CIC Reply to SETAF Verona
On April 13, 1959, an American intelligence branch in Verona filed a request with the US Embassy in Rome and a number of US military units in Germany for any info in their files relating to a Krunoslav Draganovic. That request is located here, and it wasn't until the original request was released in 2001 that the following document could be placed in its proper context. This is a response to SETAF Verona's request from the 66th Counter-Intelligence Corps Group in Bad Cannstatt. The text is based largely on the CIC reports of Agents Robert Clayton Mudd and William Gowen from 1946-48, particularly this one. That is, in fact, the point: SETAF Verona received this report and didn't blink a jaundiced eye at Draganovic's Nazi-smuggling background or his past in the notorious "Bureau of Colonization" in the Independent State of Croatia. Within one month of receipt of the following, in fact, SETAF Verona dispatched an agent codenamed "FRANCO" to recruit Draganovic back into the fold of American intelligence.

 

FROM:   CO, 66th CIC Gp, Bad Cannstatt, Germany

TO:   CG, SETAF, Verona, Italy

CONF 0-1891     For AESE-GBI from AEUC-OPCR

1. (U) Ref P-0393

2. (C) Info on file this Hq dtd Oct 46 to Nov 47, indc that one Krunoslav Draganovic, a Croatian Catholic Priest in the Monastary of San Geronimo, [sic] 132 Via Romacelli, [sic] ROME, not further identified, was assoc with Ustashi (Croatian Fascist Org) elm in Italy. He was alleged to have been instrumental in aiding various unnamed WW II crim and quislings in escaping arrest and immigrating to various South American Countries, via Spain. Draganovic was a native of TRAVNIK, where he cmpl his elementary and secondary sch. After finishing secondary sch, he moved to SARAJEVO to study Theology and Philosophy. Upon grad on an undisclosed date, he was sent to ROME through the intervention of Dr. Ivan Saric, Archbishop of SARAJEVO. Draganovic cmpl his studies in ROME, where he majored in Ethnology and Balkan affairs, then rtn to SARAJEVO, where he held various unspecified polt ofc of minor importance. Draganovic later become one of the leading figures in the Bureauc of Colonization in the independent state of Croatia. He was involved in a disagreement oer the relative merits of the younger Eugen Kvaternik, not further identified, whom he called a "madman and lunatic" and left Croatia to rtn to ROME. This move was alleged to have been promoted by leaders of the independent state of Croatia, who expected the prelate, through his good conec in The Vatican, to be instrumental in working the orien of Croatia toward the West rather than toward the East. Croatia's militant catholicism made her a "natural" in such a deal and these same leaders relied heavily on Draganovic to assist them in their aims. Draganovic's sponsorship of Croat quislings and war crim reportedly linked him with Vatican plans to shield these ex-Ustashi nationalists until such time as they acquired proper documents to enable them to go to South America. The Vatican allegedly was attempting to infiltrate mbr of the Ustashi into South America, because of their strong anti-Communist feelings, to counteract the spread of Red doctrine in that area. Aval rec disclose no further pertinent info.

DATE:   16 Apr 1959 1015

WRITER
EDWARD E. COSTELLO, CWO cbs/bmd
PHONE: 7456
PAGE NR.: 1   NR OF PAGES: 2
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: CONFIDENTIAL

RELEASER
SIGNATURE: [signed] Richard O. Fox
TYPED (or stamped) NAME AND TITLE:
     for WILLIAM H. FRY
     Major, AI (Inf)
     Chief, CR Div

 

:: filing information ::
Title: CIC Reply to SETAF Verona
Source: CIA, declassified September 12, 1983
Date: April 16, 1959 Added: March 16, 2003