Historians hope to pry a few more secrets from Rosenberg espionage case files

[struggle4progress]

Historians hope to pry a few more secrets from Rosenberg espionage case files

By JEFF GAMMAGE | The Philadelphia Inquirer • Published July 19, 2008

... Two Philadelphia historians have joined a research institute and library in seeking what's believed to be the last trove of documents from the defining espionage case of the Cold War: hundreds of pages of secret grand-jury testimony that preceded the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who died in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison in 1953 ...

Among the witnesses who did not agree to release his testimony is David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg's brother and a main witness against the couple at their trial. He allegedly gave the Rosenbergs secrets stolen from his job at the Los Alamos research lab, where scientists were creating the atomic bomb. The National Security Archive says Greenglass waived his privacy rights by granting interviews to an author and to the news program "60 Minutes II."

At trial, he said he had passed notes and sketches of the bomb to Julius. His testimony that tied Ethel to espionage - that she typed his notes - was recanted decades later. Freed from prison in 1960, Greenglass lives under an assumed name ...

"Myself and my brother, we have always believed in freedom of information," Robert Meeropol, 61, said in a phone interview. "We have always said the most important thing is to get all the material out and let the chips fall where they may" ...

http://www.theolympian.com/nationworld/story/512548-p3.html