FBI Silvermaster File
{{Short description|Documents about Russian moles in the US government}}
{{original research|date=August 2015}}
The Silvermaster File[http://ultra-secret.info/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/Silvermaster.htm FBI Silvermaster file 65-56402] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120802154514/http://ultra-secret.info/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/Silvermaster.htm |date=2012-08-02 }} [https://web.archive.org/web/20110726014919/http://www.education-research.org/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/Silvermaster.htm archived link] of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation is a 162-volume compendium totalling 26,000 pages of documents relating to the FBI's investigation of GRU and NKVD moles inside the U.S. federal government both before and during the Cold War.
Beginning in 1945 with the allegations of defector and former NKVD courier Elizabeth Bentley (Venona cover names "Myrna";{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/23_Sep_1944_R3_m4_p2.gif |title=1353 KGB New York to Moscow, 23 Sept. 1944, p. 2 |access-date=2007-07-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227100648/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/23_Sep_1944_R3_m4_p2.gif |archive-date=2008-02-27 |url-status=dead }} Umnitsa, "Clever Girl"{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/13_May_1944_R3_p1.gif |title=687 KGB New York to Moscow, 13 May 1944, p.1 |access-date=12 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227100646/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/13_May_1944_R3_p1.gif |archive-date=27 February 2008 |url-status=dead }}), the file is also known as the Bentley file or Gregory file ("Gregory" was the FBI code name for Bentley).
The file takes its name from Nathan Gregory Silvermaster (Venona cover names Pel,{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/29-30_Jun_1943_p2.gif |title=1017 KGB New York to Moscow, 29-30 June 1943, p. 2 |access-date=12 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227074845/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/29-30_Jun_1943_p2.gif |archive-date=27 February 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} Pal, "Paul";{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/09_Jun_1943_m3_p2.gif |title=888 KGB New York to Moscow, 9th June 1943, p. 2 |access-date=2007-07-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227074849/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/09_Jun_1943_m3_p2.gif |archive-date=2008-02-27 |url-status=dead }} "Robert"{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/19_Dec_1944_R3_m1_p1.gif |title=1787 KGB New York to Moscow, 19 December 1944, p.1 |access-date=12 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227074840/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/19_Dec_1944_R3_m1_p1.gif |archive-date=27 February 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}) of the War Production Board, whom Bentley named as head of an underground Communist network known as the Silvermaster Group.FBI Report, [https://web.archive.org/web/20221001150351/http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/NKVD.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946 ([http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf FBI Silvermaster file, Volume 82)] {{webarchive|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080227074841/http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf |date=2008-02-27 }}, p. 12 Among the people named in the file in connection with this group are President Franklin Roosevelt's Administrative Assistant Lauchlin CurrieFBI Report, [https://web.archive.org/web/20221001150351/http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/NKVD.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946 ([http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf FBI Silvermaster file, Volume 82)] {{webarchive|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080227074841/http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf |date=2008-02-27 }}, 52 (Venona cover name "Page")Robert J. Hanyok,
[https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/publications/wwii/assets/files/eavesdropping.pdf Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515084033/https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/publications/wwii/assets/files/eavesdropping.pdf |date=2017-05-15 }} (Washington, DC: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2005, 2nd Ed.), p. 119 and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Harry Dexter White[https://web.archive.org/web/20221001150351/http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/NKVD.pdf FBI Report, op. cit.], p. 78 (PDF page 86) (Venona cover names "Lawyer";{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/02_sept_1944_r6_m2_p2.gif |title=1251 KGB New York to Moscow, 2 September 1944, p. 2 |access-date=12 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071129024246/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/02_sept_1944_r6_m2_p2.gif |archive-date=29 November 2007 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} "Jurist"; "Richard"{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/18_Jan_1945_R3_m3_p1.gif |title=83 KGB New York to Moscow, 18 January 1945, p.1 |access-date=12 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071129024328/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/18_Jan_1945_R3_m3_p1.gif |archive-date=29 November 2007 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}).
Also named in the file are Victor Perlo[https://web.archive.org/web/20221001150351/http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/NKVD.pdf FBI Report, p. 98] (Venona cover name "Raider"{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/13_May_1944_R3_p1.gif |title=687 KGB New York to Moscow, 13 May 1944, p. 1 |access-date=12 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227100646/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/13_May_1944_R3_p1.gif |archive-date=27 February 2008 |url-status=dead }}), chief of the Aviation Section of the War Production Board, and contacts of his Perlo group, including Alger Hiss[https://web.archive.org/web/20221001150351/http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/NKVD.pdf FBI Report], p. 108 (PDF 119) (Venona cover name "Ales"{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/30_Mar_1945_R3_m4_p1.gif |title=1822 KGB New York to Moscow, 30 March 1945, p. 1 |access-date=12 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227100649/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/30_Mar_1945_R3_m4_p1.gif |archive-date=27 February 2008 |url-status=dead }}"This could only be Alger Hiss." ([https://fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa6.html Appendix A, Part 6, "The Experience of the Bomb"], Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy (Moynihan Commission), Senate Document 105-2, Pursuant to Public Law 236, 103rd Congress, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1997)"Analysts at the National Security Agency have gone on record asserting that Ales could only have been Alger Hiss." ([https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html PBS Nova Online: "Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412130727/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html |date=2024-04-12 }})), secretary general of the United Nations Charter Conference. (Like several others identified by Bentley, Hiss had been identified independently by another defecting Soviet courier, Whittaker Chambers, to Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle in 1939.{{Cite web |url=http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html |title=Berle's notes on his meeting with Whittaker Chambers, September 2, 1939 |access-date=July 12, 2007 |archive-date=August 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801115423/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html |url-status=live }}) Among dozens of others named by Bentley in this file in connection with this network is Duncan Lee[https://web.archive.org/web/20221001150351/http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/NKVD.pdf FBI Report], p. 163 (Venona cover name "Koch"{{Cite web |url=http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/08_Jun_1943_m7_p1.gif |title=800 KGB New York to Moscow, June 8, 1943, p. 1 |access-date=July 12, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070705100533/http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/08_Jun_1943_m7_p1.gif |archive-date=July 5, 2007 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}), confidential assistant to William Donovan, founder and director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), wartime predecessor of the CIA.
Prosecutions
Original plans for Bentley to serve as a double agent and gather sufficient evidence to prosecute the Soviet agents identified in the Silvermaster files were ruined when her identity was inadvertently leaked and the USSR quickly shut down its operations. The Silvermaster file in combination with other secret proofs such as the Venona intercepts gave US intelligence the identity of many Soviet agents without the practical means to secure convictions. Also, the statute of limitations for an espionage prosecution was quite short. This was a significant part of the backstory of McCarthyism. Bentley's double agent career would have enabled the US to expose the spies without compromising Venona and losing that as an ongoing intelligence source.In a hand written note in the margin Hoover writes, "in view of all the 'gabbing' done by the Dept to the Press there is little which can be expected from any action now." FBI Silvermaster file, Tamm to the Director, January 23, 1947, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster093.pdf Vol. 93, pgs. 20 -22] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320041747/http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster093.pdf |date=2012-03-20 }} pdf.FBI Silvermanster file, Memorandum for the Attorney General, January 27, 1947.
See also
Notes
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References
- FBI Report, Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946 ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120722175508/http://www.education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf FBI Silvermaster file, Volume 82)],
Further reading
- “Testimony of Elizabeth T. Bentley,” [https://web.archive.org/web/20160306024325/https://www.scribd.com/doc/84212187/Hearings-Regarding-Communist-Espionage-in-the-United-States-Government-Hearings-1948 Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government], Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, Second Session, Public Law 601 (Section 121, Subsection Q [2]), Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1948.
External links
- [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/cold-war-international-history-project The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP)] has the full text of former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks, containing new evidence on Soviet espionage in the United States during the Cold War
- The Education and Research Institute has posted [https://web.archive.org/web/20130306064446/http://education-research.org/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/summaries.htm summaries and text of most of the 162 volumes of the Silvermaster File].
- The FBI Silvermaster File on the Internet Archive
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Category:Espionage in the United States
Category:Espionage scandals and incidents