Sudaplatov book, McNeil-Lehrer TONIGHT (Monday)
It may be too late for the East Coasters, but tonight's McNeil-Lehrer Newshour devotes 30 minutes to the just-released book, "Special Tasks," by Sudaplatov. Sudaplatov was effectively head of SMERSH, which many people think was Ian Fleming's fabrication...it was real, meaining "Death to Spies." Soviet MVD Counterintelligence. His actual title was head of Special Tasks, responsible for spy rings in the U.S. and Germany, assassination of people, etc. Important stuff! Revelations about Oppeheimer, Fermi, Bohr, and Gamov giving assistance to the Soviets, about the death of Trotsky, and about the sabotage of U.S. military bases. I happened to be reading the book today in a local bookshop, and when I got hope Harry Bartholomew, of our list, had left a message alerting me to the McNeil-Lehrer report. Check it out tonight, if you can. Consult your local listings. Many stations air it at 10, others at 11 (the late airings, that is). --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
I suggest you take Sudaplatov with a LARGE grain of salt. The memoirs of ex-spies are replete with self-serving truths, important omissions and deliberate misinterpretations to meet political goals. Don't forget the 'security' establishments on both sides of the Former Cold War have scores to settle, clients to stroke and budgets to fill. Ask yourself this: why should he tell the truth *now*, and how much is he likely to tell? In regard to Oppenheimer and the like, I suggest treating all observations with care. Remember that the national security state apparatus starting growing in earnest after World War II but suspicion of foreign influence goes back to the labor movement of the 1870s, and the art of the smear was perfected certainly by the time of the Palmer Raids about 1920. My very limited knowledge of Oppenheimer and others of that era is that it is highly unlikely they provided much of strategic value to the Russians. Otherwise incidental contact at the political or scientific levels was used effectively after World War II to destroy careers on both sides of the Iron Curtain (re-read Darkness At Noon for the mirror image). If I may summarize: the one thing we must learn from the last 100 years is that the least trustworthy in our society are those we have deeded the most trust (knowingly or not). But then, it's hardly a new thing after all. The Latin phrase says it most clearly: Quis custodiet custodies?
participants (2)
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Fred Heutte -
tcmay@netcom.com