User talk:RedSpruce/Notes

Notes re Oleg Gordievsky:


 * 1) Oleg Gordievsky and his book KGB: The Inside Story are worthy of note in this article because of the evidence they added to the Hiss case. Gordievsky's opinion is not inherently worthy of note. He is certainly an "expert" on Soviet Intelligence, etc., but so are many, many other people. We can't include the opinions of everyone who happens to be an expert. Therefor the section should confine itself to a discussion of the evidence that Gordievsky and his book added to the case.
 * 2) Unfortunately, in Gordievsky's book it is often difficult to tell when he's describing facts that he knows from personal experience versus when he's relating information from outside sources. This uncertainty caused Weinstein, among others, to mistakenly think that Gordievsky was confirming the identity of Hiss as "ALES", when in fact Gordievsky's source for this was a reporter who had seen the Venona documents before their release to the public. "Only a reader with a total command of the literature can tell where Mr. Gordievsky leaves off and the cited texts begin." http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DE1E3FF931A15753C1A966958260
 * 3) In Weinstein's letter to the NY Review of Books (in which he admits his mistake around Gordievsky confirming ALES), he singles out one point of evidence from Gordievsky that "remains unchallenged". This is the passage where Gordievsky describes attending a lecture given by Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov. The sentence where Hiss's name is mentioned in this description is: "Akhmerov mentioned Hiss only briefly."
 * 4) There are several other points in KGB: The Inside Story where Gordievsky describes espionage activity by Hiss/ALES, but there is no indication that any of these are based on Gordievsky's own experience. Apart from than witnessing the Akhmerov lecture, at no point in the book does Gordievsky mention any personal knowledge about Hiss. At no other point in the book does he describe any new information about Hiss/Ales that isn't available from other sources.

Contact Moore re picture for article?