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
-- 
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Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
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"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?