May 14, 2004
Not the First Time
Lest we forget our history this is not the first time that the U.S. government has made indefensible moral decisions under some half-baked rationalization to defend American interests. As bad as beating and abusing Iraqi prisoners is, it's nothing compared to the choices U.S. intelligence made after World War II when we knowingly allowed Nazi war criminals to emigrate to the U.S. Of course we've known some of this for a while, but a new collection entitled U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis reveals the full scope of American activities on the behalf of Nazi war criminals who were deemed as"useful" in our fight against the Soviets.
The face of the American intelligence apparatus can change over time from J. Edgar Hoover to George"Slam Dunk" Tenet. However the disturbing indifference to simple moral rules should give us all tremendous reluctance to believe just about anything that comes out of the mouths of the American"Intelligence" community.