Tscherim Soobzokov

Tsherim Soobzokov (24 August 1924, – 6 September 1985[1]) was a Circassian man accused of collaborating with the Third Reich during the invasion of the Soviet Union and serving as a Waffen-SS officer.[2] Soobzokov denied these charges and sued CBS and The New York Times.[3]:170–174 He was publicly supported by Pat Buchanan[4] and Congressman Robert Roe.[3]:113

Background

During World War II in August 1942 he began to cooperate with the Germans. He was appointed chief of police in his village of Tahtamukai. In 1943-1944 he recruited Circassians to the North Caucasian Legion of the Wehrmacht. In early 1945 he was promoted to lieutenant of the SS. In 2006, declassified documents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) confirmed that Soobzokov had been a CIA agent in Jordan and that the agency had misled the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service on Soobzokov's War time past.[5] This was part of a wider post-World War II CIA program of working with former collaborators living in hiding.[6] Historian Richard Breitman concluded based on these documents[1] that Soobzokov indeed had strong ties to the SS and that he had admitted to the CIA his participation in an execution commando searching for Jews and Komsomol members.[1][7]

On 15 August 1985, a pipe bomb set outside his home in Paterson, New Jersey critically injured Soobzokov.[8][9] He died of his wounds in the hospital on 9 September 1985.[10] An anonymous caller claiming to represent the Jewish Defense League (JDL) said they had carried out the bombing. A spokesman for the JDL later denied responsibility.[11] No one was ever charged with leaving either bomb, but Aslan Soobzokov (Tscherim's son) has twice sued the federal government over its investigation. The bombing was linked by the FBI to a similar bomb attack on another accused war criminal, Elmārs Sproģis, that took place in Long Island on the day Soobzokov died.[3]:179–180

See also

References
  1. Richard Breitman. "Tscherim Soobzokov" (PDF). Government Secrecy e-Prints. Federation of American Scientists.
  2. Name on SS Officers listing
  3. Lichtblau, Eric (2014). The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-66919-9.
  4. Pat Buchanan (1999-11-05). "Response to Norman Podhoretz". letter to The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11.
  5. "New Records Now Available as a Result of IWG Extension – CIA Agrees to Disclose Operational Materials". Press Release. National Archives and Records Administration. 2006-06-06.
  6. Toby Harnden (2010-11-14). "Secret papers reveal Nazis given 'safe haven' in US". The Telegraph.
  7. "CIA declassifies 27,000 Nazi files". The Washington Times. 2006-06-06.
  8. Ralph Blumenthal (1985-08-16). "Man Accused of Nazi Past Injured by Bomb in Jersey". The New York Times: B2.
  9. "Bomb Victim on Critical List". The New York Times. AP. 1985-08-17.
  10. Eric Lichtblau (2010-11-13). "Nazis Were Given 'Safe Haven' in U.S., Report Says". The New York Times: A1.
  11. Judith Cummings (1985-11-09). "F.B.I. Says Jewish Defense League May Have Planted Fatal Bombs". The New York Times: A1.


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