A Justice Department prosecutor is still on the hunt for Nazi war criminals 65 years after the end of World War II, Parade magazine reported this week.

Eli M. Rosenbaum (Lewis & Clark Law School)

Eli M. Rosenbaum, who will be the Human Rights Enforcement Strategy and Policy Director, heads the Nazi-hunting DOJ Office of Special Investigations, which will soon be folded into a new Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. But the dissolution of his 33-year-old office and the dwindling pool of aging Nazi officials aren’t stopping his work.

The OSI has nine pending cases and Rosenbaum estimates that a few dozen Nazi war criminals may still be alive in the United States, according to the magazine.

“We’ve vindicated the rule of law. We’ve sent a loud, clear message that the U.S. is not willing to be the sanctuary for perpetrators of crimes against humanity,” Rosenbaum said. “Part of me believes we obtained more justice in our last years because pursuing these cases at such a late date sends a powerful message: If you’re guilty, you can reasonably expect to be pursued for the rest of your life.”

The Office of Special Investigations has jurisdiction over U.S. citizens accused of human rights crimes. The Domestic Security Section focuses on non-U.S. citizens accused of violating human rights laws and who are now in the United States. The sections will be folded into one and will prosecute torture, genocide, child soldiers and war crimes that are committed by any person who is in the United States.

The OSI has received some criticism for its handling of elderly alleged Nazi war criminals, including the 90-year-old John Demjanjuk from Ohio, who is on trial in Munich, Germany. Demjanjuk was initially charged as another person, known in the prison camp as “Ivan the Terrible” and sentenced to be hanged. That was later found to be a case of mistaken identity, but Demjanjuk was again arrested and taken to trial in Germany, where he is charged with being a war criminal.

Conservative pundit Pat Buchanan has knocked the OSI, calling the prosecutors “hairy-chested Nazi hunters” and questioning the need to fund the “running down” of elderly Nazis, according to the magazine.

But David Marwell, the director of New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, praised the work of Rosenbaum, who has led OSI since 1994.

“He’s stamped OSI with his passion and absolute expertise,” Marwell said.

The Justice Department established a new section within the Criminal Division to handle human rights crimes, the department announced Tuesday.

The DOJ is merging the Office of Special Investigations and the Domestic Security Section into the new Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, which President Barack Obama approved in December.

The Office of Special Investigations — which was established to probe ex-Nazi war criminals living in the United States — had jurisdiction over U.S. citizens accused of human rights crimes. The Domestic Security Section focused on non-U.S. citizens accused of violating human rights laws and who are now in the United States.

The new section will prosecute torture, genocide, child soldiers and war crimes that are committed by any person who is in the United States.

“Since its founding, the United States has been a steadfast champion for the cause of justice around the world,” Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny Breuer said in a statement. “In that great tradition, the new Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section is poised to be a global leader in combating human rights violations and ensuring that war criminals are held to account for their crimes.”

Teresa L. McHenry, who led the Domestic Security Section, will be the head of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. Eli M. Rosenbaum, who was the Office of Special Investigations chief, will be the Human Rights Enforcement Strategy and Policy Director. Domestic Security Section deputy chiefs David Jaffe and William Ho-Gonzalez, and Office of Special Investigations deputy chiefs Robert G. Thomson and Elizabeth B. White will all be deputy chiefs in the new section.

“The passion and intelligence both Teresa and Eli bring to their work is evident in the extraordinary record of successful investigations and prosecutions amassed by OSI and DSS,” Breuer said in the statement. “Together, these two extraordinary leaders and the attorneys they guide will raise our already impressive human rights program to new heights.”

Two men who worked for the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater have been charged in the May 2009 shooting deaths of two Afghan men at the scene of a traffic accident, the Justice Department said.

In an indictment unsealed Thursday, Justin Cannon, 27, of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Christopher Drotleff, 29, of Virginia Beach, Va., were charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, six counts of using and discharging a firearm during a violent crime and four counts of murder resulting from the use of a firearm during a violent crime.

The men, who were providing the Afghan army and government with weapons training, were working for Paravant LLC,  a subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide, which changed its names to Xe last year. Paravant, in turn, had been subcontracted by a subsidiary of Raytheon Co., Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC.

The shootings occured at an intersection in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The victims were identified as Romal Mohammad Naiem and Rahib Mirza Mohammad. A third man, Fareed Haji Ahmad, was wounded.

Cannon and Drotleff, both military veterans, said in recent interviews with The Associated Press that they opened fire on a car that wrecked in front of their vehicle, then turned and sped toward them after they got out to help. Both men were fired after the shootings.

“My conscience is clear about it, but that doesn’t really matter,” Cannon told The AP. ”If someone’s got an agenda, then there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Cannon and Drotleff were arrested Thursday and remain in custody. If convicted, the men could face the death penalty.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Randy Stoker and Alan Salsbury from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, as well as Trial Attorney Robert McGovern of the Criminal Division’s Domestic Security Section.

The arrests came on the same day Xe announced a settlement in seven federal lawsuits brought by Iraqis who accused the company of encouraging a culture of recklessness that led to the deaths of several Iraqi civilians. In a highly-publicized case, the company was sued for its role in the 2007 shootings in Nasoor Square in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead.

Five former guards were charged in the shootings, but a federal judge dismissed the indictment last week, saying federal prosecutors used off-limits State Department interviews to build their case. The Justice Department has not said whether it will appeal the ruling.

President Barack Obama signed into law legislation Tuesday that establishes a new section within the Justice Department’s Criminal Division to handle human rights crimes.

The House cleared the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009 by a 416-3 vote last week. The bill had passed the Senate last month by unanimous consent.

The legislation lays the foundation for merging the Office of Special Investigations and the Domestic Security Section into the new section. The Office of Special Investigations — which was established to probe ex-Nazi war criminals living in the United States — has jurisdiction over U.S. citizens accused of human rights crimes. The Domestic Security Section focuses on non-U.S. citizens accused of violating human rights laws and who are now in the United States.

The new section will prosecute torture, genocide, child soldiers and war crimes that are committed by any person who is in the United States.

The House sent legislation to the White House today that would create a new section within the Justice Department Criminal Division to handle human rights crimes.

The House approved the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009 by a 416-3 vote.  Republican Reps. Paul Broun (Ga.), Ron Paul (Texas) and Don Young (Alaska) were the only lawmakers to vote against the bill. The legislation cleared the Senate last month by unanimous consent.

The bill would lay the groundwork for folding the Office of Special Investigations and the Domestic Security Section into the new section. The Office of Special Investigations — which was created to probe ex-Nazi war criminals living in the United States — has jurisdiction over U.S. citizens accused of human rights crimes. The Domestic Security Section focuses on non-U.S. citizens accused of violating human rights laws and who are now in the United States.

The new section would prosecute genocide, child soldiers, torture and war crimes that are committed by any person who is in the United States. Criminal Division chief Lanny Breuer said this fall that he supports the establishment of a human rights section. Read our previous report here.

The Senate passed legislation Saturday night that would create a new section within the Justice Department Criminal Division to handle human rights crimes.

The Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009, which was approved by unanimous consent, would lay the groundwork to merge the Office of Special Investigations and the Domestic Security Section into the new section. The Office of Special Investigations — which was created to probe Nazi criminals living in the United States — handles U.S. citizens who committed human rights crimes. The Domestic Security Section focuses on non-U.S. citizens who violated human rights laws and who are now in the United States.

The new section would prosecute torture, genocide, child soldiers and war crimes that are committed by any person who is in the United States. Criminal Division chief Lanny Breuer said last month that he supports the establishment of a human rights section. Read our previous report here.

The bill is sponsored by Democrat Richard Durbin of Illinois and Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who are the chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the Senate Judiciary panel’s Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee. There is no companion House bill.

This post has been corrected from an earlier version.

The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed legislation Thursday that would create a new section within the Justice Department Criminal Division to handle human rights crimes.

The Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009, which was approved by voice vote, would lay the groundwork to fold the Office of Special Investigations and Domestic Security Section into the new section. The Office of Special Investigations — which was created to probe Nazi criminals living in the United States — focuses on U.S. citizens who committed human rights crimes. The Domestic Security Section prosecutes non-U.S. citizens who violated human rights laws and are in the United States.

The new section would prosecute torture, genocide, child soldiers and war crimes that are committed by any person who is in the United States. The bill is sponsored by Senate Judiciary human rights and the law chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.)

Criminal Division chief Lanny Breuer said last month that he supports the establishment of a human rights section. Here are his remarks from a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on human rights enforcement:

“While no structural reform can take place without the approval of the Office of Management and Budget and notification to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, based on my review, I have recommended to the Attorney General that our already outstanding efforts in this area would be enhanced by a merger of the Domestic Security Section and the Office of Special Investigation into a new section with responsibility for human rights enforcement, MEJA/SMTJ cases, and alien-smuggling and related matters.  That new section would be called the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. The Attorney General has indicated his support for this change and the Department’s strong commitment to enforcing human rights, and we expect to move forward with this.”

This post has been updated and corrected from an earlier version.

Lanny Breuer (USDOJ)

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer has proposed combining the Criminal Division’s Domestic Security Section and the Office of Special Investigation. If approved by the Office of Management and Budget, the merger would represent the first major structural change in the division since Breuer took office.

The mandates of the sections have grown closer in recent years. OSI, created in 1979, has reshaped its mission from ferreting out Nazis living on American soil to hunting human rights violators who fled all corners of the world, from Rwanda to the former Yugoslavia.

DSS, established early in the Bush administration, targets human smuggling rings, immigration fraud, certain violent crimes and gun offenses, and international human rights violations. The section also has jurisdiction over crimes committed oversees by “individuals employed by or accompanying” the U.S. military.

The new entity would be called the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. Meshing the resources of DSS and OSI could give the Criminal Division a competitive edge over U.S. Attorneys’ offices and other agencies vying to prosecute major human rights cases.

Breuer hinted at the possibility of a merger in an interview with The Washington Post over the summer. He announced the plan Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on human rights enforcement. Below are his remarks, compliments of DOJ:

I, myself, have recently completed a comprehensive review of the Criminal Division’s efforts in human rights enforcement.  While no structural reform can take place without the approval of the Office of Management and Budget and notification to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, based on my review, I have recommended to the Attorney General that our already outstanding efforts in this area would be enhanced by a merger of the Domestic Security Section and the Office of Special Investigation into a new section with responsibility for human rights enforcement, MEJA/SMTJ cases, and alien-smuggling and related matters.  That new section would be called the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. The Attorney General has indicated his support for this change and the Department’s strong commitment to enforcing human rights, and we expect to move forward with this.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to discuss the details of the merger ahead of the approval process. OSI, which is headed by Eli Rosenbaum, draws on a staff of 27, with 10 lawyers and eight historians. DSS has a staff of about 16, with 14 lawyers. Teresa McHenry is the section chief.

Both sections have grabbed headlines this year — DSS for its case against Charles Taylor Jr., the son of Liberia’s former president, who in January was sentenced to 97 years in prison for leading a paramilitary group that tortured political enemies; and OSI for the extradition of John Demjanjuk, who is charged in Germany with being an accessory in the murder of 27,900 people in the Nazi death camp Sobibor. His war crimes trial is scheduled to begin next month in Munich.

John Malcolm, a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, said OSI’s expanded mandate put the sections nearer to one another. The merger seems like the natural next step, he said.

“It’s something that makes sense to me,” said Malcolm, who oversaw OSI and DSS. ”Both of them have to do with people who have no business being in our country and who pose a threat to the American people.”