-Caveat Lector- Updated: Saturday, Apr. 28, 2001 at 21:48 CDT CIA files reveal details about Hitler's quirks By Mark Fritz The Boston Globe WASHINGTON -- He loved American college football fight songs so much that a cheerleader routine inspired his signature stiff-armed salute. He wore an oddly abbreviated mustache that his friends thought was weird but that he said would become fashionable once he became famous. He had a doctor who made a diagnosis that he didn't dare share with his patient, at least not until it became common knowledge: This Hitler guy is nuts. The CIA, in a rare outburst of openness Friday, allowed a presidential commission on World War II war crimes to release 20 of the spy agency's ultrasecret "Name Files," the personnel dossiers that are developed on espionage targets and often double as bizarre, spy-on-the-wall biographies. The records, released and outlined by a panel of historians at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, are the latest of the approximately 3 million records released under the Nazi War Disclosure Act passed by Congress in 1998. The people whose profiles -- often filled with rumors and speculation -- were released included none other than Adolf Hitler, along with 19 other Third Reich figures. Although nothing resembling a historical smoking gun was uncovered, the wealth of details are important pieces in an elaborate puzzle, the researchers said, particularly the commission's mission to find out how heavily the U.S. government employed Nazi war criminals as intelligence assets and how many -- either through extortion or opportunism -- doubled as Soviet KGB agents and compromised U.S. security. The report that a doctor thought Hitler was unquestionably crazy is new material. The observation came from an informant in 1944, who was quoting Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbrauch's observations in 1937. The physician said after years of close observation of Hitler that "the Nazi leader was a border case between genius and insanity" and that he could become "the craziest criminal the world ever saw." The report by the CIA's forerunner, the Office of Strategic Services, said the informant had a "tendency to exaggerate." Perhaps the oddest item in the file is the 1942 profile written for the OSS by a former Hitler crony, which the researchers said had been available at the National Archives before the most recent declassification. The 68-page profile is a surreal, secret agent's-eye view of a man who liked Gypsy music but murdered half a million Gypsies. Among the observations: Hitler only walked diagonally across rooms, had great mechanical knowledge of cars and airplanes but could operate neither, made sure his chauffeurs and domestic staff had their meals before he did and had a phobia about people seeing him naked. He rarely ate meat, stopped drinking and smoking early, and was a ferocious street fighter before the Nazis won political power. The author of the profile, Ernst Hanfstaengl, said he told Hitler as far back as 1923 that his toothbrush-style mustache looked ugly and that he should, at least, let it span the width of his upper lip. "Do not worry about my mustache," Hitler purportedly responded. "If it is not the fashion now, it will be later because I wear it!" Hitler loved to listen to fellow fascist Mussolini on the radio, was a news junkie and watched a movie almost every night. He also had a fondness for American football marches. "In 1923, he adored American football marches and college songs. The `Sieg Heil' used in all political rallies is a direct copy of the technique used by American football cheerleaders," Hanfstaengl wrote. "American college type music was used to excite German masses who had been used to very dry- as-dust political lectures." And he loved the circus, "the thrill of watching underpaid performers risking their lives." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ foot tapping mentalism for all ages http://www.mp3.com/theehumancannonball <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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