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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>Dear Friends,<br><br>
<b>By now many of you have heard that last week, on September 11th, the
transcript covering testimony of 43 of the 46* witnesses who appeared in
front of the Grand Jury investigating my parents in 1950-1951, was made
public.</b> (*Only a portion of the testimony of Harry Gold, a key
prosecution witness, was made available, and legal efforts to date have
failed to win the release of testimony of three other witnesses,
including Ethel Rosenberg’s brother, David Greenglass, the most crucial
player in the case.)<br><br>
This historic release of information coincided with an article that
appeared on the same date in the New York Times, interviewing Morton
Sobell, my parents’ co-defendant. Ever since his arrest more than
50 years ago, Mort has maintained his innocence. But in last week’s
interview he admitted that he, along with Julius Rosenberg, passed
non-atomic military intelligence to the Soviets during World War II in an
effort to help them defeat the Nazis.<br><br>
Over the last week I have read all 930 pages of Grand Jury testimony that
have been released, and my brother has spoken to Mort directly to clarify
Mort’s statement. Many of you are wondering about my reaction to
these revelations.<br><br>
Here are my initial thoughts after integrating the information from this
last week with the rest of the historical record. <br><br>
1) Since the 1980’s I have maintained that it is possible that my
father engaged in non-atomic espionage, but that he did NOT participate
in ANY activities that resulted in him obtaining or passing the “secret
of the Atomic Bomb” to the Soviets. Mort’s statement moves me to
acknowledge that it is virtually certain, that Julius did, in fact,
participate with others in passing along military information. But
at the same time, I believe the still-evolving record makes it even
clearer that <b>Julius did not “steal” or transmit the “secret of the
Atomic Bomb,” the crime for which he was executed.<br><br>
</b>2) Ruth Greenglass’s Grand Jury testimony provides several
bombshells, but I will only highlight one here. Ruth and her
husband David, (my mother’s sister-in-law and brother), cooperated with
the prosecution in exchange for a comparatively light sentence for David,
and for no charges being brought against Ruth. It was Ruth’s trial
testimony that provided the one, key piece of evidence that led to my
mother’s conviction. Ruth stated at trial that Ethel typed David’s
handwritten notes describing the Atomic Bomb, an act that would have made
Ethel an active participant in the alleged spy ring. However,
despite being a cooperative witness trying to remain in the prosecutor’s
good graces, <b>Ruth’s Grand Jury testimony included NOTHING about Ethel
ever typing any notes; included NOTHING about Ethel even being present at
the meeting involving the notes; and in a damning contradiction to her
later trial testimony, stated that <u>RUTH </u> hand-wrote the only notes
and they described the <u>buildings</u> at Los Alamos <u>not</u> the
Atomic Bomb.<br><br>
</b>3) All that I have learned in the last week, coupled with all
that I have gleaned from the information already available, reinforces
the biggest lesson to be taken from my parents’ case- <b><u>that the U.S.
Government abused its power in truly dangerous ways that are still very
relevant today</u>.</b> <b>Those in power who were involved in my
parents’ case:
<ul>
<li>Created and fueled anti-communist hysteria</b></font><font size=3>
</font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Capitalized on that political
climate by targeting my parents, then making them the focus of the
public’s Cold War-era fear and anger</b></font><font size=3> </font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Manufactured testimony and
evidence</b></font><font size=3> </font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Facilitated judicial
misconduct</b></font><font size=3> </font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Hounded witnesses for their
political beliefs and associations rather than about any alleged illegal
activities</b></font><font size=3> </font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Arrested Ethel simply as
leverage to try to get Julius to cooperate with the
prosecution</b></font><font size=3> </font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Used the ultimate weapon— the
threat of death—to try extort a confession from my parents and to force
them to name and testify against others</b></font><font size=3> </font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Created the myth that there
was a key “secret” of the Atomic Bomb, and then devised a strategy to
make it appear that Julius had sought out and passed on that
“secret”</b></font><font size=3> </font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Executed Julius when he
refused to cooperate. despite knowing that the “secret” used to justify
the death penalty, was a prosecution-created
fallacy</b></font><font size=3> </font>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>Executed Ethel when she
refused to cooperate, despite knowing that she was not guilty of ANY
charges against her and was not an active participant in ANY espionage
activities.</b></font><font size=3></font>
</ul><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>And finally, the agencies
and individuals involved in my parents’ case, systematically and
emphatically covered-up and denied all these abuses.<br><br>
</b>Ultimately, these new revelations have made me even more steadfast in
my commitment to helping those whom the Rosenberg Fund for Children
supports: today’s families experiencing similar targeting and
suffering similar personal tragedies.<br><br>
I thank you all for the many messages of support and solidarity you have
sent to me and my family, and I invite any of you who would like more
information, (including details on how to view the Grand Jury transcripts
yourselves), to visit the RFC website at
<a href="http://www.rfc.org/">www.rfc.org</a>.<br><br>
Robert Meeropol<br><br>
Executive Director<br><br>
*********************************<br>
Rosenberg Fund for Children<br><br>
<a href="http://www.rfc.org">www.rfc.org</a><br><br>
tel: (413) 529-0063<br>
fax: (413) 529-0802<br>
116 Pleasant St., Suite 348<br>
Easthampton, MA 01027<br><br>
<br>
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