Testimony from Rosenberg brother released in famous spy case

[DonViejo]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government on Wednesday unsealed decades-old grand jury testimony from the brother of Ethel Rosenberg, who along with her husband, Julius, was put to death in 1953 in a sensational Cold War-era atomic spying case.

The testimony from David Greenglass, whose statements helped secure the convictions of his sister and brother-in-law, had been withheld from public view even as other crucial court records have been unsealed in the last decade. Historians had greatly anticipated the release of the records, the final piece of evidence to be made public in a case that consumed national attention.

A federal judge in New York ordered the testimony released following Greenglass’ death last year at age 92.

With Greenglass as the government’s star witness, the Rosenbergs were convicted in 1951 of conspiring to steal secrets about the atomic bomb for the Soviet Union. They maintained their innocence until their deaths, and since then public suspicion has mounted that Ethel Rosenberg was wrongly convicted of espionage.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2015/07/15/testimony_from_rosenberg_brother_released_in_famous_spy_case/

[iemitsu]

1. Interesting.

I wonder if the Warren Commission transcripts will ever be released?

[DonViejo]

2. If I remember correctly; yes, the will be released...

fifty years after anyone alive on November 22, 1963 is dead. I recall reading an article, years and years ago, reporting that was the way Jackie Kennedy wanted it.

[iemitsu]

4. Yes, the transcripts were scheduled to be released in 2013 but

one of the first acts of George W. in office was to keep them secret indefinitely.

[kenfrequed]

5. President Obama should release them immediately.

Or at least as one of his last acts as president. He should just throw the damned door open. It is perfectly obvious that Jr wanted to protect his father from scrutiny. If Jeb is doing really well in the polls than throwing some light onto that nest of vipers is even more important.

[jwirr]

3. I remember the case. They were executed and he got 10 years - he admits to being the one who

actually took the info and later admits that his wife was the one that typed it up. I am assuming that Rosenberg actually delivered the papers to the Russians. But since he is now telling us that he lied I wonder if this had any justice at all in this case?

[iemitsu]

7. Yes, this information changes how all the other testimony, in the Rosenberg case should

be understood.
It really sucks that our government is willing to hide the truth from us in cases like this, or even in cases like Cosby's.
All post-trial, gag orders should be nullified whether they are protecting individuals or corporations. Especially in cases like the Rosenbergs where, it seems, the primary criminal was given 10 years and the less criminal (or perhaps even innocent) were put to death.
What kind of a justice system does that?

[saidsimplesimon]

6. I never believed in the death penalty. Never will

If the Rosenburgs were "framed", this was an injustice.

While just a child, I recall the hatred of communism and Soviet Russia that resulted from Stalin's demands to take "scalps".

[jwirr]

8. And this case was held during the communist panic pushed by Joseph McCarthy. The government

needed a scapegoat to blame.

[Behind the Aegis]

9. And who makes a better scapegoat than communist Jews.

Talk about picking low fruit, but that was the way of the McCarthy era.

[jwirr]

10. Exactly. I find it interesting that just after WWII and the holocaust they should have found this

couple to use as a scapegoat.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. Too many people are deluded in thinking anti-Semitism disappeared after WWII.

Or rather, they think it subsided in any meaningful way after the Holocaust (should have been my subject line, but it was too long). Jews and others were kept in concentration camps up to two years following the war, and of course, the much reviled Israel, was created because so many places refused to allow Jews to immigrate to their countries, and decided to "give" them a homeland. Personally, I think many of those places, the US included, were hoping for a different outcome and were crestfallen when Israel and the Jews were not obliterated.

It is true, during that time, more than a few Jews were self-avowed communists or socialists, but they were real Americans and weren't loyal to regimes which held those political persuasions. The "Jews are more loyal to X" meme continues today, and crosses all political lines. It is just one such example of historic anti-Semitism which, in order to survive, modernized itself.

[jwirr]

14. Unfortunately all too true. It seems to me that human nature has two driving forces: greed which

we blame on others and bigotry that we need to explain our greed.

I often despair that we will ever have time to work on issues that threaten all of us (like climate change, water shortages and world hunger) because we are too busy with our own selfishness.

[murielm99]

11. I remember reading a book called, "The Brother."

It was about Greenglass and how he sent his sister and brother-in-law to the electric chair. It came out about 2001.

It may need some revision, in light of the new information.

It was a good book, though, and well documented.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. Enabling the USSR to build a bomb most likely prevented any further use of atomic weapons. nt.

[jwirr]

15. That is a good point. The cold war was a standoff keeping both sides somewhat under control.

[BillZBubb]

16. Greenglass was a scumbag.

[Eugene]

17. 'Atom spy' Ethel Rosenberg's conviction in new doubt after testimony released

Source: The Guardian

'Atom spy' Ethel Rosenberg's conviction in new doubt after testimony released

David Greenglass’s 1950 grand jury account does not implicate sister
Brother changed story before trial that led to Rosenbergs’ execution

Mahita Gajanan in New York
Wednesday 15 July 2015 19.39 BST

Newly released grand jury testimony could upend the notion that Ethel Rosenberg was guilty of espionage.

Ethel and her husband Julius Rosenberg were convicted in the most sensational atomic spying case of the cold war in 1951. They were convicted for conspiring to steal secrets about the atomic bomb for the Soviet Union, and were executed in 1953 at New York’s Sing Sing prison.

David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg’s brother and a key witness in the case against the Rosenbergs, implicated his sister in the conspiracy just 10 days before the trial. Decades later, Greenglass told reporters that he lied on the stand to protect his wife Ruth. Greenglass died in 2014.

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But in newly released transcripts of the grand jury testimony given in 1950 – more than six months before he implicated his sister – David Greenglass speaks at length about trading information with his wife Ruth and Julius Rosenberg, but twice insists in the testimony that he has never spoken with Ethel about the matter.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/15/ethel-rosenberg-conviction-testimony-released-atom-spy