On the Trail of a Fourth Soviet Spy at Los Alamos
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Project SOLO and the Seborers On the Trail of a Fourth Soviet Spy at Los Alamos Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynesa ? Images © Science History Images/Alamy Stock (left two) and Everett Collection/Alamy Stock Until 1995 only two Soviet spies, Klaus Fuchs and Da- with Fuchs, Greenglass, and Hall the fourth Soviet source vid Greenglass (shown being arrested above), were pub- at the Los Alamos laboratory in WWII was Oscar Seborer. licly known to have stolen US atomic secrets from Los Alamos, the super-secret Manhattan Project facility where The FBI has known since 1955 that Oscar, his brother the atomic bomb was actually built. Coded Soviet cables Stuart, Stuart’s wife Miriam, and Miriam’s mother all se- sent during the years 1940–48 that were eventually deci- cretly defected to the Soviet bloc in 1952, living initially phered by US intelligence, under the codename Venona, in East Germany but then moving to Moscow, where they and released in 1995 identified a third Soviet agent, Theo- lived under the name Smith. The brothers never returned dore Hall, a young physics prodigy who had worked as a from Moscow, but remarkably Miriam, by then divorced junior scientist in the plutonium bomb project. from Stuart, returned to the United States with her son (born in East Germany) and her mother in 1969, at the Some students of Soviet atomic espionage have be- height of the Cold War. But the role of Oscar Seborer and lieved in the existence of a fourth unidentified Soviet spy his associates in Soviet espionage has remained hidden at Los Alamos, codenamed “Perseus,” later changed to for 70 years. “Mlad.” This belief is based on memoirs of KGB officers published in the early 1990s. But with the opening of the Venona decryptions in 1995, it became clear that Perseus SOLO and the Seborers was a Soviet/Russian intelligence disinformation oper- The story of Oscar Seborer’s atomic espionage is ation to protect Theodore Hall (the real Mlad), then still found in a few dozen easily overlooked pages scattered alive but not publicly exposed as a Soviet spy. The fake among tens of thousands of pages of FBI files released Perseus/Mlad was given characteristics that did not fit in 2011. The rest comes from partially released FBI files 1 Hall. There was no Perseus. on Oscar and Stuart that document Operation SOLO, the codename for the FBI’s recruitment and direction But while there was no Perseus, there was a fourth of two communist brothers, Morris and Jack Childs, as Soviet spy at Los Alamos. For seven decades the identity informants inside the senior leadership of the Communist of this spy has been buried in the FBI’s investigative files. Party, USA, (CPUSA) from 1952 until 1980.1 Recently declassified, these documents reveal that along a. We wish to thank Mark Kramer and Steve Usdin for their assistance with research for this essay. The views, opinions, and findings of the author expressed in this article should not be construed as asserting or implying US government endorsement of its factual statements and interpretations or representing the official positions of any component of the United States government. © Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, 2019. Studies in Intelligence Vol. 63, No. 3 (September 2019) 1 Project SOLO and the Seborers The Childs brothers begin their York by Needleman and cooperation with the FBI during a dif- Jack. ficult period in CPUSA history. Since the late 1940s the CPUSA had been In 1949 several newly under sustained legal and investiga- decoded Venona cables tive attack from the US government exposed Judith Coplon, and had been unable to reestablish the a Justice Department close communications it had enjoyed employee, as a Soviet with the Soviets during earlier years. agent. In the wake of To the delight of the FBI, Eugene that discovery, Needle- Dennis, then general secretary of the man lost his position as CPUSA, asked the Childs brothers a lawyer for Amtorg, the to take on the task of reestablishing Soviets’ purchasing agent regular and secure high-level commu- in America. FBI agent nications with Moscow, an arrange- Robert Lamphere laid ment that expanded under Dennis’s a trap, writing a memo successor, Gus Hall. Morris became falsely naming Needle- the CPUSA’s chief liaison with the man, who had been the Communist Party of the Soviet Union subject of a series of (CPSU), meeting regularly with its FBI investigations, as senior leadership to report on CPUSA a longtime government activities and to receive political and informant. Coplon took Morris and Jack Childs, 1954. Image courtesy of Childs ideological guidance. Jack carried out the bait, stole the memo, family. a variety of clandestine international and was arrested meeting activities for the CPUSA, including with a Soviet employee of In late December Jack returned receiving and disbursing illegal So- the United Nations. At Coplon’s trial from another trip to Toronto, and viet monetary subsidies ($28 million in 1950, Lamphere testified that the Needleman asked if Phillips had in total over the life of the SOLO Needleman story was not true. Nev- given him a message. Jack answered operation). All the while, the Childs ertheless, the publicity led to Needle- no and Needleman replied that was brothers reported their activities in man losing his job at Amtorg. He OK, “He shouldn’t tell you of such detail to the FBI. continued, however, to be called upon things.” As Jack prepared for another frequently by the CPUSA to represent trip in February 1955, Needleman Early in the SOLO operation, the party’s interests in various legal again asked him to see if Phillips prior to establishing a direct rela- proceedings and to carry out sensitive wanted Needleman to come to To- 2 tionship with the CPSU, Jack Childs tasks. ronto to receive the message. Jack frequently traveled to Canada to meet offered to collect any messages but Needleman knew about Jack’s with leaders of the Communist Party Needleman demurred: “I have to han- assignment as liaison with the CCP of Canada (CPC), who then served dle this myself. It’s too hot.” When —but not, of course, about his re- as go-betweens to funnel money and Jack met with the FBI in March, he cruitment by the FBI in 1952—and in information from Moscow to the reported that Phillips had apologized November 1954 he accompanied Jack beleaguered CPUSA. One of Jack’s that he had no answer to Needleman’s to Toronto. They met with two senior longtime associates in the commu- inquiry since no suitable comrade Canadian party officials who had just nist movement was Isidore “Gib- had been to Moscow. By now Jack returned from Moscow. One, Paul by” Needleman. When Sam Carr, had learned from Needleman that he Phillips, met privately with Needle- a prominent Canadian communist, was trying to get information about man for half an hour; afterwards, Jack faced arrest in 1945 as a result of the “several American friends who are heard him ask the lawyer how to spell defection of GRU Soviet code clerk in Moscow” and that they were the Seborer. Jack passed this information Igor Gouzenko, he had fled to the brothers of Max Seborer, Needle- on to his FBI handlers.3 United States and was hidden in New man’s “leg man” or assistant for his 2 Studies in Intelligence Vol. 63, No. 3 (September 2019) Project SOLO and the Seborers Jack pressed and asked if this was a political situation, legal work. (Needleman and Max had and Needleman angrily replied, “I can’t put a spoon in become friends when both attended your mouth; isn’t it enough to you that I mentioned New Cornell University as undergradu- Mexico—that is it.” ates.)4 Jack considered the possibility to ask Tim Buck, general secretary of war and for a period thereafter while that Needleman was doing a favor the Canadian CP, to see if he could their purchasing commission was still for Max and simply trying to learn inquire about them in Moscow.7 here, they [the Soviets] had dozens of if the two were in good health. He apparatuses here,” which were “pretty rejected that notion, telling the FBI, One month later, responding to busy.” Jack agreed to check with “Needleman is too self-centered an Needleman’s criticism for not making Buck. Jack’s recollection of the con- individual to be engaged in a human- progress on this request, Jack replied versation was confirmed by the FBI itarian pursuit requiring his making that he was not going to jeopardize bug planted in Needleman’s office.9 trips to Canada.” Jack, the FBI noted, his relationship with Buck without “is more inclined to believe that having more details about the issue. In mid-October 1955, Jack met Needleman’s interest in the Seborers Needleman then said, first with Phillips and told him that is due either to past associations with Needleman was seriously concerned the Seborers, which now constitute a Listen carefully. Oscar was in since the Seborer family was “likely threat to his security or to his inten- New Mexico—you know what to become hysterical and cause con- tion to use them in future apparatus I mean—I won’t draw you a siderable embarrassment and trouble” activities.”5 diagram. Later he was at a unless they learned something about submarine base. What happened their relatives. Phillips responded that Several other factors led Jack to was they were anticipating pressuring the Russians would not the conclusion that there was some- trouble. The FBI started making work.