rss news: Former Los Alamos scientist indicted on nuclear charges

Σάββατο 18 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010

Former Los Alamos scientist indicted on nuclear charges - a new Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case ?

Former Los Alamos scientist indicted on nuclear charges - a new Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case ?

Pedro Mascheroni, 75

[..Washington (CNN) -- A former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear scientist and his wife were indicted on charges of trying to provide nuclear secrets to Venezuela, but U.S. officials stressed the Venezuelan government knew nothing about the plans. The officials said they have no information from the undercover operation that Hugo Chavez's government has any plans to try to build a nuclear weapon. Pedro Mascheroni, 75, and Roxby Mascheroni, 67, are U.S. citizens...

who worked as contractors at Los Alamos in New Mexico, officials said Friday. In 2008, Mascheroni, who had left the laboratory years earlier, had a series of conversations with an undercover FBI agent posing as an official of the Caracas government, according to the indictment. "Mascheroni allegedly said he could help Venezuela develop a nuclear bomb within 10 years and that under his program Venezuela would use a secret underground nuclear reactor to produce and enrich plutonium and an open, above-ground reactor to produce nuclear energy," the Justice Department said. According, to a U.S. Justice Department statement, Mascheroni allegedly asked about obtaining Venezuelan citizenship and described how he expected to be paid for his classified nuclear work for Venezuela. Mascheroni said his fee for producing certain information was $793,000, the indictment alleges. U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzalez said the charges...]

We have to rememer the old Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case

[..he trial of the Rosenbergs and Sobell began on March 6, 1951. The judge was Irving Kaufman and the attorney for the Rosenbergs wasEmanuel Hirsch Bloch.^[20]^[21] The prosecution's primary witness, David Greenglass, stated that his sister Ethel typed notes containing U.S. nuclear secrets in the Rosenberg apartment in September 1945. He also testified that he turned over to Julius Rosenberg a sketch of the cross-section of an implosion-type atom bomb (the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, as opposed to a bomb with the "gun method" triggering device as used in the "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima).^[22] The notes allegedly typed by Ethel apparently contained little that was relevant to the Soviet atomic bomb project and some suggest Ethel was indicted along with Julius so that the prosecution could use her to pressure Julius into giving up the names of others who were involved.^[23] However, neither Julius nor Ethel Rosenberg named anyone else and during testimony each asserted their right under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment to not incriminate themselves whenever asked about involvement in the Communist Party or with its members. Then-U.S. Deputy Attorney General William P. Rogers, when later asked about the failure of the indictment of Ethel to leverage a full confession by Julius, reportedly said, "She called our bluff."^[24]The Rosenbergs were convicted on March 29, 1951, and on April 5 were sentenced to death by Judge Irving Kaufman under Section 2 of the Espionage Act of 1917, 50 U.S. Code 32 (now 18 U.S. Code 794), which prohibits transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government information "relating to the national defense."^[25] The conviction helped to fuel Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into anti-American activities by U.S. citizens. While their devotion to the Communist cause was well-documented, the Rosenbergs denied the espionage charges even as they faced theelectric chair.^[26]The Rosenbergs were the only two American civilians to be executed for espionage-related activity during the Cold War.^[27] In imposing the death penalty, Kaufman noted that he held them responsible not only for espionage but also for the deaths of the Korean War: -- On June 18, the Court was called back into special session to dispose of Douglas' stay rather than let the execution be delayed for months while the appeal that was the basis of the stay wended its way through the lower courts. The Court did not vacate Douglas' stay until noon on June 19. Thus, the execution then was scheduled for later in the evening after the start of the Jewish Sabbath.^[41] Desperately playing for more time, their lawyer, Emanuel Hirsch Bloch, filed a complaint that this offended their Jewish heritage, so the execution was scheduled before sunset, at 8 P.M. on Friday instead of the regular time of execution at Sing-Sing of 11 P.M. which usually took place on Thursday.^[42]Eyewitness testimony (as given by a newsreel report featured in the 1982 documentary film The Atomic Cafe) describes the circumstances of the Rosenbergs' death, noting that while Julius Rosenberg died after the first series of electrocutions, his wife did not. After the normal course of electrocutions, attendants removed the strapping and other equipment only to have doctors determine that Mrs. Rosenberg had not yet died (her heart was still beating). Three courses of electrocution were ultimately applied, and at conclusion eyewitnesses reported, Bob Considine among them, a grisly scene with smoke rising from her head in the chamber.^[43]Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were buried at Wellwood Cemetery in Pinelawn, New York..]

βεβαίως η εκτέλεση τους δεν εμπόδισε την Σοβ. Ενωση να κάνει την πρώτη της πυρηνική δοκιμή την οποία υποδέχτηκε πανηγυρικά όλη η Αριστερά της εποχής ..