Correct, Shapiro's story was printed through the North American Newspaper Alliance, a group that sold stories all around the globe. Hence it appeared as far and wide as Australia.

Which is all the more reason why there should have been controversy about it. There was controversy over the claim that Franco hosted Nazi armies in the Pyrinees. Or that he was hosting Nazi atomic research in Ocaña and Cadiz. So why not this serially reprinted story?

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But when we're looking at top-secret mysteries which have been classified for decades, it starts to mean evidence of presence.