Nazis Were Given ‘Safe Haven’ in U.S., Report Says

[IScreamSundays]

This absolutely belongs here.

snip>

Perhaps the report’s most damning disclosures come in assessing the Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement with Nazi émigrés. Scholars and previous government reports had acknowledged the C.I.A.’s use of Nazis for postwar intelligence purposes. But this report goes further in documenting the level of American complicity and deception in such operations.

The Justice Department report, describing what it calls “the government’s collaboration with persecutors,” says that O.S.I investigators learned that some of the Nazis “were indeed knowingly granted entry” to the United States, even though government officials were aware of their pasts. “America, which prided itself on being a safe haven for the persecuted, became — in some small measure — a safe haven for persecutors as well,” it said.

The report also documents divisions within the government over the effort and the legal pitfalls in relying on testimony from Holocaust survivors that was decades old. The report also concluded that the number of Nazis who made it into the United States was almost certainly much smaller than 10,000, the figure widely cited by government officials.

The Justice Department has resisted making the report public since 2006. Under the threat of a lawsuit, it turned over a heavily redacted version last month to a private research group, the National Security Archive, but even then many of the most legally and diplomatically sensitive portions were omitted. A complete version was obtained by The New York Times.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/us/14nazis.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

[BeFree]

1. Wow

I can see why they are hiding this decades old information from us. If the truth were known there would be a lot of people who would lose a lot of faith in the idea that the government always acts in the people's best interest.

[IScreamSundays]

2. So baffling that...

the gatekeepers are so silent. Not just here but in LBN as well.

[SDuderstadt]

3. This ain't exactly...

"new" news, dude.

[LARED]

5. Just out of curiosity

What makes you so sure the people involved in this were not acting in the interest of America. I certainly can't discern the motivation of the agencies at the time. CLearly bringing Nazi scientists may have been in our interest.

I am not arguing that they did act in the best interest, only asking you how you know they didn't.

[Make7]

4. Tom Bower's "The Paperclip Conspiracy" is a fascinating look at this subject.

Even though it was first published in 1988, the background presented of the lead up to World War II adds an extra dimension to the post War activities in bringing Nazi scientists to the United States. Well worth reading if you can find a copy.