The CIA and the FBI Protected at Least 1,000 Nazis

For decades, the CIA and the FBI reportedly employed and protected at least 1,000 Nazis, using them as spies and later shielding them from prosecution, the New York Times reports.

According to Eric Lichtblau,who reviewed declassified reports and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the two intelligence agencies recruited at least 1,000 Nazis to operate as spies and informants—a number experts say is probably a lowball estimate.

Historians say they were recruited under a "cold war mentality" that the Nazis' ability to gather intel on the Russians outweighed their war crimes.

But shockingly enough, many of the Nazis proved to be unreliable:

But many Nazi spies proved inept or worse, declassified security reviews show. Some were deemed habitual liars, confidence men or embezzlers, and a few even turned out to be Soviet double agents, the records show.

Even so, the CIA and the FBI reportedly protected many of them well into the 1990's. Reports Lichtblau:

When the Justice Department was preparing in 1994 to prosecute a senior Nazi collaborator in Boston named Aleksandras Lileikis, the C.I.A. tried to intervene.

The agency's own files linked Mr. Lileikis to the machine-gun massacres of 60,000 Jews in Lithuania. He worked "under the control of the Gestapo during the war," his C.I.A. file noted, and "was possibly connected with the shooting of Jews in Vilna."

Even so, the agency hired him in 1952 as a spy in East Germany — paying him $1,700 a year, plus two cartons of cigarettes a month — and cleared the way for him to immigrate to America four years later, records show. Mr. Lileikis lived quietly for nearly 40 years, until prosecutors discovered his Nazi past and prepared to seek his deportation in 1994.

When C.I.A. officials learned of the plans, a lawyer there called Eli Rosenbaum at the Justice Department's Nazi-hunting unit and told him "you can't file this case," Mr. Rosenbaum said in an interview. The agency did not want to risk divulging classified records about its ex-spy, he said.

Lilekis was ultimately deported despite the CIA's intervention, the Times reports. But the FBI also tried to prevent prosecution from other agencies.

In 1980, F.B.I. officials refused to tell even the Justice Department's own Nazi hunters what they knew about 16 suspected Nazis living in the United States.

The bureau balked at a request from prosecutors for internal records on the Nazi suspects, memos show, because the 16 men had all worked as F.B.I. informants, providing leads on Communist "sympathizers." Five of the men were still active informants.

Link to News Source

I know this is not really that eye opening, as most of us here know about Project 'Paperclip' and the other reports alluding to this for over half a century now. But I did find it interesting enough to share here for I love this point in history and often like to look back and reflect on a time that was very difficult for ALL our great-grands and grandparents.

Like I said earlier I was aware of this, but what I didn't realize was this went on into the 1990's!
It doesn't surprise me that Mr. George Bush was president until 1993 when this looks like it all ended. It also seems coincidental Mr. Lileikis lived quietly for nearly 40 years, until prosecutors discovered his Nazi past and prepared to seek his deportation in 1994. In 1976 Bush become Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), replacing William Colby. He served in this role from January 30, 1976, to January 20, 1977.

Interesting. . . enjoy AB

An interesting book by ATS member Jim Marrs also has some intriguing information on the US/Nazi connection.

www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414507957&sr=8-1&keywords=books+by+jim+marrs

a reply to: AnteBellum

Why does this not surprise me? Pretty gross though and glad that it's being outed as it shows that we've had a long history of employing and supporting those who do deplorable things if we think they are useful. Cough cough, Al Qaeda, cough cough cough....

Prescott Bush, father of GHWB and grandfather of GWB, was found guilty of financing the Nazis during WWII; he was spared the punishment he so richly deserved by a plea bargain that included the stipulation that 'none of his relatives in perpetuity would ever be allowed to hold office...'

We can see how well THAT worked out.

Ask yourself how a small time offshore oil company exec manages to become head of the CIA, then VP, then President, and eight years later, his son manages to steal the office of the Presidency once again through an unprecedented act of the Supreme Court? Both GHWB and William Jefferson Clinton were running drugs, Bush out of his offshore oil company 'Zapata Oil' and Clinton out of Arkansas.

There's your 'elder statesmen' for you.

Yeah, figured as much to protection because after all it came out lately, social security payed them millions.

Wait, what!?

The US government has paid dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals millions of dollars in Social Security benefits after forcing them to leave the US. The payments, funded by taxpayers, were made through a legal loophole, an Associated Press investigation has uncovered. Some are still being paid. One Source

. Another source
Thanks AP, didn't think they'd be into revealing that.
At least four as some sources were saying, still living huh, are still being paid by Social Security.

a reply to: AnteBellum

I think the number of nazis we imported to America was a very large number, enough to affect our political system for decades.

Not a surprise.Working with war criminals and fascists is a tradition here in the US.Look at Ukraine (Yes,yes I know how dare I call our "valiant" Ukrainian allies fascists.As some here will post in outrage."But,if it looks like a duck and quacks well,then.Then I found out how some of these guys are getting SSI gotta keep'em happy don't want the great-grand kids going to the media with the story of how after years of loyal service the US government cut great-grandpa's benefits.

It wasn't just after the war, but during the war as well.
I remember reading a long article a few years ago about the involvement of the Dulles brothers in assigning allied bombing raids. Essentially, they were directing bombing away from the German factories that were owned wholly or in part by the bankers and other American industrial interests. Accounts of German people living near the factories stated that when the sirens sounded, often the safest place was inside the factory rather in their own homes or shelters.

The elitist families / industrialists and bankers financed the rise of Nazi Party, but were sure to protect their investments from destruction, even if it did prolong the war and cost many more lives, on both sides. What wonderful examples of humanity they are! I say "are" as those families still hold substantial power at the national level in policy making and war profiteering.

a reply to: LDragonFire

I agree, I think this is only the tip of the iceberg. I'm also waiting to see who else knew about this obviously Germany must have known.

You have to wonder how many died in the endless schemes our government tried also. I heard somewhere the USA was the one that set up the Argentina move to begin with(confirmed hiding place of many top level Nazi's after WW2, Hitler was alleged to have been seen there and had facial reconstruction surgery in a Hotel).

Link: It’s not known exactly how many ex-Nazis were brought to Argentina during the late 1940s and early 1950s. One researcher identified 300, but there easily could have been more. What is known is that they included Josef Mengele, Adolf Eichmann and his adjutant Franz Stangl, Erich Priebke (a former Captain in the Waffen SS), Klaus Barbie – also known as ‘the Butcher of Lyon’ (a former Captain in the SS and a member of the Gestapo), Ustasha Dinko Šakić (former commandant of the concentration camp that was nicknamed ‘the Auschwitz of the Balkans’) and many, many others.

Ustasha Dinko Šakić was captured in 1999, again this happened post Bush Sr's career.

I'm wondering if that leak will ever come out.

Operation Paperclip.

Look it up. Not the brightest time in U.S. history.

The problem is, everyone waves the "Nazi" at us as a symbol of all that was horrific and nasty back then. Yet, our own governments and military had their own moments of barbarity too, both during and after the war, and some of it is still ongoing today.
Look at the deliberate infections of various groups, the spraying of parts of the country using the people as guinea pigs, the ongoing work on playing around with and creating ever more deadly viruses, even applauding how clever they are in being able to make such beasties that target only certain genetic traits.

In short, the Nazis were just a mirror of our own homegrown demons and were part of the same group of internationalist thugs and purveyors of death, that still operate today.

I don't give a thought to the bogeymen that we are told to fear, but fear what our own idiots are capable of if not stopped.

There's never been any true conflict on the world stage. Go as far back as you want. Its all a game. Everyone's in on it.

There were claims that General George Patton (who was killed in a truck crash just as WW2 was ending)
said something like "The nazis have already won. The poor German people are the ones who lost."

He knew what was going on.

Well they did help found NASA, aided the Manhattan Project and helped guide modern Psychiatry and its pharmaceutical industry. Thus the real orchestration is supra-national, not bound by ideological distractions used to derail people early on.

But people tend to not see certain details if it is not presented to them. Now Hitler diverting billions to national defense and wondering why Germany was broke, is the same in the US today. Hidden in plain sight in an obvious chain of cause and effect, yet the answer is obvious, but because it is the ugly truth it remains unpopular and "conspiracy".

Multi-millions vacate the US investment system in 1929. Think it was not diverted to WW2 investment? Of course that was part of the goal. 2008? Same thing, different coming world war.

So in the questions people ask that seem rhetorical, like why is the Fed doing this? Or why is the US and NATO doing that, the obvious answer is in the basic truth. They undermine a certain system, to reinforce another, while claiming to be protecting and securing the victim system. The answer is too obvious, the lie is too big.

Its a repeating human fractal in human history because the motive also stays the same, and the ways to obscure it from the simple obvious reality, are also common. Nothing new under the sun.

a reply to: signalfire

plea bargain that included the stipulation that 'none of his relatives in perpetuity would ever be allowed to hold office...'

I'm having a very hard time believing that. I also don't see how it could possibly be legal. Am I missing a joke?

There are undoubtedly millions of people that have troubling family history. I would actually hazard a guess and say that no one alive today doesn't have at least a twig they would like trimmed.

a reply to: seagull

Seeing as that was one of the first things said after quoting external content I'm guessing she did.



But yeah, not really groundbreaking news. Still, I wasn't aware this was an ongoing thing until the 90's.

Never really been quite sure how to feel about this whole thing. On the one hand I want people to face their punishment, on the other it was certainly a boon (seems like the wrong word...) for our intelligence services and scientists here at home. Reminds me of collateral damage. At times it's necessary to do something unsavory for the good of the majority. I also feel like I'm full of it for having that opinion. Trying to agree with myself is a pain in the ass.

originally posted by: signalfire
Prescott Bush, father of GHWB and grandfather of GWB, was found guilty of financing the Nazis during WWII; he was spared the punishment he so richly deserved by a plea bargain that included the stipulation that 'none of his relatives in perpetuity would ever be allowed to hold office...'

We can see how well THAT worked out.

Ask yourself how a small time offshore oil company exec manages to become head of the CIA, then VP, then President, and eight years later, his son manages to steal the office of the Presidency once again through an unprecedented act of the Supreme Court? Both GHWB and William Jefferson Clinton were running drugs, Bush out of his offshore oil company 'Zapata Oil' and Clinton out of Arkansas.

There's your 'elder statesmen' for you.

In HW's case, he assisted in killing Kennedy, and then he tried to kill Reagan.

a reply to: Domo1

Yeah, when I was younger, I was betwixt and between about how I felt about it, too.

The older I get, the more I realize that these people (if you can call 'em that...) were in all too many cases evil incarnate. These were not people caught up in circumstance and doing what they had to do to survive... They were in many cases, my age, middle aged. Educated professionals. People who knew exactly, to the nth degree just what they were involving themselves in... No excuse can possibly mitigate what they did, or acquiesced to/allowed to happen. None.

...Maybe, just maybe, the intentions were pure in rehabilitating these people... Maybe.

But the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

In the name of fighting the evil commies, we use nazi's? Really? Read the bios of some of these monsters...it's the stuff of nightmares.

Our space program, its earliest days anyway, were largely influenced by nazi scientists. Look up some of the stuff they allowed to happen...or in many cases, actively encouraged... It's sickening.

Yet, the U.S., and many of its allies, tripped over themselves using them, and the information garnered in such sickening fashion.

I used to think that using the info was, in some way, honoring the victims by using it in a peaceful fashion. Stupid, doesn't even begin to cover that particular train of thought... I look at that younger version of myself, and think "WTF were you thinking?".

As I get older (51, just recently) I realize that you can not deal with such evil without tarring yourself with it.

These animals should have faced war crimes trials in Nuremburg, and later as their actions became more common knowledge, they should have been deported to face their crimes where ever they committed them.

There is no valid excuse for the "rehabilitation" of these monsters. None.

a reply to: ColeYounger

There's probably more than a little truth to that.

As an Army group commander, he had no little access to information that many would not. Yes, he knew exactly what was happening, I suspect. Or at the least, an informed suspicion.

Was he killed as a result? There's no knowing for sure. Those involved, if there were any, are dead. Or will not talk.

Patton had many enemies. Not all of them wore the uniform of the Wehrmacht.

This period of time was a dark, dark time. Deals were made that in more ordinary times would never have been dreamed of. This is why the press should never, ever be silenced... There's a lesson in here somewhere.

Were they actual card carrying nazi's? or is that they worked for the third Reich ? I know Von Braun had an SS uniform, I think he wore it once, rank of Sturmbahnfuher? (rank of major?)