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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 2/25/14

Is the U.S. Backing Neo-Nazis in Ukraine?

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When the Justice Department launched a crusade to capture and prosecute Nazi war criminals in 1985, UCCA snapped into action, lobbying Congress to halt the initiative. "The UCCA has also played a leading role in opposing federal investigations of suspected Nazi war criminals since those queries got underway in the late 1970's," Bellant wrote. "Some UCCA members have many reasons to worry -- reasons which began in the 1930's."

Still an active and influential lobbying force in Washington, the UCCA does not appear to have shed its reverence for Banderist nationalism. In 2009, on the 50th anniversary of Bandera's death, the group proclaimed him "a symbol of strength and righteousness for his followers" who "continue[s] to inspire Ukrainians today." A year later, the group honored the 60th anniversary of the death of Roman Shukhevych, the OUN-B commander of the Nachtigall Battalion that slaughtered Jews in Lviv and Belarus, calling him a "hero" who "fought for honor, righteousness..."

Back in Ukraine in 2010, then-President Viktor Yushchenko awarded Bandera the title of "National Hero of Ukraine," marking the culmination of his efforts to manufacture an anti-Russian national narrative that sanitized the OUN-B's fascism. (Yuschenko's wife, Katherine Chumachenko, was a former Reagan administration official and ex-staffer at the right-wing Heritage Foundation). When the European Parliament condemned Yushchenko's proclamation as an affront to "European values," the UCCA-affiliated Ukrainian World Congress reacted with outrage, accusing the EU of "another attempt to rewrite Ukrainian history during WWII." On its website, the UCCA dismissed historical accounts of Bandera's collaboration with the Nazis as "Soviet propaganda."

Following the demise of Yanukovich this month, the UCCA helped organize rallies in cities across the US in support of the EuroMaidan protests. When several hundred demonstrators marched through downtown Chicago, some waved Ukrainian flags while others proudly flew the red and black banners of the UPA and OUN-B. "USA supports Ukraine!" they chanted.

Video below: Right Sector -- The Great Ukrainian Reconquista

 

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Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including best-selling Republican GomorrahGoliathThe Fifty One Day War, and The Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array of (more...)
 

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