U.S. Intelligence Act Creates New Powers to Act Against War Criminals

On December 7, 2004, President George Bush signed the intelligence bill into law, providing new authority to the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) to take action against certain types of war criminals. OSI, which was created with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in 1979, currently has 28 employees and $5 million in annual expenses. Its purpose was to identify and deport former Nazis and their allies suspected of war crimes, as well as to keep suspected war criminals from entering the U.S. At present, the OSI has 10 historians. It handles all types of its investigations from start to finish, although it does ask for help from the FBI and other agencies for forensics and other technical work....[more]