Today, the New York Times reports: Nazis Were Given ‘Safe Haven’ in U.S.
A secret history of the United States government’s Nazi-hunting operation concludes that American intelligence officials created a “safe haven” in the United States for Nazis and their collaborators after World War II, and it details decades of clashes, often hidden, with other nations over war criminals here and abroad.
The 600-page report, which the Justice Department has tried to keep secret for four years, provides new evidence about more than two dozen of the most notorious Nazi cases of the last three decades.
This report, uh, reportedly details the triumphs and travails of Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which was created in 1979 to deport Nazis. People have long acknowledged the Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement with Nazi scientists with regard to postwar intelligence, but per the NY Times, “this report goes further in documenting the level of American complicity and deception in such operations.”
For decades, stuff like this has made great fodder for conspiracy theorists, who like to suggest that US collaboration with Nazi technokrauts after WWII marked the beginning of fascist domination of the upper echelons of the US establishment and the military-industrial complex.
Shocking, right? Well, not especially. It’s not like Operation Paperclip is exactly a secret anymore. Per Wikipedia:
Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II (1939-45). It was executed by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), and in the context of the burgeoning Soviet-American Cold War (1945-91), one purpose of Operation Paperclip was to deny German scientific knowledge and expertise to the USSR and the UK.
Although the JIOA’s recruitment of German scientists began after the European Allied victory (8 May 1945), US President Harry Truman did not formally order the execution of Operation Paperclip until August 1945. Truman’s order expressly excluded anyone found “to have been a member of the Nazi Party, and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism.” Said restrictions would have rendered ineligible most of the scientists the JIOA had identified for recruitment, among them rocket scientists Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, and the physician Hubertus Strughold, each earlier classified as a “menace to the security of the Allied Forces”.
To circumvent President Truman’s anti-Nazi order, and the Allied Potsdam and Yalta agreements, the JIOA worked independently to create false employment and political biographies for the scientists. The JIOA also expunged from the public record the scientists’ Nazi Party memberships and régime affiliations. Once “bleached” of their Nazism, the US Government granted the scientists security clearance to work in the United States. Paperclip, the project’s operational name, derived from the paperclips used to attach the scientists’ new political personæ to their “US Government Scientist” JIOA personnel files.
Pretty shady stuff, and all completely true. Apparently, these truths aren’t quite shocking enough. Operation Paperclip has become linked to conspiracy theories on everything from the Illuminati to the Freemasons, from MK Ultra to UFO cover-ups. This being America, there is always room for more. Per the NY times piece:
The secrecy surrounding the Justice Department’s handling of the report could pose a political dilemma for President Obama because of his pledge to run the most transparent administration in history. Mr. Obama chose the Justice Department to coordinate the opening of government records.
ZOMG! OBAMBI IZ KEEPIN HIS NAZI TIES SECRETZ!!1!!
This is an open thread, so use the space provided below to discuss Nazis, Zombies, conspiracies, or whatever else suits your fancy, but please remember to assign all blame where it rightfully belongs…with the sitting President of the United States.
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