears that it was unaware
The hearings revealed as-
of the Nazi domination of
Interpol during the war, as tonishing particulars:
Out of a total of 1,098 re-
it was equally ignorant of
the Nazi past of the quests for investigations
1968-1972 president of In- during.1973, there were 325
terpol, Paul Dickopf and of mysterious cases which
the recently exposed Nazi were not initiated by fed-
past of,Serge Langlais, who eral, state or -local police
was a collaborator with the agencies. Yet, the Interna-
tional Criminal Police Or-
Nazis during the war.
ganization is supposed to
Langlais was expelled act upon requests of law
from the French police in enforcement agencies alone.
1944, but found a haven at
Jean Nepote, the General
the Paris headquarters of
Interpol, where he currently Secretary cabled the inquiry
holds one of the highest ex- that "no one employed by
ecutive posts in the organi- the General Secretariat has
zation.
a criminal record; it would
The U.S. Interpol repre- be inconceivable to have any
sentatives were taken by such person working here."
surprise by the volume and
Nepote, apparently, does
grievousness of the not consider the collabora-
charges, which included tion of Serge Langlais with
the Nazi occupation force a
crime. Equally, he does not
think that Paul Dickopf's
membership in the SS and
in the infamous Security
Service (SD) of the Nazi
party was a crime.
The ineffectiveness of In-
terpol as a police organiza-
tion and the amount of
cooperation the U.S. bureau
obtains from the member
police organizations reveals
the breakdown of requested
and supplied information on
suspects and criminals from
July to December 1974, as
listed in the congressional
report on the first hearing
on Interpol.
The grand total of re-
quested and supplied in-
formation to the U.S. bu-
reau amounts to the
ridiculously low figure of
1,879 from 124 member
countries and 50 countries
did not cooperate at 'all.
The 16 Arab countries
combined requested and
supplied a total of 60. Yet,
despite the insignificant
police contribution of the
Arab countries to Interpol,
the General Secretariat
declared Arabic one of the
organization's official lan-
guages, with English,
French and Spanish.
International terrorism
has considerably increased
during the last few years.
None of the national law en-
forcement agencies, mem-
bers of Interpol, have been
successful in the combat of
this crime, which has cost
heavy losses in lives and
property.
An increasing number of
policemen-delegates to In-
terpol's General Assemblies
have demanded the active
involvement of the Interpol
machinery in the combat of
terrorism. The General Sec-
retariat and Executive Com-
mittee. which previously
had used Article 3 of its con-
stitution (which forbids in-
volvement in political- mat-
ters) as an escape clause.
The General Secretariat
agreed to disseminate in-
formatio,n on international
terrorists without identi-
fying the group to which
the individual terrorist
would belong. This means,
in practical terms, that a
national , law enforement
agency, receiving an In-
terpol notification that a
certain terrorist is ex-
pected to arrive in that
country from abroad,
would not be able to know
which group he would con-
tact upon arrival, unless
he is already on record in
this country and his file
contains his photograph.
Most terrorists have ei-
ther no record at all or an
incomplete record. The fact
that Interpol withholds the
names of the groups makes
surveillance difficult if not
impossible. Therefore, In-
terpol's ostensible yield to
the demand of active in-
volvement in the combat of
terrorism, is a sham. -
The attitude of Interpol's
management is not surpris-
ing if one scrutinizes the
organization's membership.
Out of the 126 member-
countries, about 90 percent
entertain totalitarian re-,
gimes, where the torture of
peaceful dissenters is the or-
der of the day, where the
police have been trained and
organized according to the
Nazi or KBG police system.
The same countries which
voted against Zionism at the
United Nations protect in-
ternational Arab terrorism
at Interpol and some even
support it.
The loyalties of the Arab
delegates and representa-
tives at the Executive
Committee has never been
in dispute. And the Arab
bloc consisting of Algeria,
Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Jor-
dan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libya, Oman, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
Syria, Tunisia, United
Arab Emirates and other
Asian and African coun-
tries, carries a lot of
weight.
Considering the access
the Arab representatives
have to intelligence on ter-
rorists, collected and stored
in the files of the General
Secretariat, Interpol's ac-
quiescence to combat terror-
ism becomes a mockery.
The enmeshment of Inter-
pol in political manipula-
tions by geographical and
ethnic groups is not new.
When J. Edgar Hoover, the
late chief of the FBI, with-
drew from the organization
in 1950, he justified the step
stating that Interpol has
become the playground for
power politics, the results
the U.S. obtained from its
membership were not worth
the financial outlay and
that the management was
unprofessional and under-
mined by the personal am-
bition which is so typical of
the French administration.
With Interpol hearings of
the U.S. Senate Appropria-
tions Committee still pend-
ing, Rep. John Moss, chair-
man of the House
investigation's subcommit-
tee, asked for a full investi-
gation by the General Ac-
counting Office into the
activities of Interpol. His de-
mand was supported by
Sen. Montoya and Rep.
Beard.
The latter also did 's
own investigation an
quested the German -
eral Police to reveal the
records of the late presi-
dent of Interpol, Paul
Dickopf.
Rep. Joshua Eilberg plans
to raise the Interpol issue in
the subcommittee on immi-
gration which he chairs. He
intends to demand that In-
terpol go after war crimi-
nals. Several other investi-
gations are pending.
On the other hand, the
Treasury Department, un-
der which the U.S. Interpol
Bureau has worked since
1958, defends Interpol and
all criticism levelled against
the organization, while the
Justice Department accuses
Interpol of excessive bur-
eaurcracy.
It remains to be seen, if
Congress is able to cut
through the bureaucracy
and allocate blame among
individuals and focus per-
sonal culpability on those
who are responsible so that
reform can take place to
ensure that police proce-
dures will be carried out in
fairness in the interest of
humanity.
Adams, Thomas Kennedy Were Leading Philo-Semites
By MOSHE DAVIS
Hebrew U. of Jerusalem
attitudes of the Christian
Church towards the Jews.
In fact, Adams himself
found it logical that accept-
ance of the Jews by their en-
vironment might in turn
bring about the Jews' ac-
ceptance of the Christian
faith. But it is equally true
that in the United States,
Christian feeling stimulated
and encouraged official sup-
port for the restoration of
the Holy Land to the Jews.
"For I really wish the
Jews again in Judea an inde-
pendent nation." This key
sentence in John Adams'
letter of 1819 to Mordecai
Manuel Noah is probably
the first declaration by an
American statesman in fa-
vor of a soveriegn Jewish
state in Eretz Israel.
It is true that in the long
line of declarations over the
years by high United States
A genuinely sincere note
officials, we come across was struck in the early
many which reflect age-old part of the 19th Century by
THOMAS KENNEDY
—Photo courtesy of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati
Thomas Kennedy, a young again be unfurled on the
Catholic who supported
walls of Jerusalem on the
equality for the Jews of Holy Hill of Zion?"
Maryland although he had
At the beginning of the
never even seen a Jew. In United States, Jews were
his presentation in favor of perceived as the bearers of
the "Jew Bill" in 1818, i- a great tradition, a domi-
Kennedy declared:
nant force in the shaping
"But if we are Christians of America.
in deed and in truth, we
From the very beginning
must believe that the Jewish of indigenous American cu-
nation will again be re- lture, as documented in
stored to the favor and pro- theological and literary
tection of God. writings — and molded in
"The story of that won- the seals of such major univ-
derful people, from the days ersities as Columbia, Dart-
of Abraham unto the pre- mouth and Yale — Hebrew
sent time, is full of interest was not another "foreign"
and instruction; their first language. It was the Holy
emigration into Egypt, their Tongue, language of eternal
leaving that country for the values, to such an extent
land of Canaan; their pas- that, following the victory of
sage through the Red Sea; the colonies, Hebrew was
their journey in the wilder- proposed as the official lan-
ness; their settlement in guage of the United States.
Canaan; their captivity at To the founding fathers,
Babylon; their restoration Jews did not represent an
and final dispersion, afford ethnic minority or a small
a theme that never has been, numerical segment of the
never can be, exhausted. American people, although
"They were once the pecu- they numbered less than
liar people of God, they are 2,000 in those days. Jews
yet a peculiar people; and Judaism were seen as
though scattered and dis- indivisible — as one.
persed in every country and
Just as it was inconceiv-
in every clime, their future
able to Jefferson, Franklin
state will no doubt be more
Washington and Adams
glorious than ever. May we
that their contemporary
not hope that the banners of
Jewish citizens should be
the children of Israel shall
denied a voice in the
American future, so was it
equally inconceivable that
a voice in the American
destiny should be denied to
the ancient fathers of Ju-
daism: Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob — and to the
prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah
and Ezekiel.
In a sense, the ideas of Ju-
daism welcomed the Jews to
America because of the
many biblical concepts that
the Pilgrim fathers had
brought with them and
which had taken root in the
colonies long before the
Jews' arrival.
In the American tradi-
tion, the Bible is the source
of the common faith, a cohe-
sive force in national aspira-
tion. Its language and im-
agery, moral directives and
human strivings are embed-
ded in the American charac-
ter. In both glorious and
trying times of American
history, prophets and idola-
tors, kings and commoners
who lived centuries ago in
ancient Israel rose to play
contemporary roles.
The fathers of the Re-
public, for example, did not
cite Holy Scriptures in the
past tense, but as living,
contemporary reality. Their
political condition was de-
scribed as "Egyptian slav-
ery": King George was
Pharaoh; the Atlantic
Ocean nothing other than
the Red Sea; the New Land
was the desert; and Wash-
ington and Adams — Moses
and Joshua.
What then -,- would be a
more appropriate seal to
exemplify the underlying
purpose of the Revolution,
thought a committee com-
posed of Washington,
Adams and Jefferson, than
the portrayal of the Israe-
lites' redemption, their exo-
dus from Egypt: "Rebellion
to tyrants is obedience to
God."
Dr. MOSHE DAVIS