More Than 50 Years After Spy Trial, Public Interest Outweighs Privacy, National Security Concerns
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3243
By Robert B. Townsend
American Historical Association
The National Security Archive, along with several leading U.S. historical associations, filed a petition in federal court in New York City for the release of grand jury records from the 1951 indictment of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were accused of running an espionage ring that passed American atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, convicted of spying, and executed in 1953.
Supported by extensive declarations from experts, the petition describes the trial of the Rosenbergs as a defining moment in the Cold War, and argues that 57 years later, scholarly and public interest in these transcripts far outweigh any remaining privacy or national security interests in continued secrecy.
“This petition brings together scholars and journalists who have diverse and often divergent views of the Rosenberg case, Soviet espionage, and American counterespionage,” commented Tom Blanton, the Archive’s director. “What unites the petitioners is the opportunity to end the unnecessary secrecy and to open these unique primary sources to public and scholarly scrutiny.”Supporting declarations point out that details of the Rosenberg grand jury proceedings have come to light over the years, yet significant questions remain unanswered about the case that the grand jury records are likely to address. The declarations variously point to questions about the scope and targets of the spy ring, the conduct of government prosecutors, the weight of the evidence, particularly against Ethel Rosenberg, and the involvement of other individuals.
In the words of petitioner Sam Roberts, “Few cases in American jurisprudence have stirred emotions, generated debate in and out of government and the judicial system, and have had as enduring and divisive a political impact as the prosecution of the Rosenbergs…”
A similar petition seeking the release of special grand jury transcripts from the investigation of Alger Hiss was granted in 1999 based on the significant public interest in filling gaps in the historical record. In 1948, Alger Hiss, a former high-ranking State Department official, was accused of passing secret information to Whittaker Chambers, a member of the Communist Party. Mr. Hiss eventually was convicted of perjury for lying about whether he had passed along secrets. The petition to unseal the Hiss materials resulted in the release of several thousand pages, including the testimony from a list of witnesses that included then-Congressman Richard Nixon, Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, Harry Dexter White, Congressman Karl E. Mundt, and others. That release brought to light, for the first time, the fact that the future president made a second appearance before the Hiss grand jury to implore the grand jurors to do their patriotic duty and indict Alger Hiss, but not his accuser, Whittaker Chambers. Shortly after Nixon’s appearance, the grand jury did just that, triggering Hiss’ trial and conviction.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20080131/index.htm
From a Western Voices reader: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for giving secret information, especially atomic bomb secrets, to Joseph Stalin’s USSR, which enabled the Soviets to develop the atomic bomb more quickly than they otherwise would have been able to. After their arrest and execution the couple became a Cold War cause celebre for the left. But evidence kept coming out showing the pair were indeed guilty. Scholar Ronald Radosh began a book project seeking to clear the Rosenbergs, but finally was overwhelmed with evidence of their guilt. His book, The Rosenberg File, is an important document showing how deeply penetrated areas of America’s diplomatic, academic, technological and intelligence apparatuses were by Communists both at the height of the Second World War and in the Cold War following. Elements of the Rosenberg case seemed incomplete, though, and now we know why. America had broken the Soviet codes through the top secret Venona project. The Rosenberg, Hiss and similar cases were carried out with special care being taken not to tip the Soviets off, but since the collapse of the USSR a torrent of new information has come out both from declassified Venona traffic and from Soviet archives. What they prove beyond all doubt is the guilt of the Rosenbergs, Hiss and many others, among them some who remain on the loose. They also show that not only was Senator Joe McCarthy, crucified by the leftist dominated media as evil, not only right, but the Communist threat he attempted to expose was even greater than what he revealed. A new book, Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies, is set to become a classic revisionist history of what happened in the Cold War.