Operation Paperclip: JIOA dossier falsification record
This page presents what the primary source record at the National Archives confirms about the JIOA dossier falsification. Three specific scientists are named in the National Archives public finding aid with their outcomes documented. The Wev memorandum exists in the JIOA files at RG 330 but requires in-person archival access and is not yet transcribed on this site. Where that document is referenced, the source is noted explicitly.
Back to Operation Paperclip overview →The presidential authorization signed by Truman on September 3, 1946 contained the screening standard: no one who was more than a nominal Nazi Party participant would be brought to the United States. The JIOA was responsible for applying that standard.
In February 1947, JIOA Director Bosquet Wev submitted the first set of scientist dossiers to the State and Justice Departments for visa review. Samuel Klaus, the State Department's representative on the JIOA board, reviewed the dossiers and concluded that all the scientists in the first batch were ardent Nazis. The visa requests were denied.
What followed is confirmed in the JIOA files at the National Archives, Record Group 330, Foreign Scientist Case Files, 1945-1958. The IWG Final Report to Congress (2007), based on review of those RG 330 files, confirmed in its historical analysis that dossiers were rewritten to remove disqualifying material and that the scientists subsequently received visas.
The National Archives RG 330 finding aid, published on archives.gov under the IWG declassification program, specifically names three Paperclip scientists whose cases are documented in the Foreign Scientist Case Files. This is primary source material — the government's own published description of what those files contain.
"This series consists of personnel dossiers on over 1,500 German and other foreign scientists, technicians, and engineers who were brought to the United States under Project Paperclip and similar programs. Among the dossiers are those on Georg Rickhey, a former official at the Nordhausen underground V-2 rocket factory who arrived in 1946 but who left the United States in 1947 when he was tried (and acquitted) for war crimes by a U.S. military tribunal; Walter Schreiber, who had been instrumental in medical experiments on concentration camp inmates and who fled the United States to Argentina in 1952 after the appearance of a newspaper column about his activities; and, Arthur Rudolph who had been a V-2 project engineer and who left the United States in 1984 following the Department of Justice's discovery of his role in the persecution of prisoners at the Nordhausen factory. Not included among the dossiers is one for rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. It was never transferred to NARA."
GEORG RICKHEY: Former official at the Nordhausen underground V-2 rocket factory. The Nordhausen factory used concentration camp prisoners as forced labor during V-2 production, resulting in approximately 20,000 deaths. Rickhey arrived in the United States in 1946 under Paperclip. He left in 1947 when a U.S. military tribunal tried him for war crimes. He was acquitted. His dossier is in the Foreign Scientist Case Files, RG 330.
WALTER SCHREIBER: Described in the finding aid as having "been instrumental in medical experiments on concentration camp inmates." Brought to the United States under Paperclip. Fled to Argentina in 1952 after a newspaper column about his activities appeared. Schreiber had served as Surgeon General of the Third Reich and testified at the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial. His dossier is in the Foreign Scientist Case Files, RG 330.
ARTHUR RUDOLPH: V-2 project engineer at Peenemunde and Nordhausen. Went on to a prominent career at NASA, serving as project director for the Saturn V rocket. Left the United States in 1984 following the Department of Justice Office of Special Investigations' discovery of his role in the persecution of prisoners at the Nordhausen factory. Renounced his U.S. citizenship as part of that departure. His dossier is in the Foreign Scientist Case Files, RG 330.
WERNHER VON BRAUN: The finding aid states explicitly that a dossier for Von Braun "was never transferred to NARA." He was the most prominent Paperclip scientist and the chief architect of the Saturn V rocket that carried the Apollo missions. His JIOA dossier does not exist in the public record.
Read in sequence, the Paperclip documents on this site establish a complete institutional record.
The Truman authorization (September 3, 1946) wrote a screening standard into presidential policy: no ardent Nazis. The FBI internal summary (January 7, 1983) confirmed that 16 of 124 scientists checked had Nazi Party membership in FBI records and that the program continued after that finding was reported to the Department of Justice. The National Archives finding aid confirms three scientists by name: one tried for war crimes before fully entering civilian life, one who fled the country after his history became public, and one who renounced citizenship after a DOJ investigation. The most prominent Paperclip scientist's dossier never reached the public record at all.
All of this is in the government's own documents. None of it requires inference.
The Wev memorandum and the complete JIOA Foreign Scientist Case Files are held at:
National Archives at College Park: 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740
Record Group: RG 330, Records of the Secretary of Defense
Series: Foreign Scientist Case Files, 1945-1958, Entry A1-1B, Boxes 1-186, location 230/86/46/5
Remote research inquiries: Archives2reference@nara.gov
The Interference begins with a patent. US3951134, filed in 1974, describes a device for remotely monitoring and altering human brain waves without physical contact. The patent is real. The USPTO granted it.
What precedes that patent is a documented institutional record. In 1960, the CIA funded MKUltra Subproject 119 at Texas Christian University. The stated objective included techniques of activation of the human organism by remote electronic means. The contractor was unwitting. The budget was $6,370. Sidney Gottlieb signed off. In 1952, an ARTICHOKE field team produced total amnesia in two overseas subjects held in a guarded safehouse with eyes taped shut in transit. Their dispositions after the operation were outside the team's responsibility. In 1963, the CIA Inspector General recommended termination of unwitting testing on American citizens. The program ran for another decade. In 1983, a U.S. Army Intelligence report filed in the CIA's STARGATE collection treated the brain as an electromagnetic organ that could be entrained to external frequencies. Not as theory. As established fact.
The Colonial Authority in The Interference is what that timeline produces if you follow it forward rather than stop at the declassified record. The mesh program James Harlan carries inside his skull is built on the physics in these documents. The fiction begins exactly where the public record stops answering questions.