politics

operation paperclip was fucked, but when i think of the darkest legacy of US-controlled nazi ratlines, i think of Operation Bloodstone, which specifically targeted violent sadists and hands-on mass murderers like Klaus Barbie (aka The Butcher of Lyon) to be protected from post-war prosecution, transported safely with new identities, and redeployed around the world to continue specifically doing terrorism to the populace of any state that seemed to be considering left politics by training and supporting torture campaigns specifically to repress popular movements.

some people can justify "oh well we needed their scientific knowledge" for weapons development. i'm not one of those people, but i've heard some make the attempt. bringing up Bloodstone cuts through all the shit and shows how the US intelligence apparatus specifically sought out the most vicious and repurposed them to train others and develop entire projects targeting teachers, journalists, and intellectuals who spoke against the puppet governments of the US. it shows how our government had no moral problem with nazis, barbarism, secret police, disappearances of civilians, torture, or any of it, and in fact wanted to replicate those repressive techniques elsewhere.