He came to the United States in 1939, as part of an effort to rescue Jewish children from the dangerous conditions of Vienna following Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria.
[2] His parents, Louis and Regina LeWinter, were able to join him in New York later that year,[3] but a number of his uncles, aunts, and cousins remained in Europe and perished in Nazi concentration camps.
[5] According to one source, he became interested in poetry while attending college in the New York area, and came to know a number of well-known literary figures, including novelist Saul Bellow.
The arrangement called for the Iranians to delay the release of American diplomats held captive in Iran until after the November presidential election, in order to help Reagan defeat the incumbent President Jimmy Carter.
[5] Martin Kilian of Der Spiegel interviewed LeWinter in September 1988 and published an article that relied upon his claim of an October meeting in Paris between CIA Director William Casey and officials from Israel and Iran.
[13] According to the Task Force's report published in January 1993, "LeWinter... stated under oath that his 'October Surprise' allegations had been a complete fabrication", including an acknowledgement that he was not a military intelligence official.
LeWinter appeared again in Francovich's 1994 film, The Maltese Double Cross, which blames a failed DEA drug sting for the Lockerbie crash.
Negotiations for the documents took place in the United States and were conducted between Al-Fayed's security head John Macnamara and an American lawyer and a journalist.
[5][16][17] Fayed hired Terry Lenzner, former assistant chief counsel for the United States Senate Watergate Committee, in the Fall of 1998 to investigate the claims of LeWinter and his associates to determine if the British government was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Princess Diana.
[18] Describing him as a "convincing storyteller", Lenzner stated that the "evidence we collected supported the conclusion that Oswald LeWinter was not a credible source.