Nazi Hunters Launch Drive to Find War Criminals
- Posted on December 14, 2011 at 10:46pm by
Tiffany Gabbay
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BERLIN (The Blaze/AP) — The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Wednesday launched an 11th-hour drive to find and prosecute Nazi war criminals while they are still alive, saying a new legal precedent in Germany could make it possible to bring dozens of suspects to trial.
Efraim Zuroff, the center’s top Nazi-hunter, told reporters in Berlin that “Operation Last Chance II” would provide up to euro25,000 ($32,900) in reward money for information that leads to the investigation and prosecution of war criminals.
“Whatever can be done has to be done very promptly and as quickly as possible because time is running out,” Zuroff said.
The effort comes after German prosecutors said in October the successful conviction of former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk had set a precedent that allowed them to reopen hundreds of dormant investigations.
Demjanjuk, 91, was convicted in May of thousands of counts of accessory to murder after a Munich court found he served as a death camp guard – the first time a suspect had been found guilty without evidence of a specific crime. The court ruled that any guard at a Nazi camp whose sole purpose was to kill people could be convicted of accessory to murder.
Demjanjuk denies having ever served as a guard and is appealing the verdict.
“What this conviction does is set a legal precedent that should pave the way for the prosecution of many people who were on a daily basis over a prolonged period of time involved in mass murder but who had been ignored,” Zuroff said.
About 4,000 people were either guards at the four Nazi camps used only for killings – Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno and Treblinka – or members of the Einsatzgruppen death squads responsible for mass killings, particularly early in the war before the death camps were established.
Zuroff said he did not know how many were still alive – the youngest would now be in their 80s – but that he guessed conservatively there could be 80 or more.
“I think it’s not a gross exaggeration to assume that 2 percent are still probably alive,” he said.
He said the precedent set in the Demjanjuk case could also be applied to other units known to have been
involved in war crimes, noting that prosecutors in Dortmund are currently investigating six former members of an SS armored division that was responsible for the largest massacre in Nazi-occupied France under the same theory.
The Wiesenthal Center is asking for tips to be called in to a new hotline in Germany with as much information as possible. Though the focus of the investigation is Germany, Zuroff said suspects could live anywhere in the world.
A reward of euro5,000 will be paid for the information upon the indictment of a suspect, another euro5,000 upon conviction, and a further euro100 euros per day spent in prison – up to 150 days – for a total of euro25,000, Zuroff said.
The center’s original “Operation Last Chance” was launched in 2002 and targeted primarily eastern European countries, and ended up with 102 suspects’ names being turned over to prosecutors. Of those only a handful were ever indicted or tried, Zuroff said.
At this late stage, with few witnesses left and suspects’ health often preventing them from being brought to trial, Zuroff said he measures success in six stages: exposure; official investigation; indictment; trial; conviction; and punishment.
“It’s very hard today to get to stage six,” he said.
But he said the effort was still a worthy one.
“The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers,” he said.




















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Comments (68)
TheWilderness
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 11:10amIn 25 years, these clowns will still be hunting “Nazis”. Maybe the public will wake up to the little charade they’re playing.
Report Post »txn4justice
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 11:48amThey are dead already.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:39pmThe ‘truth’ of the matter “IS” that the U.S. collaborated with many of the Nazis to effect their escape. Some moved here and had very lucrative careers. Others were sequestered to areas more obscure. There they built families and lives based on the blood of murdered civilians and the plunder of their property under the guise of “plunder of war”.
I’m deeply ashamed of American complicity in these events. Despite having saved europe from itself. Twice. Europe owes Americans a DEEP debit. But, you’d never know that by the pleading for even more American aid from them, all.
Report Post »schroeder123
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 9:53amHow many deaths did Soros cause…and you see him everyday in the news. You still looking ?
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 10:05amDid he not assist the Nazi’s?
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 10:07am“the first time a suspect had been found guilty without evidence of a specific crime.”
This is the disturbing part. Guilty without evidence of crime. Doesn’t that open up a can of worms.
Report Post »TADTAD
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 11:24amYes. Wonderful point. If that a-hole helped round up Jews as reported, then said a-hole should be rounded up, shackled and tossed in a stark, cold brig immediately. WTF?! Otherwise, Nazi hunters, save it.
Report Post »NoSocialistRetards
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 2:27pmSoros should be tried for all of his crimes including insider trading with the rest of his cronies. Five other countries went after him for trying to collapse theirs but he is freely taking down this economy. Do you think Obama and some of congress probably get a percentage?
Report Post »Johann
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 7:53amAlways nice to see real all American anti Catholic bigotry when any topic comes up. Hitler was baptized a zatholic; Josef Stalin was a member of the Russian Orthodox church;Himmler, Goering, et al were good German Protestants. But American bigots like to blame the Catholic church and its leaders for everything that happens in the world. The tragedy of the American fueled witchhunt against former Nazis is that most of those crimes occured so long ago that it is virtually impossible to convict anyone for them. Demanjeluk was found guilty without any evidence that he personally did anything. He was a Ukranian guard and therefore guilty. If we use these standards then anyone who was a California hippie in the 1960s must be guilty of the Manson murders
Report Post »ZengaPA65
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 8:10amYou’re forgetting the Ustachi in Croatia killing all the Serbs that was operated by the Catholic Church.
Report Post »boshando
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 8:43amIs it really wrong to be prejudice against Nazis? I in my self do not blame the catholic church one bit. Those men were evil, evil men, and even though many years have past, it does not change the fact that they did what they did. Evil has no expiration date my friend
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 9:47amSad to say that when the Nazi hunters run out of Nazis to prosecute to feed their hunger, that then they will begin to go after Christians to feed their hunger.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 9:54amWhen all the Nazis from WW2 are prosecuted or dead and gone, the Nazi hunters will target Christians to feed their hunger, because they will not target Muslims or any other non-Christian religion, because any religion that denies Christ is the son of God is antichrist, and they all have that in common. Therefore they will not hunt other antichrist people.
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 10:11amUnder stalin the Orthodox were severely persecuted and controlled. Religion did not guide any of his actions. Hitler may have been a Catholic, but religion was not his purpose, unless you consider his deep interest in the occult. Just because someone is a member of a religion doesn‘t mean that religion’s philosophy is what is guiding the persons actions.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 7:18amI’m not sure that The Simon Wiesenthal Center does themselves or the Jewish people any good by going after a bunch of 90 year old men at this point. God will judge them.
Report Post »Blight14
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 6:45am@smackdown33, You are a rare breath of fresh air on this over played, hyped subject…..Thank you!
Report Post »yankeeatheart
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 6:43amWe have plenty of them in America Look around……..
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 6:49amObama is bringing in the new Nazi regime…People are too dumb ro see it.
Report Post »rlimike
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 6:22amRumor has it that Soros was a SA standartenfuhrer in Gruppe Sudmark.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 7:15amI think Himmler frowned on Jews serving in the S.S.
Report Post »rayc3149
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:17amHas anyone looked into George Soros involvement in WWII. He worked with the Nazi’s and against his own people. I’ll bet a close look will show some war crimes or is he too rich to touch?
Report Post »MR_ANDERSON
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 4:30amI think people are starting to forget what it was like in those times. I’m not saying at all that what happened was ok, because the whole thing was to kill others…you don’t get more evil than that.
However, I know there has to be people that were sent to work those camps that did not want to go. Once they were there, they were given jobs they didn’t want to do. I’m sure some were asked to do things they refused to do and then were told, “Fine take your gun and patrol the grounds/stand watch in the tower making sure no one escapes, and if you won‘t do that we’ll put you in with the next load.”
When given the option to live, people will usually make that choice, as long as the actions from that option do not directly conflict their beliefs. By staying alive, has that man done good in the world? Has that man not thought each day of his life what could he have done differently?
I stand on the side of Israel. I want to see every man and women who’s goal it was to kill Jews to receive justice. I want to see every man and women who personally aided in the killing of Jews receive justice.
Great evil happened, and this world is imperfect, but not everyone will receive justice here, however everyone will receive justice in front of God. I’m willing to error on the side of letting God handling it from here on out.
What say you?
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 6:52amGod will judge them on their repentance before Him through Christ. I hope they have found Him before they die. God forgives ANY sin, no matter what. People do not like to hear that, but if a man is repentant, who are we to judge?
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 10:16amI am sure they are hot on the trail of the evil Nazi cook who was responsible for feeding the prisoners at the camps. He was there so he is guilty of the horror as well. This group has got no purpose any longer so they are looking for scraps. A vengeful heart is hard to quench. They would be better served going after the people that currently threaten Jewish existence.
Report Post »MR_ANDERSON
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 10:48amHIDDEN_LION,
That is my exact thoughts. At some point it is better to move on to things in life that yield fruit from your labor rather than just continuing to water the field. At some point you have to stop watering, otherwise you’ll just turn everything to mud, and you’ll be stuck in it.
Report Post »SurhanSurhan
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:58amHitler wrote in his book, Mein Kampf: “. . . I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.” He made essentially the same claim in a speech before the Reichstag in 1938.
Hitler considered himself a Catholic until the day he died. In 1941 he told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals: “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.” In fact, Hitler was never excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and Mein Kampf was not placed on the Church’s Index of Forbidden Books.
Report Post »jfry85
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:47amSeriously? They are all in there 80s and 90s…..just let them die by themselves.
Report Post »Juniemoon
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 7:32amWhy, they didn’t blink an eye when executing elderly Jews to death?
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 10:22amJunie-
Report Post »Demanjuk didn’t execute anybody. In fact he committed no crime. They have already caught an punished most of the real criminals. According to this new precedent any German that was alive at the time should be brought to trial. The Germans confiscated your property to use for the camp? Well you are guilty for letting them, you are an accessory…This is crazy and nonsense and serves no greater good.
Chuck Stein
Posted on December 16, 2011 at 12:19am@ Hidden_lion
Report Post »Assuming for the sake of argument that Demjanjuk has been properly identified as being a guard at a death camp, then he clearly is guilty of a crime. Death camp guards were all volunteers (the tired “I was only following orders” bit never applied to death camp guards nor members of an Einsatzgrupp) and they knew what they were part of. If I hold someone down while you kick their teeth out, then I am party to their injury — and not merely guilty of false imprisonment.
conservativewoman
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:17amTo be fair, 14 year olds were conscripted into the German army whether they wanted to fight or not. Near the end of the war, children even younger and old men were conscripted. Parents were threatened with severe punishment and even death if they refused to send their children.
I can understand how the Jews feel, but I also understand that the younger generation of Germans should not have to suffer the sins of their fathers.
Report Post »republic2011
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:13amThis will be a witch hunt. An Israeli court acquitted John Demjanjuk for this crime in 1993 due to reasonable doubt and evidence that the OSI attorney‘s failed to share with the defense that was obtained from the USSR that identified a different Ivan as ’Ivan the Terrible’. It took a German court to convict Demjanjuk.. Just keep trying him till you get the guilty verdict? The bottom line is that the evidence against Demjanjuk has always been weak. By much of the same reasoning, someone like George Soros should also be tried for war crimes. He actually admits his crimes in his own biography. No need to dig there. I‘ll keep my opinions to myself as to why I think they won’t go after Soros. In any case, while we focus on this circus, our Congress is passing the National Defense Act, which, is surprisingly similar to the Enabling Act or Ermächtigungsgesetz of 1933 (passed in Germany). This act gave dictatorship powers to Adolf Hitler and paved the way to the very death camps where all these mass murders occurred. If you were a gang member, a burden to society, said something against Hitler or the Nazi’s, or, eventually, if you were a Jew, you were sent to these camps without due process, and, yes, never to be heard from again.
Report Post »Cuthalu
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:59pmWhat is next, arresting and convicting anyone of german descent for NAZI war crimes? Since now they have this new precendent of: “the first time a suspect had been found guilty without evidence of a specific crime”. Great, right? No longer do anyone need actual proof of a crime, guilt by accociation is enough! Heck, why stop there. There are millions of dead germans in their graves, dig them all up and put them on trail too!
As someone of german descent and proud of my heritage, I will at the same time acknowledge our mistakes of the past BUT this witch hunt of german people has gone on long enough. It is coming to the point of being down right bigotry towards german people with this never ending witch hunt by these NAZI hunters. Stop. Chasing. Ghosts.
And this riduculous notion that German people have to forever pay “repartions” for the holocost with no real end in sight is also equally offending. The people who might have taken part in it are mostly dead or dying and no one, and I mean no one should have to suffer the sins of their fathers. It is immoral to place that on anyone or any group of people. How would any of you feel if all of us, just because we were white had to pay repartions to ALL blacks, forever? It is a ridiculous argument as these reperations to holocaust victims, that is people who are forced to pay a punishment not for what they did but for who they simply are is not rational nor is it morally right. Where is the justice in this?
Report Post »Constantine Ivanov
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:15am12 Million people vanished in Holocaust, among them – almost 6 MLN Jews, the almost universally accepted numbers say.
Bolsheviks annihilated almost 50 MLN citizens of Russia, meaning- own compatriots (unlike Nazis who murdered mostly foreigners.)
I don’t know even one organization that would have been hunting for those murderers, from the top Bolshevik leadership to low-level executioners
Report Post »KathyinMaine
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 9:29amI’m also of German heritage, and I don’t feel one BIT persecuted by this hunt for the Nazi criminals. Gee, you know, Cuthalu, your answer sounds to me just the same as Hitler and the German people when ordered by the treaty of Versailles to PAY UP for WWI. Oh, poor me…
Report Post »Thousands of German soldiers deserted the ranks, no doubt when they saw what they were asked to do, even on the threat of death. The ones who stayed and carried out the orders should pay for what they did, regardless of age. (If they have asked Christ for forgiveness, all the better. They will go forth with their soul cleansed of the evil they perpetrated on an innocent people.) That does not excuse them from MAN’S justice, here, now. I will tell you, my son, a soldier in our Army, WOULD die before carrying out an illegal order by his superiors. That is called HONOR. If for some reason I committed a crime, and was caught, I would take my just punishment without crying about it.
What kills me is how MANY of the worst offenders got off so lightly at Nuremberg.. Too bad Brad Pitt wasn’t there to carve a big swastika in the foreheads of the ones he let go.
This_Individual
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:46pmWhat ever happened to finding soviet war criminals? Let’s hunt down all socialists who commited war crimes, not just national socialists.
Report Post »smackdown33
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:51pmThis blog is blocking postings of substantive points that go against conventional wisdom. No violations of policy have occurred. The only violation is the oppression of ideas and the squelching of debate.
Report Post »smackdown33
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:52pmBegin here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust_Industry
Report Post »smackdown33
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:58pmThe word holocaust has been usurped by Jews, even though many other holocausts have occurred.
Report Post »smackdown33
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:00amAntisemitism is used to suppress all criticism of anything Jewish or Israeli.
Report Post »pennswoods
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:21amI agree. A long list of Communist thugs who were still alive after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Collapse of the USSR in late 1991 literally got away with murder. One was the leader of East Germany Eric Honecker who gave the shoot to kill orders by his East German border guards at the Bberlin Wall and along the over 300 miles of barbed wire fences, watch rowers, and mine fields between East and West germany. After 1989 he went to live a comfortable life with his daughter in Chile. Former East German Secret Police Chief (the feared Stassi) Marcus Wolff who sopent WW II in Moscow with his parents after they escaped NAzi germany ebcause they were Jewish is still alive and spends a lot of time writing books and paling around with his new friends in in Israel,the Mossad. Cambodian Marxist mass murderer Pol Pot lived in the jungles of SE Asia for years and even though the UN knew where was they did nothing. These are a few of a long long list of Communists who never were brought to justice after the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR after 1989. There is no justice for Communist mass murderers. You can bet the Simon Wiesenthal Center could care less about these Communist killers.
Report Post »Cuthalu
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 1:54amsmackdown33, of course this site is blocking certian posts or links. I think many of us know why, don’t we?
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:45pmat least in America there is no statute of limitations on murder. wonder how it applies to a Nazi collaborator who took the possessions of Jews being herded to their deaths, GLEEFUL HAPPY collaborators like george soros.
Report Post »TRONINTHEMORNING
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:26pmOne of my Grandfathers fought in WWII, the other was a farmer. Those men are with Jesus Christ now. Whatever is left of the nasty Nazi group will soon meet their eternal reward. I’m happy to just let time pass and bad guys die.
Report Post »John_The_Beloved
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:17pmSoros should be on that list to be hunted down and tried for war crimes
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:38pmsoros’s family were Jewish, but his father changed their surname and family national identity because he worshipped every single thing about Hitler. soros was 14yrs old when he proudly helped the SS take the Jews’ possessions as they were struck and shot down and driven by him on their way into the box cars to go to their deaths and he says ”it was the happiest time of his life. ” soros is a Nazi collaborator in the very least, and still a war criminal.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:16pmIf someone is in their eighties then they were in their early twenties in the late thirties/ early forties, i know the crimes were epic, but, for the most part the men who directed the holocaust would be 110 years old, the only people left , were basicly kids at the time, private first class… Sheese we gotta let it go away at some point, these guys were wrong, but they were twenty years old… And young and stupid and caught up in something much bigger than they were..
Report Post »garygromele
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:15pmOne name: George Soros. Nazi collaborator and responsible for turning in Jews to the Nazis. How come they haven’t captured or killed this Jewish traitor?
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:20pmNot quite so fast. I think Soros is an evil s o b. But I am not at sure that a 13-14 year old boy is capable of “collaborating” with anyone. With the possible exception of a 13-14 year old girl. He’s done plenty of evil to dislike im for – a boy is still a boy.
Report Post »lodgerat
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:27pmCall the tip line on George. I’d love to see him go down
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:42pm14 yrs old was old enough fort them to be fathering children for Hitler, to be in uniforms for Hitler, to be turning their own families in to Hitler’s tip lines. 14 yrs old is an adult. soros is a collaborator and to this day he still revels in his role shepherding Jews to their deaths. he has bought off the US and the UN and who knows who else who have their foreheads to the mat 5 times a day. soros sits at the right hand of the Resolution Dsk in the WH, pulling that puppet’s strings. only way soros will be brought to Justice is when he grovels in front of God and is finally cast into Hell.
Report Post »garygromele
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:52pmTo this day He hates Israel, supports HAMAS, in his own words he declares that during WWII during his collaboration with the Nazis that he fells no remorse, that they were the “Happiest” days of his life. No, this is a very corrupted, evil man who should stand for his crimes… Check out these links: http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/is-ex-nazi-george-soros-social-networking-sites-linked-to-the-cia/question-1688103/ and http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=43876
Report Post »MightyMouth
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:22amSoros will stand before God some day and answer for his sins. That’s all I need to know.
Report Post »mashuser2
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:12pmIf they’re going to do this, then they may also want to consider going after the French leadership that, along with their counterparts from African military units, raped and plunder Italian and German women and children in the early days following the end of the war.
Report Post »pennswoods
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:59pmYes, and let’s not forget the largest ethnic cleansing episode in history, the forced expulsion of over 13 million ethnic Germans from their ancient homelands in East Prussia, Eastern Germany, parts of Poland, the Sudentenland and other areas of Czechoslovakia, as well as from Hungary and even Rumania after World War II ended. At least a 2 million died during these brutal forced ethnic cleansing operations which was dreamed up by Stalin, Churchill, and FDR at Yalta in early 1945. The Czechoslovak President in exile in London was responsible for demanding the brutal expulsion of 3.4 ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia from 1945 until 1949. These civilians had nothing to do with the excesses of the SS or the Germany Army. Their ancestors lived in these lands for over 800 years and they lost everything they owned. At least 250,000 of Sudetenland Germans died from beatings, starvation, and shootings in the forced marches they endured from Czechoslovakia into next door Germany and Austria. I post this because there are still people alive who are old and living on pensions who participated in this horrible mass ethnic cleansing after 1945 and they are living today in the homes and apartments of the people they stole and possibly killed to get them for free. There were plenty of crimes in WW II against many peoples. The Nazi’s killed 21 million Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, over 3 million Polish Catholics, many many others in Europe including 6 million Jews.
Report Post »pennswoods
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:03pmToo bad there isn’t the same moral zeal to go after the Communists still alive who sent tens of millions to their deaths in the former USSR and the countries the USSR occupied in Eastern Europe. There are still Soviet secret police, Gulag labor camp guards, and judges alive who are responsible for the deaths of millions in the former USSR. The same applies to Mao’s China. Marcus Wolf, the head of the East German Stassi (secret police) is responsible for his share of deaths and torture of thousands in the DDR and is free today to write books about his Communist past as chief thug of former German Democratic Republic with it’s Berlin Wall and 300 miles of barbed wire, watch guard towers, mine fields, and armed guards with orders to shot.. and they did! I guess the victims of Communism in the last century don’t count as human beings.
Report Post »rose-ellen
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 9:23amAnd the americans for dropping bombs on cites and villages in viet nam and during ww2 and for invading and occupying iraq and afghanistan and guantanamo.america is guilty of war crimes galore.One of these days -hopefully- there will be war crimes tribunals for these mass murdering american hypocrites too.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:02pmShould have gotten these criminals in jail a long time ago.
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:01pmWWII ended 66 years ago. The youngest War Criminals would be 84.
Do I worry about an 84 year old War Criminal or a skin head or Islamicist working themselves up 1st with anti-Semitic graffiti & literature & later terrorist acts?
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:16pmWe should be concerned with c) All of the above. Justice has to have a long memory. If one of your family members had suffered at the hands of those monsters would you want the hunt for them called off simply because time had passed? I wouldn’t. Some wounds are not healed with time.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:01pmClue, look at Hometown Buffet, Old Age homes, and DNC Headquarters. You can start by rounding up Soros.
Report Post »phillipwgirard
Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:11pmTrue, soros was a traitor to his own
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