Nazi Recruits of the CIA’s Gehlen Org

After his return from the United States in 1946, the former Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen was to establish a German intelligence service. The resulting “Gehlen Organization” became the forerunner of the later Federal Intelligence Service (BND).

From there, Gehlen turned his attention to the creation of bases abroad. His submerged network of Nazi war criminals was a duplication of his experience in the Nazi secret services. This was his human reservoir.

In the early years, the reservoir was tapped by American intelligence agencies, particularly the Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). But in personnel questions, he held the upper hand, the operatve principle being “old comrades in the service of old comrades.” The US agencies could only weild their power & their dollars.

The early establishment of operational structures abroad extended to Austria, Italy, the Middle East, South America & Indonesia.

Josef Adolf Urban played a leading role here, Lieutenant Colonel Urban was the leader of Nazi Security Service (SD) in Vienna & a Balkan expert in Office VI of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). He had most recently served as chief of the Fascist SD control center in Budapest. [Read More]