A quarter century of speculation and projection about Dutch Prince Bernhard has been laid to rest by the American intelligence service CIA on Monday. For all the detractors of the Prince, who passed away in 2004, March 17, 2008 was a crucial day. But their hopes were squashed by a simple statement by the CIA-spokesman.
"We will not release any papers relating to the Dutch royal family today. And not tomorrow either, no. Never, as far as I can see," he said. And with that the "high explosives" under the Dutch monarchy turned out to be empty balloons - with not even a lot of hot air. "I am sorry to have to disappoint everyone", the spokesman wryly added.
A former CIA-agent in 1982 told a Dutch journalist, who himself was no stranger to espionage, that "Holland-papers in our archives will be free on march, the 17th of march, 2008, provided Juliana & Bernhard will be dead then for 3 years, otherwise it will last a little." (..) "It will have certainly consequences. We are not amused to do so, but it will be impossible to keep our mouths forever shut."
No wonder Dutch media went knocking on the doors of the CIA headquarters in Washington. ,,Yes, we have been approached by a lot of Dutch media", the CIA-spokesman said Monday. But he had nothing to offer. And he added that the CIA archives did not contain the so-called ‘stadholder’ letter Bernhard allegedly wrote in April 1942 to German leader Adolf Hitler. ,,We don’t have such a letter."
Bernhard has been accused of offering his services to the Germans; offering to work for them as ruler of occupied Holland. There has never been any real evidence of this, but the story comes back every so many years. Those who believed in the existence of the ‘Holland Papers’ also believed they contained that treacherous letter. "I appreciate the interest in this, but we don’t have it", the CIA said.
© Royalblog
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