The War on Terror Spectator
Operation Underworld
The Mob versus the Nazis was an offer an Obama predecessor couldn’t refuse.
(Page 3 of 3)
MEYER LANSKSY’S best days were ahead of him. He attempted to clean up his fortune in Las Vegas and Havana, where he was the czar of Cuba’s legal gaming and resort industries. When Havana fell to Castro, he lost his most lucrative legal holdings. His every move shadowed by law enforcement, Meyer attempted to gain Israeli citizenship under that country’s Law of Return, but was considered a liability and was forced to return to Miami Beach, where he died in 1983 of natural causes—in bed, with his shoes off.
As I portray in The Devil Himself, Meyer was intensely proud of his service in World War II. He was motivated by an immigrant’s desire to prove he was a “real American,” a concept that is hard to imagine in today’s climate, in which such a wish would be greeted by the dominant media culture with an eye roll.
Unlike his partner Luciano, Meyer was an American citizen who received his Certificate of Naturalization after the war. He was so enthralled with his Navy collaboration that he sent his son Paul to West Point.
The deranged mob boss Albert Anastasia was said to have told Meyer, “Someday, my boy’s gonna run the Brooklyn waterfront.” Meyer responded, “That’s nice. My son works at NASA.”
He wasn’t kidding. Paul Lansky was an engineer on the Apollo space program and one of the first military advisors in Vietnam.
The value of Operation Underworld can be legitimately debated. What cannot is how far our leaders were once willing to go to defeat our country’s enemies. There was a time—bada bing!—when even a mobster’s contribution was an offer we couldn’t refuse.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (18) | Leave a comment
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PattyMor| 9.14.11 @ 8:13AM
There was a time in America that our leadership would pull together and pull out all the stops to win a war. My how things have changed. We now have Democrats saying "This War is Lost" and comparing our troops to Nazis and Pol Pot.
Just where is Cindy Sheehan and her little merry band of agipropters now that Obama is lobbing tons of predator drone, engaged in four or five wars, and executed OBL?
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 3:40PM
Sheehan is on the lecture circuit, natch.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 4:06PM
... say, maybe as Leary teamed up with Liddy; and Matalin teamed up with Serpent-head;
Sheehan could team up with Bush on the book circuit. It WOULD sell many tickets.
And many books.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 5:39PM
Not only did Luciano admit he did nothing to aid the war effort, others connected to him admitted the same thing.
Plus, Peter Maas wrote: "what [Luciano] did has never been pinned down."
Melvin| 9.14.11 @ 8:34AM
Well, first it has to be declared that we are at war. Nowadays war is called, "Kinetic Military Action."
But to the poor bugger who has 7.62x39 whizzing past his or her nose, it's still called war.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.14.11 @ 8:53AM
WoW!
heck out this article over at NRO!
Thank you God for George W Bush and Dick Cheny.
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....-jim-lacey
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 3:42PM
Of course! Lacey has ties to Mush and Brainy; so of course he is going to spin their roles in the very sunniest light.
But glad you are such a sucker, Tex-- it will keep you in your place by being used as a chump.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 3:54PM
Ken, did you ever fully consider what a hose job the Bush administration did on you? they completely un-did what Reagan did in helping to end the Cold War.
By 2008-- before Obama was sworn in-- the government had become larger than it had under FDR and LBJ. I'm not writing that it was the fault of Mush 'n' Brainy, but 2008 was on their watch, so they were both somewhat culpable. I just finished Cheney's memoirs; Cheney 's book is the most masterfully self-serving con job in paper form. Cheney is a genius who ought to president himself-- if he had the top job, Cheney could con every single person in America.
Tex:
you must have been very drunk 2001 to '08, because you were cluster-boinked without even knowing it! when you woke up in 2009, you had no idea how royally you were screwed!
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 4:02PM
...but it must be said, Ken, that Cheney and Bush were and are thorough professionals with a very gentle touch:
for eight years Cheney and Bush had their way with your every orifice, but you never woke up once.
AhiaGuy| 9.15.11 @ 10:18AM
"Cheney 's book is the most masterfully self-serving con job in paper form. "
I would be willing to bet that 2 autobiographies before the age of 50 puts Prez O right up there in the running.
bluecollarbytes| 9.14.11 @ 9:27AM
The mob offered dock 'security' , 'protection', from sabotage by the 'Goonions', goonions controlled by the mob. A ship was sunk by the mob's goonion members in order to set up the release of Luciano.
This is one alternative explanation. And given the known reality of the mob over decades, it's likely.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 6:42PM
Peter Maas wrote that what Luciano did for the war effort has never been pinned down.
Because there was practically nothing to pin down. Luciano was bitter at having spent five-six years in prison on his conviction in 1936 (for being a master of brothels in NY) so he went through the motions of aiding the war effort.
WRTolkas| 9.14.11 @ 9:42AM
I read this article and thought immediately of the 1941 Humphrey Bogart film: All Through the Night. New York mobsters vs Nazi saboteurs.
RAMIII| 9.14.11 @ 10:11AM
Look at it this way: Real intelligence comes from people with real knowledge. This is the only way to get to the winning side of things.
We who wish to wear white gloves with not a smudge on them must acknowledge that without this kind of action (as described in the article) we would be laying in a casket with those white gloves sooner than we anticipated it.
Just sayin'
Joe R| 9.14.11 @ 10:35AM
One major mistake in this article--Lucky Luciano was an American citizen having been born in Brooklyn. As one of the terms of his parole he agreed to leave the country and never return. Italy, which was occupied by Allied forces at the time, agreed to take him.
Mike D.| 9.14.11 @ 11:53AM
Luciano was one of the few Mob Bosses that really did "get away with it" .
Ed| 9.14.11 @ 11:42AM
Good article. The OSS was also involved in getting Sicilian mobsters to work against the Nazis and Fascists. Both parties were "bad for business".
Rich Rostrom| 9.15.11 @ 12:36AM
There were no Axis spies or saboteurs at work in the U.S. The pre-war German spy ring included double agent Harry Sebold, and the whole gang was rounded up in mid-1941.
The Abwehr tried to set up a new ring - but sent another double agent, Dusko Popov, who was reporting to British intelligence. The British wanted to use Popov to create a fake spy ring and feed the Germans disinformation, but Hoover was incapable of seeing past headline-grabbing arrests.
Popov went back to Europe in 1942, leaving nothing for the Germans in the U.S.
There was no sabotage involved in the NORMANDIE fire, and there were no Axis agents reporting ship movements to the U-boats.
All this was verified after the war, when the files of the Abwehr were captured by the Allies.
So there was nothing much to be gained from deals with the Mob. In the U.S., anyway - Sicily was different.