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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsToday is the 60th anniversary of the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg...
Last edited Wed Jun 19, 2013, 07:27 AM - Edit history (1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg
Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 25, 1915 June 19, 1953) and Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 June 19, 1953) were United States citizens convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war, and executed. Their charges were related to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
In 1995, the U.S. government released a series of decoded Soviet cables, codenamed VENONA, which confirmed that Julius acted as a courier and recruiter for the Soviets but which were ambiguous about Ethel's involvement. The other atomic spies who were caught by the FBI offered confessions and were not executed, including Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, who supplied documents to Julius from Los Alamos and served 10 years of his 15-year sentence; Harry Gold, who identified Greenglass and served 15 years in Federal prison as the courier for Greenglass; and a German scientist, Klaus Fuchs.
Morton Sobell, who was tried with the Rosenbergs, served 17 years and 9 months of a 30-year sentence. In 2008, Sobell admitted he was a spy and confirmed Julius Rosenberg was "in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets classified military and industrial information and what the American government described as the secret to the atomic bomb."
Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 25, 1915 June 19, 1953) and Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 June 19, 1953) were United States citizens convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war, and executed. Their charges were related to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
In 1995, the U.S. government released a series of decoded Soviet cables, codenamed VENONA, which confirmed that Julius acted as a courier and recruiter for the Soviets but which were ambiguous about Ethel's involvement. The other atomic spies who were caught by the FBI offered confessions and were not executed, including Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, who supplied documents to Julius from Los Alamos and served 10 years of his 15-year sentence; Harry Gold, who identified Greenglass and served 15 years in Federal prison as the courier for Greenglass; and a German scientist, Klaus Fuchs.
Morton Sobell, who was tried with the Rosenbergs, served 17 years and 9 months of a 30-year sentence. In 2008, Sobell admitted he was a spy and confirmed Julius Rosenberg was "in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets classified military and industrial information and what the American government described as the secret to the atomic bomb."
Their sons are still alive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Meeropol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Meeropol
Current position on parents' executions
In 2008, after the Rosenberg co-defendant Morton Sobell admitted that he and Julius Rosenberg had engaged in espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union during World War II, Michael and Robert Meeropol agreed that their father was a Soviet spy. But, they reiterated the failures of the government prosecution: "[W]hatever atomic bomb information their father passed to the Russians was, at best, superfluous; the case was riddled with prosecutorial and judicial misconduct; their mother was convicted on flimsy evidence to place leverage on her husband; and neither deserved the death penalty." A month later, the brothers published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times reminding readers that the Sobell confession reveals nothing about the issue of the theft of the atom bomb secret. They noted that the witness Ruth Greenglass' recently released Grand Jury testimony said nothing about Ethel Rosenberg's alleged typing activities, for which the government convicted her.
The Meeropol brothers have endorsed the conclusions of Walter Schneir in his posthumously published book Final Verdict that the entire Greenglass story of the secret of the Atom Bomb was concocted -- that Julius Rosenberg had been given a "pink slip" by the KGB in early 1945 and thus was out of the espionage loop when the famous cross-section drawing of an implosion-type Atom Bomb (exhibit 8 at the Rosenberg Trial) was passed to the Soviets. With meticulous detective work Schneir determined that David and/or Ruth Greenglass turned that drawing and descriptive material over to a KGB agent in December of 1945 -- not as testified at the trial to Julius Rosenberg in September of 1945.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Meeropol
Current position on parents' executions
In 2008, after the Rosenberg co-defendant Morton Sobell admitted that he and Julius Rosenberg had engaged in espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union during World War II, Michael and Robert Meeropol agreed that their father was a Soviet spy. But, they reiterated the failures of the government prosecution: "[W]hatever atomic bomb information their father passed to the Russians was, at best, superfluous; the case was riddled with prosecutorial and judicial misconduct; their mother was convicted on flimsy evidence to place leverage on her husband; and neither deserved the death penalty." A month later, the brothers published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times reminding readers that the Sobell confession reveals nothing about the issue of the theft of the atom bomb secret. They noted that the witness Ruth Greenglass' recently released Grand Jury testimony said nothing about Ethel Rosenberg's alleged typing activities, for which the government convicted her.
The Meeropol brothers have endorsed the conclusions of Walter Schneir in his posthumously published book Final Verdict that the entire Greenglass story of the secret of the Atom Bomb was concocted -- that Julius Rosenberg had been given a "pink slip" by the KGB in early 1945 and thus was out of the espionage loop when the famous cross-section drawing of an implosion-type Atom Bomb (exhibit 8 at the Rosenberg Trial) was passed to the Soviets. With meticulous detective work Schneir determined that David and/or Ruth Greenglass turned that drawing and descriptive material over to a KGB agent in December of 1945 -- not as testified at the trial to Julius Rosenberg in September of 1945.
...and, remarkably, David Greenglass and Morton Sobell are still alive!
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Today is the 60th anniversary of the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg... (Original Post)
Cooley Hurd
Jun 2013
OP
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)1. Kick for discussion
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)2. He was almost certainly guilty, she was almost certainly innocent...
and neither of them should have been executed.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)5. Agreed, but it was the McCarthy Red Scare era...
"Better Dead than Red" and all that shit...
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)3. Wasn't Russia an ally during WWII?
What am I missing. Aren't Snowdon and Manning heros?
Rhiannon12866
(202,970 posts)4. I'm wondering if we will ever learn the real truth behind this...