Talk:Solomon Adler

message: Once again: His name is Solomon Adler. He also called himself "Sol". Names given to him by the CIA, FBI and other agencies can or even should be mentioned, but clearly marked. I've deleted "Schlomer" once again.
This declassified FBI document mentions his name as "Schlomer Adler" in the section heading and once in an indirect quote of Whittaker Chambers, and repeats that name once again, but all the other references in the text are to "Solomon Adler" (eight times, including the paragraph with the title "Results of Investigation") and "Sol Adler" (four times). It's not clear at all why they call him "Schlomer" in these three instances. — Babelfisch 03:10, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Name 

message: The article says he 'emigrated' fron Britain to China.  Did he become a Chinese citizen?  When? 
Thanks Hmains 16:14, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: citizenship

message: What are the sources for the allegation that Adler was a Soviet spy? Which source exactly says “Sol Adler was a Soviet spy”? I can’t find it. Looking at the footnotes to me this looks very much like “original research” (or slander, actually). —Gregor Kneussel (talk) 02:50, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sources and “original research” 

message: This was a difficult entry to fix, especially since it seems to have been controversial.  I've restructured to put biography first, espionage material second.  Espionage material is highlighted to emphasize where various claims come from. Most of the original citations were to pdf files of senate hearings or fbi files.  I feel this is not appropriate and does give the impression of original research.  There are plenty of secondary sources to cite.  Finally, I changed the description at the beginning from "Soviet spy" to "Soviet intelligence source." This is not attributing my views to others, but is the common description of Adler; thus Kathryn Olmstead in her biography of Elizabeth Bennett, Red Spy Queen, says "Soviet documents confirm that Adler was indeed a Soviet source." (214 n.52)  Rgr09 (talk) 06:24, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rewrite 

message: Characterizations of the "Central External Liaison Department" in this article are inaccurate. The correct English term for this office is the International Department of the Communist Party of the PRC. See the wikipedia article on the Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China for a factual presentation of China's intelligence services.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.103.202.100 (talk) 04:23, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  misinformed about China 

message: Two points are made in a comment above: 1) the English name of the CELD is supposedly incorrectly translated, and 2) the nature of the CELD is incorrectly described; apparently the commenter does not believe that it is a Chinese intelligence unit
1) The Chinese name of this unit (zhongyang duiwai lianluo bu) is still often translated as Central External Liaison Department; this is a word for word translation and I have seen recent FBIS translations still using this name. The Chinese Communist Party began translating it as International Liaison Department sometimes in the 1980s, then changed it to the International Department in 1995.  These are all English variations, the Chinese name has not changed since the department was created in 1921 (according to David Shambaugh, see below).  Since the source material cited in the article uses the term Central External Liaison Dept, and since Adler's service apparently dates from the early 1960s to the early 1980s, predating these terms, it seems perverse to insist on using the name "International Department" here.
2) China's intelligence services are diverse and complex. To offer the scanty Wikipedia entry on the Ministry of State Security as an introduction to all of China's intelligence services is completely inadequate.  Although the Department has done different things at different times, intelligence collection and analysis have always been important parts of its work. There is a booklength study available: The Chinese Secret Service by Richard Deacon, rev. ed. Grafton Books 1989, which has some information about the Department's intelligence functions (pp. 253-254), but of course this is quite out of date. There is a relatively recent article on the Department by David Shambaugh: "China's 'Quiet Diplomacy': The International Department of the Chinese Communist Party" in "China: An International Journal" 5:1 (March 2007),  26-54.  This article deals mostly with more recent functions the Department has taken on, but does note that even today intelligence collection remains one of its functions.
All details of Adler's work in the Department are unknown, at least to me.  That he worked there as a regular staff member seems certain, otherwise why did he live in Department housing? More to the point of the article, Adler must certainly have been a well-regarded CCP member to have worked for the Department. Rgr09 (talk) 11:48, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Central External Liaison Department 

message: The following statement was recently added to the lead:
  Adler was confirmed as a Soviet agent by the Venona Project as a member of the Sound/Myrna Group.
However, Adler was not identified directly in the Venona material. The Venona decryptions included a message from an agent using the cryptonyn 'Sachs'.  'Sachs' was later identified in Alexander Vassiliev's material as Adler. This is explained later in the article, with proper sourcing; there is no need to move this complicated issue into the lead.  It is also confusing to refer to the Golos - Bentley network as Sound/Myrna without any other references. Please leave a note here if you see problems with this.
I have also revised the description of the Central External Liaison Department in the lead; for my comments on this organ, and the translation of the name, see earlier on the talk page.  To my embarrassment, the Richard Deacon reference is by no means a reliable source; Shambaugh, however, is. Rgr09 (talk) 15:44, 28 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Adler and Venona