[GreenKeys] Spy Games from KPBS website

[Don Robert House]

>Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 15:46:45 -0800
>
>Spy Games
>In 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for stealing the secret of
>the atom bomb. Now, through never-before-seen-interviews Nova uncovers who
>really stole it. "Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies" takes viewers inside one
>of the most extraordinary decryption breakthroughs in history - VENONA,
>which in 1943 began probing the seemingly unbreakable Soviet code for a
>loophole.
>Nova interviews several surviving officials involved with VENONA, including
>crack code breaker Meredith Gardner, who explains how he exploited Soviet
>mistakes to uncover their atom spy ring, and retired FBI agent Robert
>Lamphere, who worked with Gardner to identify spies. Against all odds the
>code breaker's effort finally succeeded, and with the help of the FBI,
>exposed a vast network of spies operating in the United States, including
>highly placed agents at the clandestine facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico,
>where the atomic bomb was designed and built.
>VENONA is now forcing scholars to reassess the entire history of the Cold
>War, in which spying inside the most sensitive branches of the U.S.
>government and military played a more significant role than many experts
>believed.
>Nova reveals that Los Alamos scientist Ted Hall was among the spies
>identified by VENONA, but never confessed and managed to escape prosecution,
>even though his espionage gave the Soviets the all-important key to
>designing their first nuclear weapon. Hall was never publicly accused by the
>government since it was reluctant to expose VENONA by using decrypts as
>evidence in court.
>Hall comes clean about his spying activities in a never-before-seen
>interview recorded shortly before his death from cancer in 1999. His wife,
>Joan, also recounts-for the first time on television-the tale of his
>treachery and the cat-and-mouse game he and she played with the FBI, as it
>unsuccessfully tried to maneuver Hall into self-incrimination. Nova's
"Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies <020205.htm>" airs tonight at 8 p.m.

It is also available on a video cassette.

Don

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------
Don Robert House, N.S.E.
Curator, NADCOMM
North American Data Communications Museum
3841 Reche Road
Fallbrook, CA 92028-3810
760-723-9943 Office
760-723-9984 FAX
URL: http://www.nadcomm.org
e-mail: drhouse@abac.com