Annotated
Excerpts from
Felix Inslerman's Testimony |
TESTIMONY OF FELIX A. INSLERMAN
Before
the Permanent Subcommitteee on Investigations of the
Committee
on Government Operations,
United
States Senate
February
19, 1954
Joseph
R. McCarthy, Chairman
Roy
M. Cohn, Counsel
The
CHAIRMAN. Mr. Inslerman, I want to thank you very much. I
know the course you are following today is difficult, extremely
difficult for any man who has been involved in espionage,
to come forward and tell the truth frankly. It takes a great
deal of intestinal fortitude, a great deal of courage.
I
would like to compliment the attorneys in this case for giving
their client advice to be helpful to the country instead of
hiding behind the Fifth Amendment. I want you to realize that
it would be much easier for you just to come in here and invoke
the Fifth Amendment. I think what you are doing this morning
displays a great deal of courage.
***
Mr.
COHN. And, first of all, it is a fact that you were never
a card-carrying member of the Communist Party; is that right?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. That is correct.
Mr.
COHN. But you were involved in the operations of this Soviet
espionage ring, is that correct?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. That is correct.
***
Mr.
COHN. Did there ever come a time when Bill [the psuedonym
of a communist pary co-worker] requested that you make a trip
to the Soviet Union?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
Mr.
COHN. Would you tell us about when that was, about what year?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. In 1935, approximately a month before I actually
sailed.
Mr.
COHN. And before you did sail for the Soviet Union, did Bill
introduce you to another man whom you came to know as a member
of the Soviet apparatus?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
Mr.
COHN. And by what name did you know this other man?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Bob.
Mr.
COHN. And who do you now believe Bob to be?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Whittaker Chambers.
***
Mr.
COHN. After you had completed those courses, did your Soviet
contact ever make any suggestions to you that you leave New
York City and go elsewhere?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes. The early summer of 1936, a suggestion was
made that I move to Baltimore.
Mr.
COHN. Did you move to Baltimore?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. I did.
***
Mr.
COHN. Did Bob, or Whittaker Chambers, ever give you anything
when he contacted you in Baltimore?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
Mr.
COHN. What did he give to you?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Some documents.
***
Mr.
COHN. Do you recall the first occasion on which Chambers,
or Bob, delivered to you any documents?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. The recollection is dim, but sometime in late 1937,
Chambers came to my house with some documents which I photographed.
Chambers
had testified that the photographing of documents began much
earlier.
Mr.
COHN. Did Chambers give you documents to photograph on any
occasions besides this once?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes. There were as far, as I can recall, five different
occasions.
Chambers
claimed it had been a weekly process that went on for nearly
a year.
Mr.
COHN. In other words, you can recall specifically five different
occasions on which Chambers gave you these documents to photograph;
is that right?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
Mr.
COHN. Were these documents, from your observation, government
documents?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
Mr.
COHN. Do you recall anything about the content of any of these
documents, any of the names you might have seen, whether they
were State Department names or material, or things along those
lines?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. I recall the name of Grew.
Mr.
COHN. Ambassador Grew?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Grew; yes. G-r-e-w. And Bullitt.
Mr.
COHN. Ambassador Grew and Ambassador Bullitt. You recall specifically
those two names on the documents; is that correct?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
Mr.
COHN. What instructions would Chambers give to you when he
delivered these documents to you?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. To photograph them, return them, and return the
film.
Mr.
COHN. By the way, of course, you never knew that Bob's
name was Whittaker Chambers?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. I did not.
Mr.
COHN. You knew him as Bob – period – just as you
had known the other members of the apparatus as Ben and Bill,
and so on, and so forth?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
Mr.
COHN. What instructions did Bob give you concerning these
documents when he would give them to you?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Well, I was to photograph them and the following
day return the documents back to him as well as the film.
Mr.
COHN. Would Bob place a time limit? Would he give you a time
limit within which you had to do this work, on occasion?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. They usually had to be returned the following morning.
Mr.
COHN. The documents usually had to be returned by the following
morning?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
This
is a significant difference. Chambers specifically claimed
that because Hiss secretly took the documents out of his office,
they had to be returned that same night.
Mr.
COHN. Would you redeliver these documents to Bob or would
he come and pick them up, or what?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. I delivered them to Bob.
Mr.
COHN. You would deliver them to him. Where would you
deliver them to him? Do you recall?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. In Washington, except on the first occasion, when
he came to my home, he took the documents along with him,
himself, at that time, as well as the film.
Mr.
COHN. And would you see Bob in both Baltimore and in Washington?
Mr.
INSLERMAN. Yes.
|
