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Home , David Greenglass, George Koval, Joel Barr, Perseus (spy), Sam Carr, Theodore Hall

Project SOLO and the Seborers On the Trail of a Fourth Soviet Spy at Los Alamos

Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynesa

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Images © Science History Images/Alamy Stock (left two) and Everett Collection/Alamy Stock

Until 1995 only two Soviet spies, 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 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 , 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 bomb project. from Stuart, returned to the with her son (born in East Germany) and her mother in 1969, at the Some students of Soviet atomic have be- height of the . 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 “,” 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 (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.

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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 the CPUSA had been In 1949 several newly under sustained legal and investiga- decoded Venona cables tive attack from the US government exposed , 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 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 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 , 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 , 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

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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 , 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- —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. They still had not admitted that thing significant going on. He was inquiries about them so they the “missing Britons”—a clear ref- puzzled that neither Needleman nor went over there on their own erence to and Guy Max Seborer ever had mentioned to account and traveled to West Burgess—were in Moscow. Jack then him the existence of the two brothers, Germany. In West Germany our met with Buck and pleaded for him Oscar and Stuart, despite mentioning friends helped them to get to the while in Moscow to assist the CPU- another brother, Noah. He “also con- other side and then to the big SA “in a very delicate matter” about sidered it odd that Needleman should city. Since then not a word was which Phillips was aware. Buck seek information regarding the Sebor- heard. We don’t know if they agreed to help and said he would talk ers through the Canadian CP instead are alive or dead and “they” to Phillips about it.10 of through the Russian embassy or are worried. There must be a through Amtorg officials with whom good reason why no word comes The delicate maneuvering got he apparently is friendly.”6 through. The boys here [Soviets] more complicated in late November have heard nothing. as Jack prepared to return to Toronto Not until August 1955 were Jack’s to brief Buck before his journey to suspicions confirmed. Needleman Jack pressed and asked if this was Moscow. Phillips had unexpectedly told Jack that the Seborers—he never a political situation, and Needleman died and Jack now needed to know said their names but wrote them on angrily replied, “I can’t put a spoon details that Needleman had given him a piece of paper and then burned in your mouth; isn’t it enough to you about the Seborers. Needleman wrote it—had to “beat it” when “trouble that I mentioned New Mexico—that four names on a piece of paper— started” in 1951 and were now in is it.” The FBI noted that he laced his Oscar and Stuart Seborer, Stuart’s 8 Moscow. The “situation is we have comments with obscenities. wife Miriam, and her mother, Anna to make contact; it’s been three years Zeitlin. Next to Oscar’s name, he since we heard from them [and] don’t Although Needleman never used the words “atomic bomb” or “Los wrote, “He handed over to them the know if they are alive or dead.” Jack formula for the ‘A’ bomb.” He then promised on his next visit to Canada Alamos,” his implication was clear. He also told Jack that “during the burned the paper. He then took Jack

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Like many Jewish families from Eastern , the Se- borers came to the United States in stages. War and was friends with Soviet spies Harry Magdoff, Irving Kaplan, and Stanley Graze. Her uncle, Alexander, into another room in his office and eled to Great Britain, where another had married the former wife of Boris explained: son, Noah, was born in 1905. Stuart, Soble, brother of Soviet spies Jack born as Solomon, came along in and Robert. Despite all these connec- Look—the two brothers, one 1918. By the time their only daughter, tions, Max had never formally joined an engineer on the “A” bomb Rose, was born in 1919, the family the communist party. He later told an project and the other an Army had been living in the United States FBI informant that Needleman had captain who was heroic during for a decade. The youngest child, advised him not to do so.12 the war. They were in touch with Oscar, followed in 1921. a guy here [a Russian]. I was Noah, also a teacher, was a party the intermediary between “this Although neither parent had more member. In the 1950s he moved to guy” and the brothers. When than a sixth grade education, the Mexico as many American commu- the Rosenberg case became Seborer children, with the exception nists at the same time did and was “hot,” it was the Army guy who of Rose, all went to college while employed by an ice cream company brought information that things Abraham worked as a clerk. Max and started by several communist emi- were getting hot. The Army guy Noah both attended Cornell Univer- grés. He was close to Frederick Field forewarned them. Things got so sity on scholarships, and Oscar and and Maurice Halperin, both onetime hot, it was necessary for them Stuart went to City College of New Soviet agents, and blacklisted screen- to blow. They picked themselves York. Stuart also won a writer Albert Maltz. Sister Rose up and blew. The mother went State scholarship and enrolled in the served in a number of administrative because Miriam is an only ROTC program. Abraham and Jennie positions in the New York Commu- child. What more can I tell you? lived in Palestine from 1934 to 1938 nist Party.13 Maybe they won’t listen to Tim before moving back to New York. [Buck]. Maybe he should not Oscar apparently went with them, but know about this. Stuart, enrolled at CCNY, stayed in the United States and may have lived Needleman, reported Jack, was with Max. visibly worried, with misgivings about providing this information All of the children gravitated to- to Buck. Jack responded that he ward the CPUSA. In fact, the Seborer couldn’t let Buck go to Moscow and family was part of a network of peo- look like an idiot and promised to use ple connected to Soviet intelligence. his judgment about what to tell him. Max was brought into the communist Needleman agreed and indicated that movement by his Cornell friend Gib- the Soviets should be told the inquiry by Needleman. He was a teacher for a came from him. Asked if the Sovi- number of years before going to work ets knew who he was, Needleman for Needleman’s law firm. His first answered, “Of course.”11 wife’s sister, Rose Biegel Arenal, was married to Luis Arenal, implicated in the KGB plot to kill Leon Trotsky. The Seborers Rose herself serviced a mail drop for Like many Jewish families from communications between the Mexi- Eastern Europe, the Seborers came to can plotters and Soviet intelligence. the United States in stages. Abraham, After his wife’s death, Max married Stuart Seborer’s 1939 photo, in ROTC uni- born in 1876, and Jennie, born in Celia Posen, introduced to him by form from CCNY’s yearbook, Microcosm. 1881, left with their eldest Needleman. Celia had been a nurse in In it he was still going by his original given son, Max, born in 1903. They trav- the communist-dominated Abraham name. Solomon. No image of Oscar could Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil be found.

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It was not until after the war that Stuart and Oscar began For a number of years, Stuart and to run afoul of security agencies. Oscar appeared somewhat removed from their siblings’ overt communist ties. Stuart had joined a commu- and earned a Silver Star. Several of run afoul of security agencies. After nist-dominated group at CCNY, but his essays on his experiences as an his discharge from the Army in 1946, years later several of the most active armored cavalry officer in Europe are Stuart became a civilian employee communists at the college could not cited in military histories. Miriam of the Army’s Civil Affairs Division, remember him. He was hired as a underwent a Hatch Act investigation first as a research analyst and then as statistician by the Treasury Depart- in 1942 while working at the Cen- chief of the European Unit. His wife ment in 1941, where he worked under sus Bureau and denied communist Miriam, meanwhile graduated from three Soviet spies, William Ullman, sympathies or membership. She George Washington University Medi- Frank Coe, and . joined the Waves (Women’s Naval cal School in 1950. His wife, Miriam Zeitlin, whom he service) in 1942, serving until 1946, In January 1949 an Army memo married in 1940, expressed pro-Sovi- most of the time at the US Bureau of 14 recommended that he be fired be- et views, but neither one appeared to Shipping. cause of communist associations. join the CPUSA. He joined the Army Oscar had attended college in New There was conflicting information in 1942, rose to the rank of captain, York before enrolling in the report and Gen. Leland Eberle at Ohio State to study ordered that he be interviewed. In electrical engineering June, Eberle dropped the proceed- but joined the Army ings, noting that Stuart’s affidavit had in October 1942. In answered the charges, sources who view of his engineer- knew him vouched for him, and all , \j,C)J f\J. THE y' eL' ~ ing training, the Army the accusations were anonymous. At TO orsr RO::BnISCN~ suPPORT 5:2AIN .A1lD CHDU '. assigned him to the his loyalty hearing Stuart had been Special Engineer- indignant. He denied knowing of his ing Detachment that brothers’ and sister’s communist ties, F.t GHT FCR FREE BOCKS provided technically insisting that he had had little con-

(1....--- -,...... _._ ..~. _._.~ f) trained soldiers to fill tact with them for years and that he r \'a ... J 1'1 E E T 0 l 0 FR lEN D5 r /\~ a variety of specialist should not be tarred by their beliefs. \']£'J( Mf\KE NE\AI ONtS \ ~(~y posts in the Manhattan He declared: “I resent it being said \j. I Project. He worked at that I have ever had any connection, COI'1 E: TO OUR GALA PAR,y Oak Ridge before be- or implied connection with the Com- .. WiT,H . TH E. HU N TER &1 RLS ing transferred to Los munist Party or any other subversive Alamos in 1944 and organization. I am vigorously and AT :THE Cf~'NE5E~ CUt- -rv RAI- C£,..~TE~ remained there until t44 5£(01'/0 A\/£· CORI~t:R ';/I1)"r. emphatically opposed to communists 1946. He was present and .” Although he was SATURDAY OCT. 2hd a.t ~:30 PM at site, near being considered for a job at the State Alamagordo, as part Department in 1950, Stuart was in- DA')\lC'~~G--- MOV IE S of a unit monitoring formed in mid-August that he would AVf\tlSSI{)N 201 seismological effects not be granted a security clearance.16 8RA N C H M EE:. T IJ....Ic f R I. OC T I ~r 5"AI'1E FL/'ICE • of the first explosion of an atomic bomb, Oscar applied for a civilian posi- as a technician fifth tion at Los Alamos on 28 May 1947 City College was a hotbed of communist activism when two grade.15 but withdrew his application just one of the Seborers sons attended. Source: City College of New month later for unknown reasons. York CUNY Academic Works Collection, CCNY Antiwar It was not until af- He then resumed the engineering Notices archive, “Greetings from the YCL [Young Commu- ter the war that Stuart studies that had been interrupted by nist League],” October 1937, http://academicworks.cuny.edu/ and Oscar began to the war. He attended the University cc_arch_antiwar/188.

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Project SOLO and the Seborers

In fact, the first indication the FBI or any other security agency received of their involvement with Soviet espio- ruary 1951 and sailed on 3 July. The nage was Needleman’s conversation with Jack Childs in long delay between purchasing the 1954. tickets and actually leaving indicates that they were not fleeing some kind of fear of imminent danger—unlike of Michigan from September 1947 to courier, was arrested, and he led the Morris and Leona Cohen, two Soviet August 1948 and received his mas- FBI to in June. By agents, who vanished from their ter’s degree in electrical engineering. July, Julius Rosenberg was in custo- New York apartment suddenly in He then was hired at the US Navy’s dy. By the time the Rosenbergs and June 1950. The Rosenbergs had been Underwater Sound Laboratory in went on trial in 1951, sentenced to death in April 1951, and New London, Connecticut, the center many of their friends from CCNY’s the hunt was on for other spies, but for naval research on sonar for ships communist movement were under neither Seborer brother was in the and submarines. suspicion and one, , had crosshairs of any espionage investi- been convicted of perjury. Several gation. They had become identified In August 1949, the commanding others, including and Alfred as security risks because of their officer recommended removing him Sarant, had vanished. Decades later association with communists, but as security risk. Three weeks later, on Barr and Sarant were identified as indications of possible espionage had 29 August, a Loyalty Review Board living in the USSR under assumed not surfaced in their security reviews. overturned the decision and asked for names. In fact, the first indication the FBI or further investigation. At the end of any other security agency received of April 1950, the lab decided he could Stuart and Oscar Seborer also de- their involvement with Soviet espio- be retained, but Oscar transferred to cided it would be prudent to leave the nage was Needleman’s conversation the Electronic Shore Division of the United States. Together with Miriam with Jack Childs in 1954.18 Navy’s Bureau of Ships in Washing- and her mother, Anna, they booked ton. At his new job he was involved passage on the SS Liberte, bound for For more than a year, the traveling with planning the installation and Plymouth and LeHavre, on 15 Feb- foursome seemed nothing more than supervision of electronic equipment in American and European harbors. The equipment itself was unclassi- fied but the location of the devices was secret. Shortly after Oscar was hired, an officer who had known him in New London reported him as a security risk. The only man in the unit without a security clearance, he was “a marked man” and resigned his position on 1 June 1951.17

The Disappearance The Seborer brothers’ problems with getting security clearances coin- cided with a growing concern about espionage. Following the Soviets’ atomic bomb test in 1949, Klaus Fuchs was arrested in Great Britain in February 1950 and confessed to spying while he was at Los Alamos. Portions of the manifest of the SS Liberte showing a 3 July departure for Le Havre, France, Three months later , his with three Seborers on board. Source: Ancestry.com.

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Needleman had hinted that their decision to flee was American tourists. Miriam had told linked to increasing pressure during the period when the friends she was pursuing a medical Rosenberg ring was being rolled up. internship in England. Stuart men- tioned setting up an import-export company. Anna Zeitlin told friends and break ties with Buck, severing a • Were the Seborers connected with she was traveling with her only child. major source of information for the the Rosenberg spy ring? The group arrived by air in on FBI via Jack Childs. The FBI advised Jack to avoid mentioning atomic espi- • How much did Max Seborer know 3 September, after obtaining visas in about what his brothers had done? , to visit Abraham and Jennie onage and just say the Seborers were “apparatus [i.e., CPUSA] people” Seborer, who had again emigrated • Why was Needleman so insistent who had feared exposure. to Israel in and were on learning about the Seborers? living in Gan Yavne. In the latter On 6 December, Jack met yet • What secrets had Stuart and, par- part of 1951, Max Seborer obtained again with Buck, described the ticularly, Oscar, been privy to? a passport, indicating he planned a Seborers as “apparatus people” three-month trip to England, France, about whom Needleman—and not Needleman had hinted that their Italy, and Israel. There is no direct the CPUSA—wanted information. decision to flee was linked to in- evidence if he met his siblings, but He emphasized that he himself had creasing pressure during the period he returned to New York in January never met them. Buck was confident when the Rosenberg ring was being 1952. His brothers did not. The party there would be no problem—he had rolled up. Agents learned that Stu- of four renewed their passports in traced people before. Back in New art and Julius had been enrolled in Vienna that month. Apart from a York, Jack met with Needleman and one math class together at CCNY in handful of innocuous postcards to assured him he had never mentioned September 1934 and Perl and Stuart a few friends and relatives over the espionage or the atomic bomb. Gibby had shared another class in February next six months, nothing more was was relieved: “After I told you I was 1935. Apart from that, they could find heard from the Seborers. They had sorry that I did. Forget about it now, no evidence of a connection. Neither vanished. 20 will you.” Ruth nor David Greenglass, Harry Gold, or could In October 1952, Anna Zeitlin’s Needleman’s statements, which identify a picture of the Seborers or niece, Rose Mendelsohn, contacted the FBI judged to “constitute admis- knew anything about them. Nathan the State Department, worried that sion of guilt on his part that he was Sussman, a Rosenberg associate who she had no word from her aunt. She involved in espionage with Seborers,” led the communist cell at CCNY and feared that the group might have galvanized the FBI into action. The partially cooperated with the FBI, did strayed into Russian territory and Bureau’s first impulse was concern not recall either one. Several college been captured. The State Department that it had overlooked a signifi- classmates of Julius did not remem- responded that it had no knowledge cant case of espionage. A memo to 19 ber the Seborers. 22 of the whereabouts of any of them. Hoover’s assistant, Clyde Tolson, ex- In 1955, the FBI fretted about plained that the loyalty investigations The FBI quickly learned that what Jack should do with Needle- of the Seborer brothers had turned up Stuart had continued to receive man’s information. Jack was reluctant communist connections but not a hint veteran’s disability checks for several to relay Needleman’s story of Oscar’s of espionage. Not until Needleman years after he left for Europe. For a involvement in atomic espionage to had confided in Jack Childs did that while, they went to Max’s address. Tim Buck. If Buck didn’t want to be- concern arise. Hence, the FBI was Until February 1952, they had been come involved in espionage, he might “not vulnerable” for any delay in cashed in Europe, so he had obvious- 21 conclude that Jack was mixed up in investigating espionage. ly forwarded them. Thereafter, checks allegedly signed by Stuart and coun- it and sever ties with him. Almost as Several lines of investigation were tersigned by Max were deposited in bad, if Buck did raise the issue with laid out. the Soviets, they might think that Max’s bank account. In a letter to the Needleman had breached security Veteran’s Administration, Max was

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Extensive interviews with colleagues of Stuart and Miri- am from their days in the armed forces, at the Underwa- Not until July 1958 did Max get ter Sound Laboratory, and Bureau of Ships yielded little a second letter from his brothers, re- information. porting that they had had a hard time in East Germany, but things were better now in . He showed Jack listed as having power of attorney, Childs either of being a government Childs the letter, with photographs although no such authority seemed to informant or carelessly gossiping of Oscar, Stuart, Anna Zeitlin, and exist. That, and his 1951 trip to Israel, about a very sensitive issue. In either Miriam and her child born sometime suggested that Max was in collusion case, Jack’s usefulness would certain- after her departure from the United 23 with his brothers. ly be jeopardized. States. Oscar was doing engineering As to Needleman’s insistence on To provide a reasonable excuse, research, Stuart scientific translations. learning about the Seborers, Jack had the FBI seized on Rose Mendelsohn’s Although they were living comfort- not thought much of the idea that a old letter to the State Department. ably, language still remained an issue. humanitarian concern for the family After assuring itself that she was not They had made a mistake by selling of his legman had motivated him.24 a communist, it prevailed on her to their car in Germany and had to The FBI speculated that Max Seborer write to Max expressing her concerns wait three years to obtain a new one. might be part of a current clandestine and conducted several interviews Grateful to Jack for his help, Max apparatus and Needleman had to using her letter as a cover. As it asked him to inquire if he or Noah’s assuage him. If its members feared had suspected, word leaked back to wife could visit them. Jack advised exposure and having to flee, the ab- Needleman of the inquiries, but he ap- him to consult with Needleman; the sence of news about Oscar and Stuart FBI urged Jack not to facilitate a visit parently accepted the explanation that 27 might have them worried that they the low-key investigation had been between Max and his brothers. 25 would be purged if they did reach the triggered by an anxious relative. To date, the FBI has only released USSR. Or Needleman himself was files on the Seborers through 1956, worried that he might have to flee and with no indication of when the files wanted a signal that the USSR was a The Seborer Brothers Resurface from later years might be processed. safehaven. Tim Buck’s overtures did pro- Bits and pieces of the Seborer inves- Extensive interviews with col- duce results. On 23 November 1956, tigation have, however, emerged from leagues of Stuart and Miriam from technical surveillance of Needleman’s the SOLO files on Morris and Jack their days in the armed forces, at office picked up a telephone call in Childs. They indicate that Morris the Underwater Sound Laboratory, which Max Seborer excitedly report- informed his handlers after a trip to and Bureau of Ships yielded little ed that someone had delivered several Moscow in November 1961 that he information. FBI documents released letters, and he had to write an imme- had heard rumors among Americans under FOIA as of early 2019 do not diate reply. “They” were in East Ger- living in the USSR about a “mysteri- contain any significant information many, he gushed. Needleman wanted ous group of Americans known only about Oscar’s Los Alamos career or to see the letters and Max showed up as the Smiths, two couples plus the the FBI’s investigation of his work at his apartment that evening at 10:45 mother of one of the women. One there. and stayed for an hour. Max returned of the men had had an affair with a to his apartment and made a call to Russian woman, and his wife visited The FBI was constrained, in any his brother Noah in Mexico City. the American embassy but was in- case, from launching an allout inves- Needleman later told Jack that Max formed by the Soviets that she would tigation of the Seborers. If it start- had received a letter from someone not be allowed to leave. When she ed to question people about Oscar in the Soviet embassy that included tried to visit the embassy again, she and Stuart, word about its inquiries a picture of the family. Max, though, was arrested, threatened, and finally was bound to make its way to their was still frustrated that direct contact released. The two men were perhaps relatives and back to Needleman. was impossible.26 scientists.”28 Without any obvious pretext, that would surely lead him to suspect Jack

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In view of the seriousness of the allegations of atomic The details were filled in after espionage, he refused to approve closing the case and Jack met with Needleman in Sep- ordered periodic reviews “to insure that the subjects do tember 1963 following the attorney’s not escape.” return from a monthlong stay in a Soviet sanitarium. During his visit, Needleman met with the Seborers. Whether or not he was the person to the New York Office had placed the Both had apartments in the same whom Needleman gave Oscar Sebor- case in an inactive status. By 1964 it building, worked for the Academy er’s information on the atomic bomb recommended closing the investiga- of Science, and were paid 300 rubles is not known, but Buck was surprised tions of Oscar, Stuart, and Miriam, a month. Miriam had indeed gone that Needleman knew Adams so well. but continuing the technical surveil- to the American embassy seeking to Nor was Adams the only ex-spy with lance of Needleman. William Sulli- return to the United States and been whom the Seborers socialized—Max van, the assistant director demurred; “exiled” to Alma Ata in “protective Seborer had learned they were friend- in view of the seriousness of the al- 30 custody,” Needleman told Jack. The ly with . legations of atomic espionage, he re- brothers no longer had any interest in fused to approve closing the case and While he was in Moscow in 1964, her. Both Stuart and Oscar were com- ordered periodic reviews “to insure Jack Childs talked with Art Shields, 33 pletely “Russified and Sovietized.” that the subjects do not escape.” the Moscow correspondent for The They told Needleman they would be Worker (CPUSA’s newspaper), who The technical surveillance did executed “for what they did” if they mentioned that every three or four yield some more information. In ever returned to the United States. months the Seborers dropped by his September 1961, Miriam and Stuart Oscar had been the “main man in the apartment to say hello. They were were divorced. Needleman met again operation” and had given Needleman “mysterious” and didn’t say much. with the Seborers on a trip to Mos- plans for the A-bomb, which had Both now worked at the Institute cow in 1965 and upon his return, told then been turned over to someone at for World Economy. Jack asked its Jack that he had seen the two brothers Amtorg.29 director, an old acquaintance, about and that Stuart had been “compelled Over the years additional details the pair and heard that they did not do by government to give his former drifted out. Tim Buck told Jack that “important work” and kept to them- wife 25 percent of his wages for the he and Needleman had been invited selves. Russian employees were told upkeep of their child.”34 31 to a party in the fall of 1963 at the to “leave them alone.” Miriam, her son, and her mother Moscow apartment of Arthur and Yuri Nosenko, the KGB defector were able to return to the United Dorothy Adams at which the Seborers whose bona fides were a matter of States on 29 December 1969. Noth- were present. Adams had been a GRU controversy inside the CIA, told his ing in the files indicates why the (Soviet military intelligence) officer debriefers that during 1960–61 he had Soviets were willing to allow her to whose last assignment in the United seen pictures of the two brothers in leave, after detaining and rusticating States during WWII had focused on KGB offices. In 1968, Morris Childs her for an earlier effort. Presumably, stealing atomic secrets. was asked by a Russian contact in she gave guarantees of silence. She Adams was observed meeting Moscow if he knew the Smith broth- was interviewed several times by the with a scientist, ers living there. Stuart had told the FBI between March and July 1970. Clarence Hiskey in Chicago, and a KGB he had been a member of the She admitted the group had lived search of his New York apartment CPUSA since 1938, and Morris was from 1952 to 1957 in a town near 32 turned up espionage paraphernalia. asked to check on his claim. Dresden in East Germany under the Adams evaded FBI surveillance in name of Smith. They had kept that Aside from the SOLO files, vir- 1944 and fled the country. He had name when they moved to the USSR tually nothing from FBI or CIA files worked for Amtorg in the 1930s and in March 1957. She denied knowing dealing with the Seborers after 1956 was associated with several scientific anything about espionage committed has been released. An FBI memo companies run by American commu- by her former husband or brother- from 1963 indicated that with no nists at the time of his disappearance. in-law before they left for the Soviet more logical areas of investigation,

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The Seborers did leave some additional traces, however. In 1974, after more than two decades of silence Stuart more than a thousand pages of ex- wrote a book tracts and summaries of KGB archi- val files, were made public. Some of the extracts deal with the rebuilding Union and denied that she herself had Capital and Lenin’s Philosophical of Soviet networks during 1947–49. 35 engaged in espionage. Notebooks.” Smith “currently contin- The KGB had deactivated many of ues his research work at the Institute its American networks in late 1945, Either before her interviews with of World Economy and International the FBI or shortly thereafter, Miriam when Elizabeth Bentley’s defection Relations (IMEMO), USSR Academy to the FBI forced it to recall KGB contacted Needleman in New York. of Sciences.” Needleman wrote to the brothers in officers she exposed in 1945. Moscow that she was employed as The English edition was more With a new cadre of officers a laboratory technician and “was no frank, giving Smith’s true name as installed in the United States, in 1947 longer concerned with political mat- Stewart Seborer. He ended his pref- the KGB attempted to reconnect ters.” He also assured them that she ace by thanking his brother Oscar. wartime sources with whom it had was not “vindictive” towards Stuart, Among those also thanked in the lost contact. Among the extracts from a clear indication that she had not in- acknowledgments were Gus Hall, Vassiliev’s notebooks is a message formed the FBI about their espionage Henry Winston, and James Allen, from Moscow KGB HQ directing its activities. In response the brothers all senior CPUSA officials, and new officers in the United States to wrote that they were pleased “she I. G. Needleman. He also thanked attempt to reconnect with a group of bore them no hard feelings” and that Yevgeny Primakov, deputy director sources, labeled “Relative’s Group,” they were now members of the CPSU of the IMEMO, and “D. Macklin,” originally organized by “Intermedi- and completely “Russified.” Both almost certainly a mangled translit- ary,” who worked at Amtorg. Three were married to Russian women. No eration from Russian of the name of of its members, “Relative,” “Godfa- more information is available about British spy Donald MacLean, also ther,” and “Godsend” (also translated 37 the brothers in FBI files that have employed at the same institute. as “Discovery”) were brothers and a been released.36 In 1987 Stuart, again using the fourth member was “Nata,” the Rus- The Seborers did leave some addi- name Smith, published a second book sian diminutive for Natalya, so likely tional traces, however. In 1974, after that only appeared in Russian: Weap- female. The group had been created more than two decades of silence Stu- onry and Dollars: The Wellsprings of in 1945 but “had hardly been used art wrote a book, US Neocolonialism U.S. Foreign Policy. Mikhail Voslen- for work [i.e., espionage] and had not in Africa, published by International sky, a Soviet dissident, wrote in the been compromised [revealed to US Publishers, under the name Stewart Russian edition (1991) of his No- ] in any way.” Smith; it was then published in a menklatura: The Soviet Ruling Class, Godsend was singled out as hav- Russian edition in 1975. Biograph- that Smith—he did not know his real ing been at Los Alamos and provided ical material in the Russian edition name—was an American who had information on “Enormous,” the explained that “S. Smith served as moved to the USSR to avoid being KGB’s term for the atomic bomb a senior political advisor of the US nabbed as a Soviet spy and worked project. By 1947, however, Soviet 38 administration in Germany, but after with Maclean there. atomic sources were scarce: “Our Washington decided to re-establish opportunities for receiving infor- West German militarism, while in US mation about ‘E’ [Enormous] were there was McCarthyism, he left US KGB Archival Evidence significantly cut down by the fact that government service. . . . He settled in There is documentary evidence certain athletes [KGB term for their the working class suburb of Dresden that corroborates Needleman’s spies] who had previously worked in and worked at the factory.” He had story that the Seborer brothers were that field (“Mlad” [codename for Ted edited translations “of a number of involved in Soviet espionage and for Hall], “Caliber” [David Greenglass], scientific works, including classical Oscar being an atomic spy. In 2009 and “Godsend”) switched to different books of the 3rd volume of Marx’s ’s notebooks,

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While we know a great deal about the information Fuchs, jobs for reasons beyond their con- Hall, and Greenglass had access to and some of the spe- trol.”39 cifics of exactly what they provided the Soviets, we only The obvious reason these three know that Seborer provided something. sources “switched to different jobs” was that in late 1945, with the war a Soviet operative, likely an Ameri- they would face execution seem to over, the US atomic bomb program can, working for Amtorg. contradict that KGB message writ- lost its sense of urgency. Thousands ten in 1947 that their apparatus “had of workers were demobilized and The story Needleman told to Jack hardly been used for work.” returned to their previous jobs or Childs fills in the sparse description pursued other goals. The young of Relative’s Group from the 1947 But, there is circumstantial evi- Mlad/Hall went to graduate school to KGB message. The KGB documents dence that prior to 1945, when the complete his physics studies. Caliber/ said the group was originally orga- KGB began to oversee it, Needle- Greenglass returned to New York nized by Intermediary who worked at man’s ring had been providing infor- City and went into the machine shop Amtorg, obviously Needleman. Three mation to the KGB’s sister agency, business in partnership with Julius of its members, Relative, Godfather, the GRU. Not only had Needleman Rosenberg. and Godsend were brothers. Godsend been involved with Sam Carr, a So- had been at Los Alamos and handed viet spy in Canada, but Carr worked Mlad is identified in Vassiliev’s over atomic information to a Soviet for a GRU spy ring. Needleman notebooks and in Venona as Theodore intelligence officer. Oscar, clearly, had worked at Amtorg with Arthur Hall and Caliber is identified as Da- was the real name behind the code- Adams, a long-time GRU officer. And vid Greenglass. Godsend, however, is name Godsend. The directive to see if the Seborers and Needleman had later not identified. KGB headquarters in Godsend could return to Los Alamos socialized with Adams in Moscow. Moscow urged its American officers fits neatly with Oscar’s 1947 appli- In a secret search of Adams’s New to reestablish contact with him. Mos- cation to return to Los Alamos to a York apartment in 1944, the FBI cow reminded its station in Washing- civilian position. Brothers Max and found notes on experiments being ton that Godsend was thought to be Stuart would be Relative and Godfa- conducted at Oak Ridge. While they attending a university and its officers ther. Miriam would be a candidate for could have come from , should see if he might be able to re- the fifth, female member of Relative’s another GRU agent, Oscar Seborer turn to Los Alamos in some capacity. group, Nata. also worked there from 1943 to the end of 1944. US counterintelligence had no knowledge of this group. The cable How Serious was the Se- After one unsuccessful effort to was not one of those decrypted by the borers’ Espionage? evade the FBI in early 1945, Ad- Venona codebreaking project. And ams succeeded in sneaking out of the Vassiliev notebooks contain no We now know definitively that the United States. His difficulties more mentions of Relative’s Group. there were at least four Soviet spies at beginning in 1944 may have been Nor do the details in Vassiliev’s note- Los Alamos: Klaus Fuchs, Theodore the impetus for the transfer of his books provide enough information to Hall, David Greenglass, and the new- atomic assets, including Oscar, and identify its members. Godsend had ly identified Oscar Seborer. While we the latter’s controller, Needleman, to worked at Los Alamos but there was know a great deal about the informa- the KGB’s control. John Williamson, no indication of his job there. He had tion Fuchs, Hall, and Greenglass had a onetime top CPUSA functionary been demobilized at the end of the access to and some of the specifics preparing for deportation to England, war but so had thousands of others. of exactly what they provided the told Jack in 1955 that Needleman was He was thought to be in college in Soviets, we only know that Soberer “a most reliable guy,” who had been 1947, but so were many thousands of provided something. Needleman’s with “them”—the Russians—“for other veterans of the Manhattan Proj- claim that Oscar “handed over to many years.” It is, therefore, possi- ect. He was one of three brothers who them the formula for the ‘A’ bomb” ble that, via Needleman, Oscar had had been recruited into espionage by and the Seborers’ own belief that if furnished the GRU with a significant they returned to the United States

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Oscar Seborer died on 23 April 2015 in Moscow. Among the attendees at the funeral was a representative of the witness protection program. By that FSB, the Russian internal security service. time, Gibby Needleman had died (1975). Max Seborer died in 1978. After her return from Moscow, amount of from FBI Dilemmas Miriam Seborer worked as a medical Oak Ridge and Los Alamos.40 The FBI faced an excruciating technician and then was acting med- While Oscar was only an Army dilemma in trying to untangle the ical director of the United Nations technician, not a scientist like Fuchs Seborer case. While the full extent of Medical Service before resigning in and Hall, he had had university its investigation awaits further FOIA February 1974 in protest against not engineering training. And, as David releases, it was constrained by the being considered to be permanent Greenglass illustrates, even an Army fear that too vigorous a pursuit of this director. She later worked as medical technician had access to sensitive spy ring might cause Needleman to director for an insurance company. material. He machined models of the suspect Jack Childs, its chief source, In 1996 she was placed in a nursing implosion lens used to trigger the and endanger Operation SOLO, its home; she died in 2002. premier counterintelligence operation plutonium bomb and provided the providing vital information about Oscar Seborer died on 23 April Soviets with a physical sample of part 2015 in Moscow. Among the attend- of the triggering mechanism. both the CPUSA and the international communist movement. The chief sus- ees at the funeral was a representa- Further, we have little understand- pects, apart from Needleman, were tive of the FSB, the Russian internal ing of what Oscar might have provid- beyond its reach, in the USSR by the security service. His brother Stuart ed to the Soviets from his post-war time it learned what they had done. was present in a wheelchair. A friend positions at the Navy’s Underwater Even after Miriam Seborer returned explained that “both brothers are Sound Laboratory and the Bureau of from the USSR in 1969, SOLO was communists—they maintained their Ships or of what Stuart might have active and the FBI had no indepen- convictions and language.” And provided from his position as chief of dent evidence with which to pressure both lived to see the cause for which the European branch of the Army’s her. So, the Seborer brothers—and they had betrayed their native land Civil Affairs Division. We do know particularly Oscar—got away with disintegrate. Although a Moscow that Soviet authorities awarded Oscar espionage. apartment and phone number for the Order of the Red Star in 1964, so Stuart Smith still were listed in 2018, his contribution must have been of Jack Childs died in 1980; in 1982, no one answered the telephone or the 42 some consequence.41 Morris went into the government’s doorbell.

v v v The authors: Professor Harvey Klehr is retired from Emory University where he taught for more than 40 years. He is the author of multiple works on American communism and Soviet espionage, many in collaboration with the coau- thor of this article, historian John Earl Haynes. Dr. Haynes served as a specialist in 20th century political history in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and is author or coauthor of numerous other publications on US communism and anticommunism. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he worked with former Soviet archivists to acquire once sensitive documents for use by scholars around the world.

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Endnotes 1. See “The Perseus Myth” in Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel, Bombshell: The Secret Story of America’s Unknown Atomic Spy Con- spiracy (Times Books, 1997), 267–77; Gary Kern, “The PERSEUS Disinformation Operation,” H-HOAC, 17 February 2006, http://h- net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0602&week=c&msg=Lb%2bREHUoud/%2bSFUeQbPTMA&us- er=&pw= ; John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, (Yale University Press, 2009), 556, note 3; and John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (Yale University Press, 1999), 317–18. The SOLO operation became public in 1981 with the publication of David J. Garrow, The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From “Solo” to Memphis (W.W. Norton, 1981). Garrow updated his account in David J. Garrow, “The FBI and Martin Luther King,” Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2002. Although journalistic rather than scholarly, the most detailed account of the operation is John Barron’s Operation SOLO: The FBI’s Man in the Kremlin (Regnery Pub., 1995). Barron’s book was prepared with considerable FBI cooperation as well as the cooperation of Morris Childs and his family. 2. Robert Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent’s Story (Random House, 1986), 107. 3. Special Agent in Charge (SAC) New York (hereafter SAC NY) to Director FBI, 21 December 1954, pp. 53-55 in FBI file l00-56579- 966. The story of Needleman’s trip to Toronto with Jack is also included in more detail in SAC NY to Director FBI, 21 December 1954, in FBI file 100-1222443, no serial number (Oscar Seborer’s file). 4. SAC NY to Director FBI, 21 December 1954 and SAC NY to Director FBI, 22 March 1955 in FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 5. SAC NY to Director FBI, 22 March 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. “Apparatus” in this context referred to nonpublic CPUSA work. 6. SAC NY to Director FBI, 1 July 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 7. Airtel SAC NY to Bureau, 24 August 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 8. Belmont memo to Boardman, 4 October 1955, FBI file 1222443-10; NewYork FBI report, 25 November 1955, FBI file 1222443-16. 9. SAC NY to Director FBI, 7 November 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. “Purchasing commission” refers to the Soviet Gov- ernment Purchasing Commission that operated in the United States during WWII as a conduit for Lend-Lease aid to the USSR. 10. Ibid. 11. SAC NY to Bureau, Washington Field Office (WFO), and PH, 26 November 1955 FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 12. “The Seborer Family-Some Highlights,” https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_00000l4731.pdf. 13. Ibid. 14. Belmont to Boardman, 30 August 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 15. Ibid. 16. Belmont to Boardman, 1 December 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number;Washington, DC FBI report, 11 July 1955, FBI file 100- 1222451-6. File 1222451 is the FBI file for Stuart Seborer. 17. Airtel WFO to Director FBI, 6 December 1955 FBI file 1222443-22. 18. Airtel SAC NY to Bureau, 3 October 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 19. FBI report, 16 September 1955, FBI file 1222443-8. 20. SAC NY to Director FBI, 22 December 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 21. Mason to Tolson, 9 December 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 22. SAC NY to Director FBI, 1 March 1956, FBI file 1222443-86; NY FBI report, 17 February 1956, FBI file 1222451-98; Albuquerque FBI report, 7 February 1956, FBI file 1222443-69. 23. Airtel New York to Bureau, 1 February 1956, FBI file 1222451 no serial number; Legal Attache Rome to Director FBI, 8 February 1956, FBI file 1222451-81; Report of the FBI Laboratory to SAC WFO, 3 February, 1956, FBI file1222451-87; Branigan to Belmont, 7 February 1956, FBI file1222451 no serial number. 24. Airtel SAC NY to Bureau, 20 December 1955, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 25. As one example, FBI agents questioned one acquaintance, who told Rose Arenal, who informed Needleman. SAC WFO to Director FBI, 17 October, 1955, FBI file 1222443-14. 26. Belmont to Boardman, 24 November 1956, FBI file 1222443, no serial number. 27. SAC NY to Director FBI, 15 August 1958, Jack Childs FBI file NYC-15, pp. 179–82. Jack Childs FOIA FBI files are online at: https:// archive.org/details/JackChilds/page/n6. 28. SAC Chicago to Director FBI, 5 January 1962,, FBI 100-428091 (hereafter the SOLO file), FBI SOLO file part 40, pp. 26-28. 29. SAC NY to Director FBI, 11 September 1963, FBI SOLO file part 48, pp. 137–41. 30. SAC NY to Director FBI, 15 January 1964, FBI SOLO file part 56, pp. 22–23. 31. SAC NY to Director FBI, 29 June 1964, FBI SOLO file part 64, pp. 221–22. 32. Federal Bureau of Investigation: “Isidore Gibby Needleman,” March 3, 1971 in Jack Childs FBI file NYC 16A-18A, pp. 102–107; SAC NY to Director FBI, 3 July 1968, FBI SOLO file part 124, pp. 265–71. 33. Branigan to Sullivan, 22 June 1964, FBI file 1222443-290. 34. SAC NY to Director FBI, 6 April 1965, FBI SOLO file part 84, pp. 143–48. 35. Federal Bureau of Investigation: Isidore Gibby Needleman, March 3, 1971 in Jack Childs FBI file NYC 16A-18A, pp. 102–107.

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36. Ibid. 37. Stewart Smith, U.S. Neocolonialism in Africa (International Publishers, 1974); Стюарт Смит, Американский неоколониализм в Африке (American Neocolonialism in Africa) (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975). 38. Стюарт Смит, Оружие и доллары. Истоки внешней политики США (Progress Publishers, 1987); Восленский М.С., Номенклатура. Господствующий класс Советского Союза. М., 1991. 39. Vassiliev Black Notebooks, pp.127-128, 130. Vassiliev’s original notebooks are held by the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress and are online at https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/86/Vassiliev-Notebooks. 40. SAC NY to Director FBI, 1 June 1955, FBI file 100-56579-1062. 41. Alexsei Turbaevsky posting in Livejournal, April 25, 2015. Turbaevsky is a biotechnology engineer and physicist at the P.N. Lebedev Institute of Physics, who at one time worked on projects for the Foreign Intelligence Service. Livejournal is a popular Russian web forum. 42. Details of the funeral are contained in Turbaevsky’s posting in Live journal, April 25, 2015.

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