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

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — 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.

It describes the government’s posthumous pursuit of Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death at Auschwitz, part of whose scalp was kept in a Justice Department official’s drawer; the vigilante killing of a former Waffen SS soldier in New Jersey; and the government’s mistaken identification of the Treblinka concentration camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible.

The report catalogs both the successes and failures of the band of lawyers, historians and investigators at the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which was created in 1979 to deport Nazis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/us/14nazis.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

[Cleita]

1. I don't know why this has become a big surprise.

It has been known since WWII and James Michner wrote about it in his fictionalized account of the space program in his book called "Space". We wanted their scientists and friends and family of those scientist, often hard core Nazis with blood on their hands, were allowed safe haven along with the Nazi scientists whom we welcomed.

[deutsey]

3. Operation Paperclip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

[groovedaddy]

4. Many surprises come as a result of not paying attention. n.t

[Kolesar]

2. Other thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4614119

Thank you very much.

[VioletLake]

5. My grandmother knew Mengele.

She worked for Friedrich Schwend and traveled to the U.S. on his behalf several times. She also knew Bush Sr. and his father Prescott.

[VioletLake]

7. Back when Bush Sr. was vice president,

my gran and I saw him on TV one night when she was visiting from Peru. Here's a paraphrase of the conversation:

My G: "I met him once when I visited the U.S. He was very handsome, and he liked me."
Violet: "How did you meet him?"
My G: "I had business with his father."

[LongTomH]

8. You should write a book about this!

Really!

[VioletLake]

9. I know, but first I need to convince at least one person

to let me peek at her notes on the skeletons in our family's closet.

[katty]

6. yup-this info has been all over the net for years in one form

or another.

[groovedaddy]

10. There are tons of info/history that has been "out there for years" and tons of people who still

don't know it. I'll bet this is the first time that the NY Times has ever mentioned it. And how many of their readers said: "I already knew this?"