Morty

Morton Sobel, 91 years old, has finally admitted that he did, indeed engage in spying. He was convicted in 1951 with the Rosenbergs and maintained his innocence until just a few days ago. He admitted to the charges of which he was found guilty because the National Archives was about to release the previously sealed grand jury testimony that he tried to stop from coming out.

To me the interesting part of the article was about what the government was willing to do in order to get a conviction against Julius Rosenberg. It’s not clear what role Ethel Rosenberg, Julius’s wife, had in the entire affair. Some believe that she typed up notes her brother, David Greenglass, brought to the house. Some believe she did nothing. But it’s generally acknowledged that she did not engage in actual espionage. She may have known some of what was going on, she may not. But the government used her in an effort to get Julius to implicate others in the conspiracy with which they were charged. She never talked and neither did Julius. They were both executed in 1953, the only Americans ever executed in peace time for espionage. They left behind two young sons.

They used her as a pawn in a game they were playing with her husband. William P. Rogers, the deputy attorney general at the time is quoted in the Times article: “That strategy failed…she called our bluff.” This is what happens when the death penalty is used as a tool, a ploy for getting people to do what you want them to do: innocent people are executed.