ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A chat with ``Ales'' and a bonus for ``Liberal'' are among the latest disclosures of Soviet espionage activity in the United States during World War II.
In the hundreds of pages of newly declassified material released Tuesday by the National Security Agency, Ales is identified as ``probably Alger Hiss.'' Liberal is identified as Julius Rosenberg, who with his wife, Ethel, was convicted and executed on charges of giving atomic secrets to the Soviets.
``Decision was made about awarding the sources as a bonus the following sums: to LIBERAL 4,000 dollars,'' said a memo from Moscow to New York dated March 6, 1945.
The Rosenbergs never admitted spying for the Soviets. Their children maintain the that Rosenbergs were innocent.
The messages between Moscow and KGB stations in the United States were intercepted but not decoded and translated until years later.
In many cases, references and identifications of code names are speculative.
For example, the cable dated March 30, 1945, that refers to Ales, offers no supporting information for identifying him as ``probably Alger Hiss,'' a State Department official who has always denied being a Soviet spy. He was never tried for espionage but was convicted in 1950 of lying to a federal grand jury.
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