CIA declassified: US, UK did not want to arrest Ante Pavelic |
Wednesday, 23 April 2014 | ||||
April 22, 2014 | InSerbia News
Recently declassified CIA document from the US National Archives, requested in 2000 but only produced 12 years later, establish that both the British and Americans were certain the Vatican was harboring a major Nazi war criminal, Ante Pavelic. Ante Pavelic (14 July 1889 – 28 December 1959) was a Croatian fascist leader and politician who led the Ustase movement and who during World War II ruled the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a puppet state of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in part of the occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia, pursuing genocidal policies against ethnic and racial minorities. Seeing Germany’s collapse and aware that the Croatian army could not resist the Communists, Pavelic left Croatia on May 6 1945. The Pavelic family afterwards lived in the American Occupation Zone. Although Pavelić reported himself to American intelligence, neither they nor their British counterparts arrested him.
Several members of the NDH government were executed after a one-day trial in Zagreb on 6 June. Shortly after this, Pavelic moved to the village of Tiefbrunau closer to Salzburg. In September, American officials – according to available information – believing the family were refugees and unaware of their identity – resettled them in the village of St. Gilgen. They stayed there until April 1946.
Pavelic entered Italy disguised as a priest with a Peruvian passport. Passing Venice and Florence, he arrived in Rome in the spring of 1946 disguised as a Catholic priest and using the name Don Pedro Gonner. Upon arrival in Rome he was given shelter by Vatican and stayed at a number of residences that belonged to Vatican. However, in declassified CIA document clearly states that during 1947, Pavelic was in Vatican and according to British intelligence officer named as “Mr. Verschoyle”, on August 11 1947 they knew the exact room in the Vatican grounds in which Pavelic was housed. It is also stated that British and American Intelligence officers avoided arresting Pavelic because it was not in their best interest “as a number of Croats have been used as informers by U.S. Intelligences agencies. A number of such Croats are known to be loyal to Pavelic’s anti-Communist activities and Catholic fanaticism.”
The document also states that “The British let him escape when they raided Genoa” and that “Pavelic’s family is probably living in Florence.” According to the document, U.S. intelligence agency had a plan to arrest Pavelic in a joint action with British intelligence agencies. The plan was to make Pavelic leave Vatican, when “Mr. Vershoyle” should notify Americans and Italian police would make an arrest. However, as documents state, “The British have not called us to put the above plan into effect. They have indicated that they are unable to get Pavelic out of the Vatican grounds”. Tito and his new Communist government accused the Catholic Church of harboring Pavelic who they stated, along with the Anglo-American “imperialists”, wanted to “revive Nazism” and take over communist Eastern Europe. The Yugoslav press at the time claimed that Pavelic had stayed at the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, while CIA information states that he stayed at a monastery near the papal residence in the summer and autumn of 1948. However, now is clear that Pavelic has not leaved Vatican until 1948 when he met Krunoslav Draganovic, a Roman Catholic priest, who helped him obtain a Red Cross passport with a Hungarian name of Pál Aranyos. Draganovic allegedly planned to deliver Pavelic to the Italian police, but Pavelic avoided capture and fled to Argentina. http://inserbia.info/today/2014/04/cia-declassified-us-uk-did-not-want-to-arrest-ante-pavelic/ © InSerbia News |
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