History Channel 8 PM! Greenglass to say his lies sent Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair.

The History Channel ^ | 6/19/03 | History Channel

[DPB101]

Thursday, June 19 @ 8pm ET/PT

David Greenglass: Twice a Traitor

On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for passing secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. In their trial, the primary witness against Ethel was her brother, David Greenglass. Greenglass was also convicted of spying and sentenced to prison, but he was released in 1960. Now, he's finally telling his side of the story.

This is David Greenglass's extraordinary story, including the shocking revelation that he lied on the stand and sent his own sister to the electric chair! TV G

[bvw]

That's right, we don't execute spies for allies, we don't execute spies of potential enemies during peacetime. To my knowledge, there are no other spies who were executed during peacetime -- I'm not saying I know this from exhaustive research, just that I can not recollect any, any mention of any.

If you say the Constituion gives the Federal Behemoth the right to execute anyone (during peacetime) from crimes short of Treason -- show me the clause! I know it's been done -- Timothy McVeigh being an example -- but like much of what the Behemoth does these days, it is well beyond any charter.

[MEG33]

Hope you feel better soon.

[bvw]

Me too. I've been bugged by this since I was eight years old and saw the Ben Shawn pictures of the Rosenbergs. Been bugged by the short-cutter's mindset that gives rise to calling Korea a "police action". Been bugged by the giveaways at Malta. Seen and heard the most vile anti-Jewish sentiments. Understand that when some people say "bolshevick" they mean "Jew" -- and also that, hell, that's not entirely an unfounded reference, yet it is a short-cutter's. And I greatly dislike short-cutters.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

I hear you.

Now go and read those links before you go on. Trust me.

The truth will set you free.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Can you give me a synopsis of what he said?

Then I'll ask you some questions for further study.

[DPB101]

Greenglass whined that when he went to work at Los Alamos, he was told not to tell anyone because if enemies of America learned of the work it would cause great damage--the suggestion being, of course, that the Soviet Union was our friend. He said "40 million" Soviet soldiers had been killed fighting the Nazis (perhaps he got confused with the number of its own citizens the Soviets murdered?).

In 1950, the Soviets gave the Rosenberg and Greenglass families $10,000 (over $70,000 in todays money) to flee the country. When asked why he didn't leave, Greenglass said he didn't want to leave America to live in a "hell-hole" like Russia, China or some other place "they" might send him.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Ok, but then he did tell people. He told the Rosenbergs what he was doing.

Did he deny telling them?

[DPB101]

I was eight years old and saw the Ben Shawn pictures

We had an illustrator in the family and I grew up with Ben Shahn's work. As you probably know, he became famous with his series entitled "The Passion of Sacco-Vanzetti."

While I always knew Shahn was left wing, only later did I learn he was a communist dupe (at best, many of these "dupes" either got paid by or had their work promoted by the Soviet intelligence--Shahn surely fits in that last category at least). Willi Munzenberg was the brains behind the Sacco and Vanzetti communist PR stunt. Concerned over the deportation of communists such as Emma Goldman back to the Soviet Union in the early 1920s, the Soviets instructed Willi to turn the tables and portray America as a bigoted, racist country which regularly violated the civil rights of immigrants. Willi did so with flair and inspiration. Useful idiots such as Ben Shahn lined up around the block to attack America. Felix Frankfurter's wife was friends with a Soviet agent who brought Willi's work to her attention. She needled her husband to write an article for Atlantic Magazine decrying the fascist tactics of the America.Frankfurter wrote that the Sacco and Vanzetti case was America at it's worst. Munzenberg was delighted. He sent the work to the Kremlin and they reprinted copies of it to send around the world.

Willi Munzenberg met his well deserved fate in 1940 when hunters found his body with its eyes bulging out of its head. He had been strangled. Munzenberg's mentor, Karl Radek (who had attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic, was done in by Stalin, Yagoda and Kaganovich.

As a teenager, I admired Ben Shahn greatly. Today I would spit on his grave. Dupe, agent or one who merely fed himself by gnawing at the rule of law and the American Republic, Ben Shahn has the blood of millions on his soul.

[DPB101]

The Rosenbergs recruited Greenglass to pass information from Los Alamos. Oddly enough, Greenglass' wife was more involved than Ethel Rosenberg. The deal David worked out with the Feds was to rat out his sister if his wife was not indicted (they had her cold). She skated. Wonder if she is alive today. No mention of that I recall in the show. Her history ended with the trial.

[Vigilantcitizen]

Locator.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Many of us here at Free Repub come from the left.

Somehow we've managed to get here though :)

The lies the left has told ....and are still telling.

That's why you have young people that are socialists/communists/anarchists/liberals/democrats. All part of the same mind think, which is all about Utopia/Fairness/Love/Hippiedom.

Unfortunately the actual world isn't like that. And the left's true agenda is transgressive morality/divorce/illegal immigration/welfare/laziness and bad behaviour are to be rewarded.

But the truth of our side is not out there. It sounds like Greenglass IS a big time liberal. Obviously if he's saying he lied, he is responsible for killing his sister. Someone who said he's like David Brock is right.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

The Brother by Sam Roberts

Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Fifty years after their execution in June 1953 for conspiring to steal atomic secrets, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg remain the subjects of great emotional debate and acrimony. The man whose testimony almost single-handedly convicted them was Ethel Rosenberg’s own brother, David Greenglass. Though the Rosenbergs were executed, Greenglass served a mere ten years in prison, after which, with a new name, he disappeared. But journalist Sam Roberts found Greenglass, and then managed to convince him to talk about everything that had happened.
So here at last is the mesmerizing inside story of the Rosenberg case: What were their lives like growing up on the Lower East Side? How was David Greenglass enlisted in a plot to hand over to the Soviets our greatest national secret? And how, finally, did the whole thing unravel? Even beyond that, The Brother reveals how David Greenglass perjured himself in testifying about his sister and her husband—testimony that virtually strapped them into the electric chair.
The Brother is a great narrative, far more mesmerizing than anything else written on the subject. It is a story of espionage. It is the story of a trial. And, most tragically, it is the story of a family.

From the Back Cover
“A fresh and fast-paced study of one of the most important crimes of the twentieth century.”—The Washington Post

“[Sam Roberts] is a deft writer able to weave science, history, and criminal investigation into an absorbing narrative that at times reads like a spy thriller—even if you do know how the story ends.”—The Boston Globe

“An absorbing account of the Rosenberg atomic spy drama seen through the eyes of [David] Greenglass . . . whose testimony... read more

See all editorial reviews...

---

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Greenglass Breaks His Silence, May 27, 2003

Reviewer: no-names (see more about me) from Perth Amboy NJ

Sam Roberts found David Greenglass and persuaded him to talk for this very readable 500 page book. It tells of their family histories. How did David Greenglass get assigned to Los Alamos (p.70)? Perhaps due to his talents? He was cleared by Army and FBI investigators (p.71). Soviet atom bomb development began in 1939, they deduced American research in 1940 (p.80). Julius Rosenberg became involved with Soviet espionage, and a recruiter of people who could provide "technical information". The crime is committed when the message is relayed (p.92). Life in Oak Ridge or Los Alamos is likened to a socialist paradise where the government provides for everyone; but not all enjoy Army life (pp.100-1). None suspected that DG's insatiable curiosity was to gather information for a foreign government (p.104). Winston Churchill's scientists asked for dynamite lenses (p.107). How to steal a proximity fuse? Get a defective reject then replace the broken parts with working parts (p.109).

With the war over, DG was no longer interested in helping the Soviets (p.147). The Soviet atomic research resumed in 1943 (p.182), their first atomic test occurred in 1949. This affected the political outlook in Washington (p.183). When they deciphered a message on gaseous diffusion in refining uranium, this led to its author and prime suspect - Klaus Fuchs (p.188). Another deciphered message said a spy at Los Alamos went on vacation in Jan 1945 (p.197); 100 suspects were turned up. The two prime suspects were Luis Alvarez and Edward Teller - the best friend of Klaus Fuchs.

DG's confession is on page 242. He hired O. John Rogge and cooperated with the FBI; he could not testify against his wife (p.261). Greenglass and Gold were interviewed together to harmonize their stories (p.278). The Government wanted Julius Rosenberg to confess and identify other members of the spy ring (p.282); the death penalty was the threat (p.287). David was trained as a draftsman and had surprising neat handwriting (p.297). Page 317 says his handwriting needed to be typed, and this implicated Ethel in the crime. The trial found them all guilty. The Rosenbergs got death, but they insisted on their innocence and never cracked. They were convicted on the word of the Greenglasses alone, there was no independent corroborative evidence given at their trial. I think the failure to show spending or money from their spying was a failure in the Government's case. The rule is that spies get paid for their information ("The Double-Cross System").

Some questioned the scientific value of Greenglass' atom bomb sketch. It was "valuable information" to corroborate the information given by Klaus Fuchs (p.408). The 1946 Smyth Report gave much more information on atomic energy research than given by Klaus Fuchs (p.410)! Page 425 lists the information that Julius could give to delay their execution; nothing was asked of Ethel. President Eisenhower denied clemency because they "increased the chance of atomic war and may have condemned tens of millions of innocent people to death" (p.430).

Chapter 36 has Greenglass' "final confession". He thought the worse thing he did was working on the atomic bomb because it killed a hundred thousand people (p.469). He didn't regret his spying if it prevented another war (p.479). David and Ruth now said they didn't remember Ethel typing the notes, but "that's the way it would have been done" (p.483). Without this, Ethel might not have been convicted. Why didn't Julius and Ethel save themselves? Because it would mean putting other people in their hot seat (p.493). DG's verdict: they were guilty, but they didn't deserve to die (p.496). This disproportionate punishment may explain Pope Pius XII's call for clemency. The Prosecution team never again won distinction in their careers.

[Lost Highway]

An Open Letter to the Rosenberg Son
By Ronald Radosh
FrontPageMagazine.com | June 18, 2003
http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=8447

Dear Robert:

It has been fifty years since your parents’ execution, and it is understandable that as the son whom their actions betrayed -- along with their country -- you should still cling to the idea of their innocence. But in the decades since 1953, we have learned much about your father, Julius Rosenberg, and the contributions he made to the Soviet Union as an active espionage agent. We also know, contrary to what you claim in your new book An Execution in the Family: One Son’s Journey, that your mother -- Ethel Rosenberg -- was not an innocent housewife as many of those who concede her husband’s guilt maintain. The Venona cables, which you discuss but never quote, prove conclusively that she was a knowledgeable accessory to your father’s espionage, and that she also recommended others to be recruited to the KGB. In a conspiracy case, that alone is sufficient for a person to be included in an indictment.

But you seem unable to grasp that the case against your parents was part of an effort to break an important Soviet espionage network, one that your father put together. Instead you insist on referring to it as a political trial meant to serve as a warning to the “progressive” Left, to strike fear into their hearts, as you put it in a recent interview, and to prove that “left-wingers were really agents of a foreign power.” As though this were not indeed the truth, at least in the case of active spies.

Why can’t you admit that the Venona decrypts conclusively prove that American Communists were indeed agents of a foreign power? The same decrypts show that your father put together a network of seven primary sources and two active liaison-couriers, as well as three others who carried out support work. All of these people were recruited, as was your father, from the ranks of the American Communist Party. Your father stole top secret military data, including the proximity fuse that years later the Soviets used to shoot down Major Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 plane. Klehr and Haynes refer to the fuse as “one of the most innovative advances of American military technology,” for which Moscow awarded your father a $1,000 bonus in March 1945.

Of course, we also know -- as Joyce Milton and I argued back in 1983 -- that the death sentence for your mother was intended by the prosecution as a “lever” to pressure your father to confess so they could move against his ring. But the government never expected to carry these executions out; indeed, even J. Edgar Hoover sent a memo opposing the execution of your mother. But as Communist true believers, they refused to confess, preferring martyrdom -- and making their own children orphans -- to telling the truth and saving their lives. Your uncle, David Greenglass, who also sought to stop the execution, put it accurately when he said that your parents “could have cleared themselves.” All they had to do was tell the truth.

I know that you have suffered greatly, and that as you reveal in your memoir, you have struggled to come to terms with what their trial means for our history. You make a start; but you fall far short of accomplishing your goal. You continue to give credence to myths that have long been answered. You insist that Venona is “devastating…to the government’s case,” when in fact, it establishes beyond doubt that your father was a Soviet spy. You say you now “accept the possibility” that he participated in what you call an “illegal and covert effort to help the Soviet Union defeat the Nazis,” forgetting that as a Communist his ambition was to overthrow the government of the United States, as well. You also denigrate the confirmation of the role your father played, provided by his KGB control Alexander Feklisov, writing him off in two pages as a “disreputable character interested in self-aggrandizement and financial gain.” However, any reader of his book knows that his motivation is only to honor and “to rehabilitate the name of” the Rosenbergs, whom he considers to have been genuine Soviet partisans.

Your contention that your father’s espionage for one of the bloodiest tyrants in history is understandable because he had bad eyesight and could not enter the U.S. Army, is sad, even desperate. I could understand if, like Feklisov, you argued that your parents were committed Communists who put their ideals into practice by stealing the military secrets of the imperialists to help their Soviet comrades. I would find that a rather poor excuse, but at least one that is honest. But instead, you continue to assert that the agencies that released the new evidence regularly practice “disinformation,” and are thus intent on creating “false leads to show my parents’ guilt.” In this way, instead of exculpating your parents’ crimes against their country, you continue them.

In the end the truth remains that your parents were traitors who betrayed their country and their sons for an illusion. They acted with courage, but for a cause that was corrupt. By recognizing this you would restore their humanity, and perhaps heal the wound you obviously still feel. Instead, you have chosen to continue the charade, pretending that their cause was noble and that they were heroes of an American “resistance.” Resistance to what?

For your own sake, I hope you are mentally prepared for the inevitable day when the KGB’s own archives reveal that your parents were guilty. Get ready, because it’s going to be soon.

Sincerely,

Ron Radosh

[I_Love_My_Husband]

http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:GcW8divV4cYJ:www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArosenberg.htm+david+greenglass+wife&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Q; What happened to you and your brother Michael after your parents were executed?

A: The FBI came to my parents very soon after the arrest and said, essentially, talk or die. They said think about what will happen to your children if you don't talk - and if you talk, Julius, you'll have a prison term and Ethel, you'll be released and you can take care of the kids. Well, they offered the same deal to David and Ruth Greenglass, who also had two kids, and they took the deal. So Greenglass got a prison sentence and Ruth was never indicted and never spent a day in jail even though she swore she helped steal the secret of the atomic bomb. Quite a contrast with my mother.

[MEG33]

Mother thought keeping the secrets and being true to the Soviets was more important than her children.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Well in the research I'm finding out that Ethel did not type the stuff. It was Ruth Greenglass who did.

David Greenglass indicted his sister rather than his wife.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

See my last post.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

It is very possible that Ethel was innocent. But Julius, David and Ruth were not.

Ethel might have just been following her husband in not telling anything. In truth, she might not have known anything, but in her twisted mind, America was a "fascist state", and so, she didn't fight for her innocence nor go against her husband whom could have saved her had he testified it seems.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

It seems to me that Julius could have saved her by testifying what he knew and who he knew and she would have gone along.

[MEG33]

I'm sure Ethyl knew nothing of the activities of her husband,brother,and sister in law and certainly would never approve.