We Got It Right About the Rosenbergs

I was surprised to see a major FoxNews report on the Rosenberg trial the other day. Every once in a while, the treasons committed by notorius leftists such as Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs are exhumed, and some present-day leftists try to cast doubt on their guilt. One of the witnesses, who himself was a spy for the Soviets, recently recanted his 55 year old testimony against the Rosenbergs; and their sons, who spent their lifetimes arguing the innocence of their parents, have gone in the other direction. We should always remember that all communists, socialists and modern liberals lie whenever it suits them in order to advance their cause of collectivism.

We should also remember that the deaths and imprisonments of millions of innocent people indirectly resulted from the treason of the Rosenbergs. Hopefully, with the declaration by their children, we can lay this to rest for all time. Of course, the actions of the New York Times in revealing secret intelligence gathering techniques to those who are trying to kill us are no better than the Rosenbergs, and the activities of many anti-war activists like Valerie Plame approach the line of actual treason.

Rosenberg sons acknowledge their father was a spy

September 17, 2008 WTOP.com

NEW YORK (AP) - After years of professing their parents' innocence, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are acknowledging that their father was a spy.

The about-face came after their father's co-defendant, Morton Sobell, admitted for the first time that he and Julius Rosenberg stole nonatomic military and industrial secrets for the Soviet Union.

The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Since then, decoded Soviet cables have appeared to confirm that Julius was a spy, but doubts have remained about Ethel's involvement.

The 91-year-old Sobell, who was convicted with the Rosenbergs on espionage charges in 1951 and released from prison in 1969, had maintained his innocence until last week, when he told The New York Times he turned over military secrets to the Soviets during World War II.

"I don't have any reason to doubt Morty," the Rosenbergs' son Michael Meeropol told the Times in Wednesday's editions.

Michael was 10 years old when his parents were executed. His brother, Robert, was 6. After living with a series of relatives, the boys were eventually adopted.

As adults, they sued the government for documents relating to their parents' case and worked to establish their innocence.

In separate interviews with the Times since Sobell's confession, the brothers said they concluded they could no longer claim their father was innocent of an espionage conspiracy. They still say, however, that any atomic bomb information he gave the Russians was at best superfluous, that the case against their parents was flawed and that neither deserved the death penalty.

Along with Sobell and others, both brothers still have doubts about the government's case against their mother.

Sobell told the Times last week he believes Ethel Rosenberg was aware of espionage by her husband but didn't actively participate. "What was she guilty of? Of being Julius' wife," he said.

Michael Meeropol, an economics professor at Western New England College in Springfield, Mass., told the paper he and his brother had believed their parents were framed but also were willing to follow the facts wherever they led.

"We believed they were innocent and we tried to prove them innocent," he said. "But I remember saying to myself in late 1975, maybe a little later, that whatever happens, it doesn't change me. We really meant it, that the truth is more important than our political position."

Robert Meeropol, a lawyer who runs the Rosenberg Fund for Children, which advocates on behalf of young people whose parents have suffered because of their progressive politics, said he, too, was willing to admit that he and his brother were wrong.
"I had considered that a real possibility for some time," Robert Meeropol said, "and this tips the balance."

The brothers were asked whether they felt betrayed by their parents, who had proclaimed their innocence until the very end.

"I don't feel that way," Robert told the paper. "I can understand that they didn't do the thing they were being killed for. The grand jury testimony taught me more about my parents' social circle. It's a description of a whole bunch of 20-somethings, people who came out of the Depression, not only survived but went to the top of their class and they thought they could change the world. They were going to do what they could to make their mark. Until it all came crashing down."

Here are some anonymous comments about the reappearance of the Rosenberg case (the Verona transcripts mentioned refer to the codename NSA gave to certain recordings made).

“The Venona transcripts are the peak in a of mountain of evidence on which rests an unassailable conclusion - both Rosenbergs were guilty of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Never was the penalty of death for treason more deserved and appropriately administered. Ethel could not hide behind her skirt then, nor should her children be permitted to spin away the evidence of her guilt now. The history of the fellow-travelling left is a shameful record of support for a murderous totalitarian regieme. Let there be sympathy for its victims and not its supporters.”

“REALITY: The Soviet Union was the most murderous regime in history..BAR NONE. As many as 40 MILLION people died in the Gulags for crimes such as having an opinion different than the governments, or for being Jewish (yes, the Soviets did it too) or homosexual. So the Rosenbergs, having access to the one thing that guaranteed OUR freedom decided, based upon their own opinion as to what was correct, to deliver this capability to the one nation who was worse than Hitlers Germany. Apparently, ‘poor’ Ethel was not AS guilty as we thought as her own brother lied to protect his wife. WHY IS THIS THE GOVERNMENTS FAULT?”

”The Rosenbergs, by providing this technology to the Soviet Union, pretty much sentenced MILLIONS to Eastern Europeans to life under the Soviet, SOCIALIST, yoke. Many thousands died under that yoke while trying to escape it or overthrow it. Had the US had the ONLY Atomic Capability, perhaps we could have freed those millions sooner. And cheaper. Why cannot our media report THIS ANGLE? Are they stupid or biased to the left?”

“With all the truly important issues of the day, why drag this one out again. The Rosenbergs, unfortunately, were traitors. They helped advance the most evil empire in the history of mankind. Whatever romance Communism held and, still holds for some cannot ever be offset by its body count. 60 million. Thats 60 million human beings, people who had wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, children, hopes and dreams, the desire to get on with their lives and be they Russians, Hungarians, Chinese, Cambodians, Laotians Vietnamese, Cubans, or Americans, they were people whose lives were tragically cut down by this sick pestilence. Mao, Ho, Joe, Lenin and Fidel even made Hitler look like a piker.

Let the Rosenbergs lie. They don’t deserve the attention.”