Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies - the Venona Project on NOVA, PBS

NOVA on pbs 8pm EST ^ | 2/5/2002 | NOVA production

[edwin hubble]

Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies

NOVA reveals startling new evidence that Soviet spies penetrated America's deepest secrets, including the Manhattan Project, in the 1940's. By cracking the code of Soviet diplomatic cables, the FBI was able to hunt down "atom spies" such as Klaus Fuchs and Julius Rosenberg. But the true "master spy," a physicist named Ted Hall, got away -- and his gripping story is presented for the first time by NOVA.

Original broadcast date: 2/5/2002 Topics: biography, mathematics, technology/crime, technology/weapons and warfare

*************** (from NOVA website:) Welcome to the companion Web site to "Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies," scheduled for broadcast on February 5, 2002. The program chronicles the lives and covert activities of the so-called "atom spies" in the 1940s, including the big one that got away, Theodore Alvin Hall. Here's what you'll find online:

Read Venona Intercepts Released by the National Security Agency, these once top-secret messages, encoded by their Soviet senders and decrypted by Venona codebreakers, reveal compelling, behind-the-scenes details of Soviet espionage.

Family of Spies In a series of interviews alternately gushing and reserved, embittered and accepting, the sons of the Rosenbergs, Ted Hall's wife and elder daughter, and other family members of Venona-era spies offer their views about their spying relatives.

20th-Century Deceptions Mata Hari. Alger Hiss. Kim Philby. Aldrich Ames. Their names stick in our collective consciousness, though whether famously or infamously depends on whose side you're on.

Decipher a Coded Message (Hot Science) Learn some of the tricks codebreakers use to solve ciphers, then use your new talents to make sense of what looks like a bunch of gibberish.

Plus Resources and a Teacher's Guide

**************

[blam]

"PBS just made the *shocking* discovery that McCarthy Was Right?! Am I the only one to see the juicy irony here?"

Read the book Venona. Joe McCarthy was 100% correct.

[edwin hubble]

About Truman's deflecting the charges against Hiss... To give the benefit of the doubt, was he protecting the source of the information (the codebreaking?)...

He was, after all, a cold warrior...the only one to authorize the use of atomic weapons.

But the pattern seems in many ways entirely consistent with the press and media in this decade.

[Doctor Stochastic]

There's a web site about the Venona project. (Look up Venona in the search engine of your choice.) It's an NSA web site. There are a couple of books on the subject that are fascinating too. The NSA museum also has an exhibit. (Take the Baltimore-Washington Parkway; turn in behind the Shell Station; it's in an old motel. The password is "togetherness.")

[edwin hubble]

Thanks, Doctor.

I appreciate the info.

http://www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/

And guess what? There really is such a site.

I really thought you were kidding about the NSA website. ("Never Say Anything"... )

So you were serious about the NSA Venona website.

Now about those directions to the museum... ... and the password.

Only someone well inside the beltway could have this information.

[edwin hubble]

yes, but the irony is that PBS would say so.. and so clearly.

[Yougottabekidding]

Good (real)SPY Books: "Master Of Disguise" -A. Mendez; & "First Directorate"- Oleg Kalugin

I would not want to be a spy, even a pro. Someone ultimately turns and gives all the names.

[Waco]

Wouldn't it be accurate to consider the democrat party a communist front group now? (Probably a hellofva lot more accurate than we suspect?)

[Buckeroo]

I love re-writes of history. It creates an automatic action to "slap my knees."

[FlyVet]

Remarkably balanced for PBS

Sometimes they are remarkably balanced. I missed this one, I'll catch the replay later this week (or month). This Thursday will be "Frontline: American Porn"....an investigation of the porn industry. Frontline usually doesn't pull too many punches either.