Editing Gehlen Organization (section)

==CIA Partnership and Operations==
(1947–1956)In 1947, the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assumed oversight of the Org, providing funding, vehicles, and aircraft while Gehlen supplied manpower. The CIA’s liaison, James H. Critchfield (1949–1956), worked closely with Gehlen, though tensions arose over security flaws, as noted by CIA officer Peter Sichel. The Org’s primary mission was espionage against the Eastern Bloc, interviewing every German POW returning from Soviet captivity (1947–1955) to gather data on Soviet industries, rail systems, airfields, and ports. It infiltrated agents into the Baltic States using ex-Kriegsmarine E-boats skippered by Hans-Helmut Klose and ran Operation Rusty, a counter-espionage effort against dissident German groups.

Notable successes included Operation Bohemia, which exposed a Yugoslav spy ring in Western Europe, and uncovering a Soviet assassination unit under SMERSH, delivering a Czech-designed detonator to the CIA, per *The Service: The Memoirs of General Reinhard Gehlen* (1977). The Org also supported **Operation Sunrise**, training 5,000 anti-communist Eastern European and Russian personnel at Oberammergau in 1946 for insurgencies, some lasting until 1956 in Ukraine. However, Soviet penetration was a persistent issue; a CIA report later called it a “catastrophic” compromise, with moles like ex-SS lieutenant **Heinz Felfe** (arrested 1961) undermining operations. The 1948–1952 WIN operation in Poland, initially thought to be an anti-communist resistance, was revealed as Soviet disinformation, costing lives and resources.

The Org’s reliance on ex-Nazis drew criticism. It employed figures like Alois Brunner, Adolf Eichmann’s deputy, and facilitated “ratlines” for Nazis to escape to South America and the Middle East, including Walter Rauff to Syria, as documented in *Journal of Intelligence History* (2019). These actions, supported by U.S. funding, prioritized anti-communism over moral accountability, per *The Real Odessa* by Uki Goñi.