Com­ment: Dur­ing the 2006 Lebanon and 2008–2009 Gaza Wars, the world has been treated to sto­ries of Israeli mil­i­tary atroc­i­ties, largely debunked in the wake of their dis­clo­sure.

The “author­i­ta­tive” source for many of these sto­ries is Marc Gar­lasco, a for­mer Pen­ta­gon ana­lyst who dis­coursed on mil­i­tary affairs for Human Rights Watch.

Gar­lasco recently resigned his posi­tion after dis­clo­sure that he was an avid col­lec­tor of Nazi mem­o­ra­bilia, hav­ing (among other things) authored a coffee-table book (pic­tured at right) reveal­ing an almost porno­graphic fas­ci­na­tion with the Third Reich’s mil­i­tary. Garlasco’s grand­fa­ther fought for Hitler.

Gar­lasco also posted on the inter­net under the moniker “Flak 88.” The 88-millimeter rifle was Germany’s pri­mary anti-aircraft weapon. “88” is also a code-term with which Nazis can com­mu­ni­cate their polit­i­cal affil­i­a­tions clan­des­tinely. H is the eighth let­ter of the alpha­bet and “88” is under­stood to be code for “Heil Hitler.”

“Is HRW Inves­ti­ga­tor Gar­lasco An Avid Col­lec­tor of Nazi Para­pher­na­lia?”; Snap­shots: a Cam­era Blog; 9/08/2009.

Excerpt:  There are two Marc Gar­las­cos on the Inter­net. One is a top human rights inves­ti­ga­tor who, hav­ing joined Human Rights Watch after sev­eral years with the Pen­ta­gon, has become known for his shrill attacks on Israel. The other is a Marc Gar­lasco who’s obsessed with the color and pageantry of Nazism, has pub­lished a detailed 430 page book on Nazi war para­pher­na­lia, and par­tic­i­pates in forums for Nazi sou­venir collectors.

Both Marc Gar­las­cos were born on Sep­tem­ber 4, 1970. Both have Ernst as their mid­dle name. Both live in New York, NY. Both have a mater­nal grand­fa­ther who fought for the Nazis. I’ve put links and screen­shots on all this after the jump, and you can click through for full-sized ver­sions. It’s hard to escape the con­clu­sion that both Marc Gar­las­cos are the same person.

Blog­gers and activists con­cerned about Israel have been baf­fled and frus­trated by the first Gar­lasco almost since he joined HRW. On his pub­lic pho­tog­ra­phy site he posts gra­tu­itous Pales­tin­ian and Lebanese death porn in between gal­leries of cute Western-looking kids play­ing soc­cer (no link — keep­ing his kids out of it). He pro­vides a seem­ingly never-ending stream of inter­views to all kinds of out­lets, where he spins tales about osten­si­ble Israeli atroc­i­ties. The only prob­lem is that many of these tales — per Soc­cer Dad and Isra­Pun­dit and Elder of Ziyon and NGO Mon­i­tor and CAMERA and LGF — are biased and inac­cu­rate. That doesn’t stop Gar­lasco from putting them into the kind of HRW reports that make their way into inter­na­tional anti-Israel con­dem­na­tions and aca­d­e­mic anti-Israel dissertations.

Then there’s the sec­ond Marc Gar­lasco, who I caught wind of from Elder of Ziyon. Elder had just fin­ished tear­ing apart another one of HRW Garlasco’s anti-Israel reports when he found the Ama­zon pro­file of col­lec­tor Gar­lasco. This Garlasco’s Ama­zon book reviews show a nearly obses­sive knowl­edge of Nazi-era Luft­waffe Flak and Army Flak. A lit­tle more search­ing revealed that he’s writ­ten a gigan­tic book on the sub­ject that retails for over $100. He reg­u­larly par­tic­i­pates in forums about Nazi medals under the han­dle Flak 88, where he posts gal­leries of his prizes and admires what oth­ers have man­aged to col­lect. On those forums he uses the email marc@garlasco.com, which points to a fam­ily geneal­ogy site he set up in 2002. . . .