REVEALED: The secret deal the Associated Press made with the Nazis during WWII.

The report includes documents recently declassified at the request of AP’s management, including letters of approval from a wartime censorship office run by an ex-AP editor who reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As part of the arrangement, AP shared pictures of U.S. war operations and Allied advances, which were reviewed by Hitler and published in Nazi publications.

“With one known exception, the AP images that appeared in German publications through this arrangement were unaltered by the Germans, “ the report said, “but captions were rewritten by the Germans to conform to official Nazi views.”

U.S. counterintelligence agents unaware of the approval found “definite proof” that the AP was “engaged in operations coming within the purview of the Trading with the Enemy Act,” according to a document referenced in AP’s report. The case wasn’t pursued.

In an interview this week, AP officials strongly defended the arrangement, saying it was conducted in neutral countries, and that there was tremendous news value in offering its newspaper customers photos of Hitler and German military activities — even if the photos were taken by Nazis, who were expert propagandists.

Nothing sinister here, just an unusual — but White House-approved — arrangement for getting news out of a hostile totalitarian regime during wartime.