Thursday, May 17, 2012
NY FBI agent killed in WWII secret mission honored
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — FBI Special Agent Harold Haberfeld’s ill-fated mission to North Africa during World War II was so secret that even now, after 69 years, his home bureau in New York isn’t entirely sure what it was.
As Buffalo agents dedicated a memorial in Haberfeld’s honor today, they said they’re asking FBI headquarters in Washington to declassify the information.
Buffalo Special Agent In Charge Christopher Piehota says Haberfeld died with 34 others in a 1943 military plane crash in South America while en route to North Africa. Haberfeld and another agent were on their way to investigate an American citizen living in Algiers who was suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.
But Piehota says that because of the covert nature, the office still doesn’t know what the final objective was.