en years ago, the Justice Department yielded
to pressure from members of Congress and
the American Jewish community and
created the Office of Special Investigations
(OSI). Its mission was to seek out and pro-
secute Nazi war criminals living in the United
States.
How has OSI fared in its first decade? Supporters
say it has pursued its mission with vigor, while
detractors, many of them emigres from Baltic na-
tions, say it has defamed their communities as
havens for ex-Nazis and they are extremely critical
of OSI's legal methods.
OSI has investigated 1,300 cases, brought
charges against 75 alleged Nazi persecutors,
stripped 30 of citizenship and deported or other-
viise caused to leave 26 others. Most of those pro-
secuted have been immigrants from the Baltic na-
tions controlled by the Soviet Union, or the Soviet
Ukraine region.
The prosecutions followed decades of virtual in-
activity on the part of the U.S. government, which
tried Nazi leaders at Nuremburg immediately after
World War II and then made anti-Communism, not
Nazi-hunting, a priority.
In the Cold War, less visible Nazi officials were
found to be useful for U.S. national security in-
terests in a variety of ways — as intelligence agents
in Europe (Klaus Barbie), rocket scientists in the
American space program (Werner von Braun), or
compliant officials in postwar European govern-
ments (Kurt Waldheim).
OSI director Neal Sher says his office's prosecu-
tions have reversed this cover-up policy and
demonstrate "that the United States government
is truly dedicated to the pursuit of justice and will
never condone genocide." OSI assisted in the in-
vestigations that uncovered Waldheim's wartime
activities and it produced the report that revealed
the role of U.S. intelligence services in shielding
Barbie.
But OSI's activities have not been without con-
troversy. The office has come under sharp attack
from the Baltic-American and Ukrainian-American
communities because many of those prosecuted by
OSI are immigrants from the Baltic nations.
The essence of the controversy lies in the U.S.
government's decision that it lacked the legal and
constitutional basis to try individuals on war
crimes charges. OSI prosecutes for violations of im-
migration regulations, which allow the government
to strip the citizenship from, and expel, a person
who engaged in persecutions during the Nazi era.
The legal guarantees in the civil proceedings man-
dated by the immigration laws are less extensive
than in criminal proceedings. Civil defendants in
OSI cases are not, for example, allowed trial by jury,
court-furnished lawyers or the right to cross-
examine witnesses in a neutral setting.
Some OSI defendants have died before they could
be deported, while others ended up in countries like
T
Steve Dryden is a writer in Bethesda, Md. This
article was made possible by a grant from the Fund
for Journalism on Jewish Life, a project of the CRB
Foundation of Montreal, Canada. All views ex-
pressed are solely those of the author.
Venezuela or Paraguay where they face no further
charges. But a handful of OSI defendants have been
deported or extradited to countries where they face
criminal prosecution and possible execution for
their alleged wartime activities. To be exposed to
such prosecution on the basis of a civil proceeding,
some argue, is a violation of the defendants' rights
to due process as American citizens. This problem
is exacerbated when the country of destination is
the Soviet Union, whose standards of justice are
manipulated for political ends.
Neil Sher, director of the
Office of Special
Investigations, says his
office is "truly dedicated
to the pursuit of justice."
Tainted Evidence?
he emigre groups, backed by supporters like
conservative columnists Pat Buchanan and
William F. Buckley, Jr., have lashed out at the
Justice Department for using Soviet-supplied
evidence and taking depositions from Soviet
witnesses who are being monitored by Soviet of-
ficials. The groups have called for prosecution of
alleged war criminals in the United States instead
of deportation.
"There are procedural deficiencies in the Justice
Department's war crimes practice which must be
remedied immediately if those practices are to
reflect the values of a free and democratic socie-
ty," says Patience T. Huntwork, a Phoenix, Arizona
attorney who works with Baltic and Ukrainian
emigre groups critical of OSI's methods.
Mari-Ann Rikken is more blunt. The vice presi-
dent of the Estonian American National Council
says of OSI officials: "They are doing some sleazy
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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