Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, move, nsTeam2RO, nsTeam2RW, nsTeam2_talkRO, nsTeam2_talkRW, protect, rollback, Administrators, template
294,783
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 7:
Line 7: + + + + + +
→Amerasia cover up: The Silvermaster case
[[Image:Mcc2.JPG|right|thumb|285px|McCarthy at a fund-raising dinner in 1954]]
[[Image:Mcc2.JPG|right|thumb|285px|McCarthy at a fund-raising dinner in 1954]]
On June 6 1945, 6 persons, including three U.S. government officials, were arrested on conspiracy and espionage charges related to possession of roughly 1000 stolen classified Government documents in the offices of ''[[Amerasia]]'' magazine. ''Amerasia'' had published classified materials verbatim from the United States wartime intelligence service, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS). FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover believed he had an "airtight case," and Justice Department officials were ready to prosecute. [[Thomas Corcoran]] (Tommy the Cork), a former [[Franklin Roosevelt]] personal adviser who lived in the [[White House]] at the President's side and afterward became a prominent Washington lawyer and fixer, worked with the Truman administration to cover up the case. Soviet agent [[Duncan Lee]], counsel to OSS head General William Donovan, was the the highest ranking [[KGB]] operative among nearly two dozen known Soviet agents who penetrated the OSS, worked in Corcoran's Washington law firm. <ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster092.pdf Vol. 92, pgs. 20 - 21] pdf, January 26, 1947. Biographical details and extended wrap-up on Duncan C. Lee, formerly of OSS, [[Elizabeth Bentley]]'s allegations concerning him, his contacts with [[Donald Wheeler]] and [[Mary Price]], and his employment by the law firm of President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] adviser [[Thomas Corcoran]]. </ref>
On June 6 1945, 6 persons, including three U.S. government officials, were arrested on conspiracy and espionage charges related to possession of roughly 1000 stolen classified Government documents in the offices of ''[[Amerasia]]'' magazine. ''Amerasia'' had published classified materials verbatim from the United States wartime intelligence service, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS). FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover believed he had an "airtight case," and Justice Department officials were ready to prosecute. [[Thomas Corcoran]] (Tommy the Cork), a former [[Franklin Roosevelt]] personal adviser who lived in the [[White House]] at the President's side and afterward became a prominent Washington lawyer and fixer, worked with the Truman administration to cover up the case. Soviet agent [[Duncan Lee]], counsel to OSS head General William Donovan, was the the highest ranking [[KGB]] operative among nearly two dozen known Soviet agents who penetrated the OSS, worked in Corcoran's Washington law firm. <ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster092.pdf Vol. 92, pgs. 20 - 21] pdf, January 26, 1947. Biographical details and extended wrap-up on Duncan C. Lee, formerly of OSS, [[Elizabeth Bentley]]'s allegations concerning him, his contacts with [[Donald Wheeler]] and [[Mary Price]], and his employment by the law firm of President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] adviser [[Thomas Corcoran]]. </ref>
==The Silvermaster case==
In November 1945 a courier from a very large CPUSA underground apparatus which had operated in numerous federal agencies throughout [[World War II]], inclduing the [[White House]], in fear for her life defected to the [[FBI]]. The [[KGB]] had removed [[Elizabeth Bentley]] from overseeing at least 80 KGB sources late in the war. When she realized she knew too much, and was nolonger of use to the KGB, she told her story to the FBI in a deposition.
The FBI knew of 5 Soviet agents throughout the war, Bentley added at least another 80, some of which were still employed in the US government at that time. Here story at first was incredible, but the FBI soom determined Bentley’s allegations regarding Communist Party sympathies, personal acquaintances and contacts between individuals named and their access to certain types of Government information has been born out by data already in Bureau files. <ref>FBI Silvermaster file, Ladd to the Director, Novermber 12, 1945, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster008.pdf Vol. 8, pg. 3] pdf.</ref> By December, no fewer that 227 FBI agents were involved in the case. <ref>FBI Silvermaster file, Ladd to the Director, Novermber 12, 1945, Vol. 8, pg. 6 pdf.</ref>
==Failure to discharge security risks==
==Failure to discharge security risks==