fri&ry, octcbcr 15, 1976
daily nebrcsfccn
Fl m ' m ' m.
wn press
4 if
Py Deb DockhIin
Massive public pressure is needed to open the files for
the .Rosenberg case," said Bonnie Brower, lawyer for
Robert and Michael Meeropo!, sons of Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg.
Brower spoke Thursday at the Power and Conspiracy
in America: IVho's in Control? symposium, sponsored by
Union Program Council- : '
Twenty-three years after the Rosenberg trial, a
National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case
(NCRRC) has been organized to "expose the truth about
the case and establish that the Rosenbergs were totally
innocent
On June 19, 1953, the Rosenbergs were executed after
being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They
were accused of trying to obtain national defense informa
tion for the Soviet Union.
Clear parents
In December 1975, Michael and Robert Meeropol
hired five lawyers to try to clear the names of their
parents by obtaining all files involved in the case.
According to Brower, the committee -has received
only 33,000 of the estimated 800,000 files involved with
the case.
"Those we do have access to have been heavily
deleted," she said. "Sometimes to the point that any
relevant information has been removed.
"The files should be made available under the Freedom
of Information Act, but as things stand now, there is no
freedom of information unless you're rich. There are also
so many obstacles with seeking information from agencies
such as the CIA, Energy Research and Development
Agency and the State Department, that people just quit
trying."
Although she said she doesn't know if the committee
will ever get the entire story, "our appetite has been
whetted by the documents and information we have
gathered, so we don't intend to quit. It's important to
keep trying, because they must have something to hide
by the fact they're not releasing the information."
Negative feedback
NCRRC has received negative feedback from the
American Bar Association (ABA), Brower said.
Kr y u v5- -
mod
"They (ABA) aren't interested in finding out the fact
of the case because they've already decided that the trial
was fair-so naturally they aren't backing the move,"
she added.
She said the most opposition is coming from a
committee headed by Simon Riffkin, a federal judge at
the time of the Rosenberg trial. Brower said Riffkin has
defended the Rosenberg trial judge, Irving R. Kaufman.
"Kaufman has failed to speak in defense of hirast.'
and uses Riffkin as his mouthpiece in the media, she
added.
NCRRC has 36 chapters in the VS., and Brower said
she expects one to be established at UNL.
I ids
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NCRRC petitioned the VS. District Court for the
District of Columbia to prohibit the federal government
from destroying the files.
NCRRC asked the court to prepare inventories and
schedules of the files. The court granted this but would
not impound the files, as the group also asked.
Brower said the five lawyers involved in the case and
Michael and Robert Meeropol haven't decided what
damages, if any , they will try to collect.
"I don't even know if we would collect any damages,
but the important thing is to get the truth out. We think
there was a cover-up and a frame-up, and we want to
expose it," Brower said.
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