Evening star., 1949-06-17
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Communist Party activities In the
United States.
Her boss. william E. Foley. CHIEF
Of the internal security section o1
the Justice Department, came tc
her office, she related, with doc.
urnent bound In a black cover
with the words top secret" stand
ing out In white letters.
Had you ever seen anything
labeled top secret IN your whole
Government career?" MIR. Palmer
asked.
First View of Top Secret.
Never" she responded, that
was the first time I said. top Sc
cret is something new, isn't 1t?
That must be about the atom
bomb. I was joking because the
highest classification I had ever
seen before was strictly confiden-
tial.'"
Miss Coplon said Mr.. Foley told
her you ought to read this later
in the day because it's hot stun.
II thought he was joking" she
continued. because it sounded like
stories you hear about the Army
you know about the way the Army
they say, classifles newspapers as
top secret.
Anyway, around our Office we
felt that a lot of the confidential
material from the FBI was
laughing matter. For instance, we
would read testimony given before
the House Un-American Com
mittee in the newspapers and the
next day we would get eontiden-
tial FBI ssreport containing Che
same material, onlysit was listed
as coming from confidential In
fo-mants. And just by reading the
newspapers you could tell who the
confidential informants were"
Report Put on Desk. I
After telling her that she should
read the top secret" report. Miss
Coplon continued, MFR. Foley took
it away from her. Later he came
back and put 1t on her desk again.
II glanced through It," she said,
"and said, Do you want me to
give you a report on this? This
seems to be old stuff 1t had ma
terial about the Silvermaster case
which had been in all the news
papers and I noticed something
about the first Soviet Ambassador
to the United States who was de-
po- ted back in the early '20s, I
believe.
"rfr. Foley said he didn't want
q report, he just thought I might
be interested in glancing at the
report. The incident was very
odd. / couldn't understand it
first he said read it. then he took
it away, then he came back and
sal glance through 1t, and then
he took IL away. l considered 1t
an amusing incident. And that's
the whole story about that secret
report"
A two-paragraph typewriter
memorandum containing a refer
ence to the top secret report
was found in Miss Coplon's purse
It said she had not been able to
obtain a copy of the top secret re-
port on Soviet intelligence and
Communist Party activities, but
she had glanced through it and
was satisfied it contained nothins
of interest.
Believes It Was Decoy.
MIR. Palmer asked her If the
memorandum taken from hel
purse was written in the serio-
comic vein in which you were
writing your book which we'll talk
about later?"
"Yes, that's right Miss Coplon
responded with a smile. That's
what it was all about"
Mr.. Palmer asked Miss Coplon
If she now felt that the "tor
secret" Communist Party report
was a 'decoy' document intended
to entrap her. FBI witnesses have
testified that two "decoy" reports
containing information about
atomic energy were deliberately
routed to Miss Coplon's desk after
reports of a leak" In the Justice
Departments internal security
section were received last Decem-
ber.
"Yes, looking back. I believe
that was a decoy, too" she said.
Miss Coplon said she was un-
aware that she was suspected OF
disloyalty and never had any idea
that as many as IS FBI agents
were trailing her at the same
time before she was arrested.
Didn't Suspect Phone Tapping.
Mr.. Palmer asked her If she
ever suspected that her telephone
was tapped.
About three days before ] was
arrested she said. Il heard q
strang cracking sound on the
wire and told q friend about 1t
He said that didn't mean thu
r...es were tapped because thes
do that so quietly"