Saturday, April 16, 2011
Gabriele Weber, a freelance journalist from Germany who has investigated Nazi war criminals and human rights violations in South America, has been permanently denied entry into the United States.
The U.S. government has refused to give a specific reason why Weber, who currently lives in Argentina, was denied a visa so she could visit the National Archives in Washington, DC, to do research. The letter she received only stated that she has “misrepresented material facts,” without saying what they were.
Weber gained renown for suing Germany’s intelligence service last year to gain access to files on Adolf Eichmann which, when released, revealed that the U.S. and Germany knew the Nazi war criminal was hiding in Argentina after World War II.
The U.S. State Department position is that entering the country for journalistic purposes does not qualify as either business or pleasure, so Weber must apply for a journalism visa, which is not available to free-lance journalists, only to those employed by “an established media organization.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
US Denies Visa to German Investigative Journalist (by Michael Warren, Associated Press)
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