Tscherim "Tom" Soobzokov (; ; 24 August 1924 – 6 September 1985) was a Circassian spy, American politician, SS Obersturmführer, and Nazi fugitive. He rose to prominence in the New Jersey Democratic Party and the Circassian community in Paterson, New Jersey. During the Cold War, Soobzokov served the CIA as an anti-Soviet operative. and his subsequent appearance on PBS NewsHour. He was accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany during the invasion of the Soviet Union's North Caucasus before coming to the U.S. In 1985, Soobzokov was murdered by a pipe bomb at his house. The Jewish Defense League claimed responsibility for the murder. He was publicly supported by Pat Buchanan and New Jersey Congressman Robert Roe. In 1943–1944 Soobzokov served as a military recruiter for the Nazis, and in early 1945, he was promoted to the rank of Obersturmführer in the Waffen-SS. Soobzokov settled in Paterson, New Jersey and became a naturalized US citizen in 1961. Official accusations against Soobzokov started in 1969, when a fellow immigrant named Mahamet Perchich, who had known Soobzokov in Jordan, wrote a letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, claiming Soobzokov had bragged about murdering Jews during the war. In July 1980, the OSI withdrew its suit after the CIA shared with investigators a copy of Soobzokov's State Department Form V-30, which confirmed his claims he had disclosed service with the North Caucasian Legion and the Waffen SS when applying for his US immigration visa in Amman.

Soobzokov sued Blum's publisher, Quadrangle Books (a division of the New York Times Company) for libel in 1977. A trove of classified CIA documents released in 2006 under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act contained admissions by Soobzokov that validated witness testimony taken from survivors in the 1970s, and vindicated Blum's research.

War crimes

The first documented evidence of Soobzokov's involvement in war crimes comes from reports made in 1943, after the Nazis had been driven from the North Caucasus. Soobzokov was implicated in the abduction and murder of Bachir Tlekhuch and Valeghei Skhazhok by Tlekhuch's father, and by one Soobzokov's colleagues in the Nazi Punitive Detachment. Soobzokov proved to be "a failure of an agent," only managing to provide his handlers with 2 potential recruits. Agency reports "indicate[d] that he [Soobzokov] is a rather unscrupulous individual." By the middle of 1952, Soobzokov was unemployed. and Committee for Liberation of North Caucasia in New Jersey (incorporated as a non-profit in 1971), which were likely CIA-funded anti-Soviet front groups similar to the American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia.

In August 1958, Soobzokov became an FBI informant, spying on the immigrant community in Paterson. Soobzokov died of his wounds on 6 September 1985. No one was ever charged with the bombing. Tscherim's son, Aslan Soobzokov, has twice sued the federal government over its investigation. In 2017, Aslan made a statement claiming that "Soobzokov was killed because CIA feared revelation of the truth." The bombing was linked by the FBI to a similar bomb attack on Nazi fugitive Elmārs Sproģis.

See also

  • List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
  • Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts
  • Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts

References

  • TSCHERIMSOOBZOKOV.COM, operated by Soobzokov's son, Aslan T. Soobzokov