ESPIONAGE AND TRAITORS

THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE: The Japanese stock market was hit hard over night, down more than 2%. The German DAX is down 1.5%, the French CAC is down 2.3%, the FTSE 100 is down 1.5% and Greece is down 1.5%. 

The US response to Ebola has been less than sterling, but of course we should keep the Federal Government out of it, close the CDC and let the states handle it (cue cheering for Sarah Palin)  right? Maybe Texas can take the lead. They've been storing Ebola tainted linens in garbage bags bought at Home Depot (new motto: "we help with medical waste too!")

Here's what we know folks: There are two health care workers in Texas who were infected despite the precautions taken. President Obama has canceled two trips this week to stay at the White House to work on this problem. Do we know for sure exactly how this virus is and isn't transmitted? Assume for a moment that Ebola can be transmitted like the flu.  And you think the markets are shaky now? Say good bye to most of the airline and transportation stocks for a while. And the economy as a whole will be hit hard, as travel restrictions and fears hits tourism and business travel and people stop going to Malls and restaurants and movie theaters, and interstate food transportation, and then ......? It gets bad fast.  The CDC announced yesterday that the current rate of new cases in Africa - 1000 a week, will reach 10,000 a week before the end of the year. 

The Russell 2000 is off 11% for the year. The NASDAQ is off 8.6 of it's highs-  any drop of 10% off a yearly high is considered a market heading into a correction, which means the bottom falling out for a while.  Seems like quite an opportune time for the Russians to cause some problem in the Ukraine and the Chinese to stake out some more disputed territory in Asia, and ISIS to renew attacks and then one person slips though our porous borders and drives a car with some toxins and explosives to a crowded hotel or a Mall in DC or Chicago or Boston or NYC and leaves it with the valet and then.....

Meanwhile the Saudis are taking aim at US oil and gas producers by flooding the market with oil. Storage capacity is almost maxed out, the price for oil has been crushed and why does that matter to us? Because the rebound in the economy has been driven by energy and if oil and gas prices keep falling, many of these new US companies who have invested billions in oil recovery technology with the belief that oil at $100 gives them a nice profit close their doors when oil remains under $80, which is now where it is at.  

Of course Ebola could burn out, the market will rally, the Russians and Chinese  will behave and we will all have a Merry Christmas. 

And you wonder why we are up at 4am? 


What is the most (in)famous espionage case prosecuted in the United States?  
Before there was Jonathan Pollard and Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames there were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. 

To understand the Rosenberg case, you need to understand the times. At the end of World War Two the United States was the unquestioned super power as the only nation that had the atomic bomb. The Soviet Union probably had the most powerful army at the end of WWII, but the US had the bomb. That changed by 1950 when the FBI learned that the nuclear facilities at Los Alamos had been compromised. 

This is from the FBI.gov website:

This contact was subsequently identified through FBI investigation as Harry Gold, a Philadelphia chemist. On May 22, 1950, Gold confessed his espionage activity to the FBI.

Investigation of Harry Gold’s admissions led to the identification of David Greenglass, a U.S. Army enlisted man and Soviet agent, who had been assigned by the Army to Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1944 and 1945. Gold stated that he had picked up espionage material from Greenglass during June 1945 on instructions of “John,” his Soviet principal. “John” was subsequently identified as Anatoli Yakovlev, former Soviet vice-consul in New York City, who left the United States in December 1946. Interrogation of Greenglass and his wife, Ruth, resulted in admissions of espionage activity under the instructions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, brother-in -law and sister, respectively, of David Greenglass. 

To summarize, David Greenglass was the brother of Ethel Rosenberg. His cooperation and testimony was crucial to the prosecution of his sister and her husband, especially that his sister Ethel had typed the notes he received about the atomic bomb. 

The Rosenbergs were convicted, and despite the public outcry, especially against the execution of Ethel Rosenberg, both were executed on June 19, 1953. 

And that was that. 

Except David Greenglass, who died this past July at the age of 92, lied.  It was Greenglass's wife Ruth who typed the notes, but Greenglass lied to spare his wife and the mother of his two young children. Here is the NY Times Obit. 

Ruth Greenglass

From the Times Obit: 

Mr. Greenglass was under intense pressure. He had not yet been sentenced, and his wife, the mother of his two small children, faced possible prosecution, though her role had been minimal. In federal court in Manhattan in 1951, Mr. Greenglass’s testimony — corroborated by his wife’s — clinched the case against Mr. Rosenberg and implicated Mrs. Rosenberg.

Sam Roberts, a Times editor and reporter, later found Mr. Greenglass and, after a 13-year effort, obtained 50 hours of interviews that led to a book, “The Brother: The Untold Story of the Rosenberg Case.” In the book, Mr. Greenglass admitted that, to spare his wife from prosecution, he had testified that his sister typed his notes. 

He said he had no regrets. “My wife is more important to me than my sister. Or my mother or my father, O.K.? And she was the mother of my children.”

So who apologizes to Ethel Rosenberg and her children? 

Just wondering. 

See You In Court.