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FBI agent who arrested Rosenbergs dies
Duluth News Tribune ^ | April 25, 2005 | Associated Press

Posted on 04/25/2005 3:34:21 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper

TAMPA, Fla. - Robert R. Granville, an FBI agent in New York who headed the team that arrested Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in a sensational Cold War espionage case, has died at a hospital. He was 89.

Granville, who lived in Crystal River, died April 12 after suffering a stroke two weeks earlier, said his son, Army Col. Robert R. Granville Jr., M.D.

Granville began working for the FBI in 1940 and was promoted to field supervisor of Soviet espionage in the New York office six years later. On July 17, 1950, he and fellow agents arrested Julius Rosenberg in his apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Rosenberg was charged with giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Three weeks later, Granville and other agents arrested Rosenberg's wife, Ethel, as she left a federal courthouse where she had testified before a grand jury.

The couple was accused of getting the information from Ethel Rosenberg's brother, David Greenglass, a former machinist at the atomic weapons center in Los Alamos, N.M.

In March 1951, the Rosenbergs were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, and were sentenced to death. After legal appeals and protests by those who questioned their guilt, they were executed in June 1953. It was the first execution of civilians for spying in U.S. history.

Granville was also involved in the Cold War case of Justice Department analyst Judith Coplon. She was accused in 1949 of passing government secrets to the Soviets through her lover, Valentin A. Gubitchev, an official at the United Nations.

Although Coplon was found guilty in two trials, her conviction was eventually overturned because Granville had arrested her without a warrant and because the FBI had used illegal wiretaps during surveillance.

Granville, a native of Idaho, left the FBI in 1952 when he was chosen by President Truman to head a committee on equal employment opportunities.

Granville is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter, two grandsons and three great-grandchildren.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Florida; US: New Mexico; US: New York
KEYWORDS: coldwar; fbi; granville; history; leo; obituary; rosenberg
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1 posted on 04/25/2005 3:34:30 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper
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To: BigSkyFreeper

I believe, btw, that Julius Rosenberg's codename was "liberal."


2 posted on 04/25/2005 3:38:33 PM PDT by Clemenza (I am NOT A NUMBER, I am a FREE MAN!!!)
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To: BigSkyFreeper
Those who think the Rosenbergs were innocent base their beliefs on faith, those who know the Rosenbergs were guilty believe so based on facts.

And they have been more then vindicated.

3 posted on 04/25/2005 3:38:46 PM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: BigSkyFreeper

Possibly the greatest moment in post war American history.

The executions of those scumbags.

Now the traitors like them are called Democrats, and they're actually allowed to sabotage this country in full daylight.

Go figure.


4 posted on 04/25/2005 3:39:03 PM PDT by BobL
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To: BigSkyFreeper

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1389919/posts


5 posted on 04/25/2005 3:42:22 PM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

Searched under every possible keyword, and title, nothing came up.


6 posted on 04/25/2005 3:47:36 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (Matthew 16:18)
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To: BigSkyFreeper

So what became of Doovey ?


7 posted on 04/25/2005 4:20:48 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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To: Clemenza

Jane Fonda did as much. Her crimes were equally as serious.


8 posted on 04/25/2005 4:22:12 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
Julius Rosenberg's code name was Liberal.

Julius played a game of chicken with the government and lost. If he confessed he would've officially had a life sentence, but it would've only lasted fifteen years.

9 posted on 04/25/2005 5:18:17 PM PDT by Stepan12
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To: BigSkyFreeper

As a Jew I always find myself having to scold fellow Jews about the Rosenbergs and Jonathan Pollard.


10 posted on 04/25/2005 5:18:32 PM PDT by montag813
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To: montag813
As a Jew I always find myself having to scold fellow Jews about the Rosenbergs and Jonathan Pollard.

Pollard was no Rosenberg(s).

His sentence was way over line and done in violation of the plea agreement they all made.

I'll get bashed for this, I know -- but I'll live with that.

11 posted on 04/25/2005 5:21:34 PM PDT by Stepan12
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To: montag813

Big Sky Freeper has been banned or suspended?


12 posted on 04/25/2005 5:22:53 PM PDT by el_doctor2
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To: Stepan12
Pollard was no Rosenberg(s).

Not trying to compare them. Just saying he did his crime and his wife shouldn't whine about him doing his time. Also, Jews went nuts trying to save the Rosenbergs at the time, including Bill Safire, and they were among the most vile traitors in American history. But people are STILL trying to proclaim their innocence, despite Soviet-era records which show that Stalin himself credited the Rosenbergs fo the USSR getting nukes so early.

13 posted on 04/25/2005 5:25:38 PM PDT by montag813
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To: BigSkyFreeper

x


14 posted on 04/25/2005 5:26:24 PM PDT by montag813
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To: el_doctor2
Big Sky Freeper has been banned or suspended?

Looks like a joke from BSF himself.

15 posted on 04/25/2005 5:27:19 PM PDT by montag813
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To: Sonny M
The Soviet Union was our ally. Treason does NOT include giving secrets to an ally. The Constitution is very clear:
Article III, Section. 3. Clause 1:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

While what the Rosenbergs did was criminal, it was not treason, and not crime subject to a capital death penalty in any other case. (Except, imo, that the Rosenbergs were Jew and communist.)
16 posted on 04/25/2005 5:33:14 PM PDT by bvw
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To: bvw
The Soviet Union was our ally.

Not during Kruschev, Bay Of Pigs, Stalin, Communism and the Cold War.

17 posted on 04/25/2005 5:39:56 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (Matthew 16:18)
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To: bvw
You don't think giving the soviets secrets was a form of aid?

I've always interpreted "aid" as giving something useful, i.e. money or information, state secrets would qualify.

18 posted on 04/25/2005 5:41:44 PM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: BigSkyFreeper

By what law or congressional declaration were they changed from our ally to our enenmy?


19 posted on 04/25/2005 5:42:35 PM PDT by bvw
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To: Sonny M

It was aid, but afaik the Soviet Union -- truly an evil empire, too -- was officially an ally because we had been allies during the war. And some part of the Rosenberg's spy activities occurred (iirc) during WW II.


20 posted on 04/25/2005 5:51:19 PM PDT by bvw
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