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Cut off from investigative data, Congress interviewed witnesses itself. Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], on August 3, 1948, the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling [[State Department]] security officials and the [[FBI]] about the [[Ware group]] for a decade:

Cut off from investigative data, Congress interviewed witnesses itself. Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], on August 3, 1948, the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling [[State Department]] security officials and the [[FBI]] about the [[Ware group]] for a decade:

{{cquote|I was a member of the Communist Party and a paid functionary of the party.... the apparatus to which I was attached…. was an underground organization of the United States Communist Party developed, to the best of my knowledge, by [[Harold Ware]]…. The head of the underground group at the time I knew it was [[Nathan Witt]]…. Later, [[John Abt]] became the leader. [[Lee Pressman]] was also a member of this group, as was Alger Hiss….The purpose of this group at that time was not primarily espionage. Its original purpose was the Communist infiltration of the American Government. But [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html espionage was certainly one of its eventual objectives].}}

{{cquote|I was a member of the Communist Party and a paid functionary of the party.... the apparatus to which I was attached…. was an underground organization of the United States Communist Party developed, to the best of my knowledge, by [[Harold Ware]]…. The head of the underground group at the time I knew it was [[Nathan Witt]]…. Later, [[John Abt]] became the leader. [[Lee Pressman]] was also a member of this group, as was Alger Hiss….The purpose of this group at that time was not primarily espionage. Its original purpose was the Communist infiltration of the American Government. But [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html espionage was certainly one of its eventual objectives].}}

When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lt8FHQAACAAJ Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness, a Soviet Spymaster]'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>

When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lt8FHQAACAAJ Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness, a Soviet Spymaster]'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref> That year, [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= memorandum], entitled "Failures in the USA (1938-48)," listing 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities. Included on the list, under the heading, "'Karl’s' group," was "Alger Hiss, former employee of the State Dept."<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, ''Black Notebook'', [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Original.pdf Original], p. 39; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Transcribed.pdf Transcribed], p. 77; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Translated1.pdf Translated] (tr. Philip Redko), p. 77</ref>

Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=dkeRKZOX2n4C&pgis=1 Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to "disregard the evidence and follow its emotions":<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fLdPjg5PFrcC Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref>

Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=dkeRKZOX2n4C&pgis=1 Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to "disregard the evidence and follow its emotions":<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fLdPjg5PFrcC Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref>