Hidden History: Why A Ukrainian Nazi War Criminal Was Hired By the CIA (Ep. 1)

As the two-year anniversary of the war between #Russia and #Ukraine approaches this month, I've created a new "Hidden History" podcast series about the Central Intelligence Agency's collaboration with #NazisInUkraine.

Last week Russian president Vladimir #Putin told Tucker Carlson that the CIA was behind the 2014 Maidan coup, secretly colluding with radical neo-Nazi elements in the country to overthrow the elected government.

Putin declined to go into the details, because it's a very long story. He could have said more --much more -- about this collaboration which was kept secret from the American public for more than half a century.

Documents declassified under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 finally revealed the truth: that the CIA began recruiting Ukrainian nationalists as anti-Soviet sabotage forces at the beginning of the Cold War in the late 1940s, with the ultimate goal of regime change in the Soviet Union.

On Episode 1, I'll tell you the incredible story of how CIA Director Allen Dulles personally brought Mykola Lebed -- a high-ranking Ukrainian Nazi war criminal and convicted murderer -- to the United States, and gave him a job at the CIA.

Despite efforts by a few intrepid journalists to expose Lebed, and Department of Justice Nazi-hunters to prosecute him, the U.S. government protected Lebed until his death in 1998.

Who was Mykola Lebed? Depends on who you ask.

By various accounts, he was an assassin, a freedom fighter, a terrorist, a hero, a villain, a prisoner, a refugee, a Nazi collaborator, a genocidal maniac, and a ruthless war criminal.

To the Central Intelligence Agency, which bankrolled his activities for close to half a century, he was known as “Uncle Louie.”

In 1934 Lebed was sentenced to death for the murder of Polish official Bronisław Pieracki. The sentence was commuted in 1936 to lifetime imprisonment, and Lebed managed to escape prison during the the German invasion of Poland in 1939.

In 1940, The OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) split into two factions: the OUN-B for loyalists of Stepan Bandera, and the OUN-M for followers of Andrei Melnik. Lebed was a leader of the #Bandera group.

The #Nazis sent Bandera to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1942 after he declared Ukraine an independent state. Lebed then became the de facto leader of the Bandera faction, which largely controlled the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), through the end of the war. Over the following few years, the UPA was responsible for tens of thousands of murders.

After the end of World War II, Western intelligence agencies sought to acquire OUN members as informants and infiltrators. The OUN was avowedly anti-#Communist, and it already had a network of trained guerilla fighters at the ready for an anticipated Soviet offensive.

The United Kingdom’s MI6, their analogue to the CIA, opted to work with the Bandera, who later died under mysterious circumstances, allegedly murdered by the #KGB.

The #CIA chose to work with #Lebed, then the Foreign Minister of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (UHVR). Lebed still had considerable influence among Ukrainian nationalists.

In the 1950s the Agency put Lebed to work in a propaganda operation called PROJECT AERODYNAMIC, setting him up with offices in New York City where he created Ukrainian language, anti-Soviet radio programs, pamphlets, and books to be distributed in the #USSR.

Later, the CIA shielded Lebed from allegations and deportation because he was too valuable of an asset and any publicity could compromise the entire project.

Don't miss the premiere of "Hidden History: Nazis in Ukraine" Episode 1 Feb. 13th at 9 PM Eastern.