The Atom Spy, My Dad, and Me

For First Time, Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits Spying for Soviets - NYTimes.com.

In 1951, Morton Sobell was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges. He served more than 18 years in Alcatraz and other federal prisons, traveled to Cuba and Vietnam after his release in 1969 and became an advocate for progressive causes.

Through it all, he maintained his innocence.

But on Thursday, Mr. Sobell, 91, dramatically reversed himself, shedding new light on a case that still fans smoldering political passions. In an interview, he admitted for the first time that he had been a Soviet spy.

1969: Elias Abu-Saba teaches Existentialism at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, Pennsylvania, as pro bono community service. Befriends Morton Sobell.
Helen Sobell, Morton's first wife, stays with Abu-Saba family in Lewisburg overnight during her visits to Morton.
Morton is released from prison.
Abu-Saba family drive to New York City and celebrate Sobell's release at a dim sum parlor in Chinatown.

1977: Abu-Saba family visits New York City. Morton Sobell comes for lunch with host family and Abu-Sabas. Leila, 15, asks Sobell about the Equal Rights Amendment. Sobell answers that the Communist Party of America is against the ERA because under communism there is no sex discrimination. Therefore to fight for the ERA is unnecessary, since he is fighting for communism.

The conversation turns to the Rosenbergs and Sobell's imprisonment by the U.S. Government for atom-bomb spying. Leila's brother, 12, asks Sobell directly: "Did you do it?"

Sobell refuses to answer the question. Brother presses. Sobell dodges.
Leila Abu-Saba concludes that Morton Sobell may actually be guilty, even though her father says the US Government persecuted an innocent man. She also decides she is never, ever going to be a Communist.

If you ever wonder why I walk the middle of the road and refuse to be counted among the true believers in any cause, look at this story. Such an episode might have made a neo-conservative out of some people of my generation but I don't go for opposite extremes, either. Life is complicated and nobody is a total hero, nor is any cause or movement totally just and pure.

My good wishes to Sobell, who is 91 and frail, for his peace of mind and reconciliation of contradictions in the winter of his life. I hope we live long enough to hear Dick Cheney confess his sins. In the scheme of things I believe Richard Cheney caused more harm and loss of life than Morton Sobell ever did.

Comments

[Ericka]

The fact that he was still a member of the CP in 1977 alone should have tipped you all off. All the good ones left when they realized Stalin's crimes.

Then again, my dad is still a Stalinist. I think there are about 3 of them left. In the world.

[Leila Abu-Saba]

Well, what did I know, I was only fifteen. My dad, well, he's not here for me to ask him. I think he was always willing to set aside people's politics and beliefs if they wanted to be friends.

Later on they had a bit of a falling out, because my Dad was working to elect Jimmy Carter in '80 and Sobell thought he was "selling out." But even later, in the 2000s, I believe my Dad went to see Sobell in San Francisco.

Hey, I have friends (and relatives) of all different political persuasions. People are people and politics, well, that's just a bunch of ideas.

[Renegade Eye]

Really good supplement to Louis Proyect's post.

I don't believe the Rosenberg's were innocent, but I don't know if there is such a thing as the one secret?

[5 dancing shlomos]

wasnt it ethel's brother who implicated her?

[5 dancing shlomos]

"If you ever wonder why I walk the middle of the road and refuse to be counted among the true believers in any cause, look at this story. Such an episode might have made a neo-conservative out of some people of my generation but I don't go for opposite extremes, either. Life is complicated and nobody is a total hero, nor is any cause or movement totally just and pure."

cockeyed statement. there are pure causes and there are evil causes.

the palestinians have a just cause and any means they use is justified. the iraqis and afgans are justified in what they do against the usa - in afgan, iraq or in usa if they choose.

[Richard Silverstein]

Amen to that about Dick Cheney. Sobell & Rosenberg may have been deluded & perhaps even fools in misplacing their faith & trust in Soviet Communism, but at least they HAD moral values no matter how attenuated they might have been. What values do Cheney & his ilk have other than the naked exercise of power & brute force in furtherance of supposed U.S. interests?

[5 dancing shlomos]

"...values do Cheney & his ilk have other than the naked exercise of power & brute force in furtherance of supposed U.S. interests?"

the interests of the "ilk" are israel and furtherance of jewish power.

[5 dancing shlomos]

my comment didnt post??

"What values do Cheney & his ilk have other than the naked exercise of power & brute force in furtherance of supposed U.S. interests?"

the interests of the ilk are furtherance of israel's and jewish power.

[FanOfLeila]

Sobel remained a victim of the Soviet demagogy.

We should sympathize with such good men, without endorsing his narrowminded views.

I am equally very disturbed by the hateful remarks of other Jewish-Americans, prejudiced against the whole nation of Israel, and against the whole United States of America.

How can all these narrowminded individuals, your fellow bloggers stay outside of humanity, when such decent people like Leila blogs along them?