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From: Morton Sobell <nancmort@igc.apc.org> The following is part of a response by Hayden Peake to a series of queries by Bruce Bonham, of April 11, 1997, upon which I would like to comment. >On 13 April, Hayden Peake <BkCollector@msn.com> wrote: >As regards McCARTHY, I don't know of any published studies correlating his >charges with the VENONA material, but I do know of at least 3 books on the >subject of what VENONA really tells us. I am awaiting the completion - it is >2/3 done - of a database that will speed up the search for names and thus >studies such as the one you suggest. > >The charge that the FBI leaked to McCARTHY has been made in every recent book >about HOOVER, including, I believe, the TANENHAUS biography of CHAMBERS. You >may wish to start with Gid POWERS biography of HOOVER or the one by GENTRY. >While I don't recall a specific instance, the work of Athan THEOHARIS at >Marquette is probably a good source. Even if the leak story is true, as it >very likely is, it wouldn't account for all the accusations that McCARTHY >made. I don't recall a single case where he charged espionage that was >proved, even the FBI couldn't prove most of the allegations made during the >period; espionage is a tough crime to prove. McCARTHY more often charged >membership in the CPUSA, nearly as hard to prove, and though right more often >as it turned out, while he was alive his record in this regard was not good >either. I am particularly interested in Hayden Peake's observation "I don't recall a single case where he (McCarthy) charged espionage that was proved, even the FBI couldn't prove most of the allegations made during this period; espionage is a tough crime to prove." The honors for not being able to prove charges of espionage really belong to the FBI. Of the more than 100 names supplied to the FBI by Elizabeth Bentley, who were subsequently tailed and tapped by the FBI, not a single one was ever convicted of espionage. A remarkably clean record for the FBI and the spy queen who had many of their victims stigmatized in the press. An equally impressive record was established by the Venona enterprise. Contrary to the impression created by all of the publicity that has been generated by the various government agencies involved, with the possible exception of Fuchs, not a single person was ever sent to prison through Venona. Yes I know that most of the publicity generated by Venona gave the impression that Venona led the FBI to the arrest of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, but it is simply not true. In fact several documents in the FBI files confirm that Julius' covername was only "identified" in Venona after his brother-in-law falsely fingered him. The question one must ask is, how come Venona was not able to identify Julius independently, despite his being already listed in the FBI files as a communist? Until this is answered satisfactorily, Venona and all it stands for must be suspect. Yes it is true that hundreds of government employees were fired as a result of Venona, but this was done without any sort of a hearing. These employees were matched against the covernames in the decrypted cables. How were these matches made? Who can attest to their accuracy? That is the deep dark secret of Venona. They even tried to match me against some Venona covernames in several cables, but in the end they failed because of contrary evidence. Until the CIA reveals their modus operandi for matching the Venona covernames against the true names, no one--no one---can make any valid claims about what Venona uncovered. I don't understand why Hayden Peake thinks espionage is a particularly tough crime to prove. A single convincing witness is all it takes. Morton Sobell -------------------------------------------------------- --Public reply to list: h-diplo@msu.edu --Private reply to sender: See e-mail address under "From" at top of message --To unsubscribe send e-mail to: listserv@msu.edu with UNSUB H-DIPLO as the only text in the body of your message --To temporarily suspend your account: send e-mail to listserv@msu.edu with SET H-DIPLO NOMAIL as the only text in the body of your message. To reactivate your account, send e-mail to listserv@msu.edu with SET H-DIPLO MAIL as the only text in the body of your message --Personal help from list moderators: hdiplo@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu --Visit the H-Diplo web page at: http://h-net2.msu.edu/~diplo/
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