Hiding Adolph Eighmann and "The War on Terror."

On NPR’s ‘Weekend Edition,’ there was a reflection by Daniel Schorr, one of my most trusted radio voices, on the trial and execution of Nazi SS Colonel, Adolph Eichmann. Schorr reported that from 1958 – 1960, the US Central Intelligence Agency knew of Eichmann’s whereabouts and was complicit in concealing it. In 1960 Israeli Intelligence discovered the fugitive’s false identity in Argentina on its own, captured him and deported him to Israel. There he was tried, over a two year period, judged guilty and executed.

Here is the lead of the news story reporting the events to which Schorr referred

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA suppressed the whereabouts of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to help protect high ranking West German officials from possible revelations about their own Nazi pasts, according to CIA documents released on Tuesday.

The Reuters’ article and Schorr elaborated on the rationale for the decision, kept secret from Americans until now. The US was engaged in a ‘Cold War’ with Russia. Former high ranking Nazis were assisting the US in that ‘war.’ Protecting their position and ensuring their continued support was deemed essential to US ‘national security.’

In our time, news about a number of morally and legally questionable policies, justified in the name of ‘The War on Terror’ have already become public. None rise to the level of protecting Adolph Eichmann’s secret identity, but that does not mean practices which, if known, would seem equally repugnant are not now ongoing.

Decades may pass before we know, for sure.