Commentary
What Happened To Moral Leadership?
I
began writing my latest book,
Useful Enemies: John Demjanjuk
and America's Open-Door Policy
For Nazi War Criminals, with a ques-
tion. Why did it take more than 60
years to find and try Demjanjuk, a
Ukrainian-American auto worker from
Cleveland, for aiding and abetting in
the murder of 29,060 Jews as an SS
guard at Sobibor, a death camp in
eastern Poland?
It was a question that puzzled
Americans and Europeans alike.
It is a well-known "secret" today
that former Nazi war criminals and
their collaborators have been and still
are hiding in America. Based on my
own research, I estimate their number
to be between 3,000 and 5,000. How
did they get here?
A partial answer lies buried in three
pieces of congressional legislation: the
Displaced Persons Act of 1948, the
Immigration and Naturalization Act of
1952 and the 1949 CIA "100 rule."
The Displaced Persons Act of 1948
was so blatantly anti-Semitic that
President Harry Truman approved it
with great reluctance. The temporary
emergency law opened a wide door for
Eastern European Nazi collaborators,
while slamming it on Jewish Holocaust
victims. How many of the 160,000-
200,000 Eastern Europeans who
slipped into the U.S. under the 1948
Act were war criminals will never be
known.
The Immigration and Naturalization
Act of 1952 opened the door even
wider for Nazi war criminals
and collaborators. The law
welcomed them to America
as long as they had never
been convicted of a war
crime. Only a fraction of the
estimated 6 million Nazis
and 1 million collaborators
were ever convicted of such
crimes.
The CIA 100 rule went
even further. The congres-
sional bill authorized the
departments of Justice and
State to grant permanent U.S. resi-
dency for up to 100 aliens and their
families each year, "without regard to
their inadmissibility," as long as they
were useful for national security or
intelligence purposes. Congress did
not specify an expiration date for the
loophole.
A 2012 FOIA request to the CIA for
a list of those admitted to the U.S.
under the 100 rule during 1950-60
was denied for "national security"
concerns.
My review of immigration law
prompted another question. What did
the U.S. Justice Department and its
regulatory agency, the Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS), do
to find and deport Nazis and
their collaborators hiding in
America?
The answer was quite sim-
ple: Nothing until 1979, 34
years after the end of World
War II. Even worse, the U.S.
government resisted every
effort to expose such per-
sons.
The reason for the resis-
tance became apparent as I
dug deeper. To investigate,
try, convict and deport a
Nazi war criminal for visa fraud would
open a Pandora's box of war criminals
hiding in America, shake the compla-
cency of Americans and expose gov-
ernment secrets and lies.
The U.S. military-intelligence estab-
lishment did not want the public to
know that it secretly, and at times
illegally, hired former Nazis and Nazi
collaborators as informants, spies, sci-
entists, propagandists, saboteurs and
assassins.
The Cold War is long over. America
is now engaged in a new battle: the
War on Terror. As it was in the old Cold
War, the new enemy is everywhere and
nowhere. And as Americans were dur-
ing the Cold War, we, too, are anxious.
Fear creates a perfect climate to
convince people that extraordinary
measures are required for their safety,
such as water boarding, enhanced
interrogation techniques, secret black
op prisons, the indefinite imprison-
ment of terrorist suspects without
due process, the indiscriminate use of
drones leading to civilian casualties
and electronic snooping.
Only some of these measures are
currently legal. Whether any of them
are unethical seems to be beside the
point.
But history can be a fine teacher.
What I discovered in writing Useful
Enemies is that unless we are vigilant
and hold our leaders accountable, we
will allow our right to privacy and our
moral authority as a nation to erode
even further. The choice is ours. E
Richard Rashke is a lecturer and author of
nonfiction books including The Killing of
Karen Silkwood. He lives in Washingon, D.C.
Dry Bones ig&TrN
EUROPE HAS NO
PROBLEM WITH
IMPORTING
GOODS MADE IN
CHINESE PRISONS
AND BANGLADESHI
SWEATSHOPS,
OR BUYING OIL
FROM REPRESSIVE
ISLAMIST REGIMES.
Two-State Solution?
The two-state solution has been, unfortunately, a facade over the past 60 years, given that
the Palestinians have been demanding the destruction of Israel. They teach it to their kids,
wear it on armbands and basically aren't interested in peace. When they start teaching
their kids to have peace, there is a possibility of a two-state solution.
- Farmington Hills
Ultimately, a two-state solution is the right solution. Now, the urgent matter is to destroy
Iran's nuclear capability.
- West Bloomfield
POLITICALCARTOONS COM
BUT SEWS BUILDING
HOMES IN THEIR
ANCIENT JEWISH
HOMELAND
DRYBONES COM
REALLY OFFENDS
EUROPE'S SENSE
OF MORALITY !!
There will never be peace; there will never be a two-state solution because the Arabs don't
want it. They could have had it since 1947, but they've refused it no matter what they're
offered. It's ridiculous; forget it.
- West Bloomfield
Whatever we Jews want is not what the Arabs want. You need two to tango. The
Palestinians do not want to dance — they have a plan, and their plan does not include a
two-state solution. The dreams of a two-state solution are absolutely irrelevant. Of course,
every Jew and every Israeli wants peace, but peace cannot be achieved.
- Bloomfield Township
Got something on your mind? Call Soapbox at (248) 351-5146.
JN
August 15 • 2013
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