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Former US. Agent Loaded With Secret Documents Is Rounded Up In W. GermanyMyMSor-He*atiflasof-nglysbeifhoinNLIS-allsiteaPsKhtnd; lithe thetheie-thek#erbeaed.hatrW71iidBerlin—lt;AP)—U. S Armyauthorise;- disclosed esterday the arrest of a former Americar. intelligence agent and said he had in his possession enough documents to jeopardize it* entire net-work of informants in East Germany.They identified the mar. as .Michael R. Rothkrug. 44. Belgian - born American citizen who served as a lieutenant in the Army in World War 11 and later was a civilian agent for theWe UnderstandArticles on Bert Snell's ibirthday failed to note that he was a Kentucky colonel. He was given the title by Gov. Ruby La-fuon of the Blue Gra^s state when Snell was one of the GOP leadersof the House of Representatives.Colonel, we salute you. and wish you many returns The GOP needs men like you instead of the Ike is drawing around him Bert was bom with a silver spoon in his mouth and he can now eat off gold plate.military intelligence detachme;.; (Mid).Mid men investigating Roth krug's presence in Berlin as r tourist last August found he hac gone into business with a German partner in a textile firm.U. S. spokesmen said the agent* discovered thousands of top secret documents, missing fromMid files for two years, in the textile office.The documents included name*of Germans working in the anticommunist underground. Informed sources said disclosure of such a list would destroy years of painstaking work and jeopardize the lives of the persons concerned. Some are living :r. Wo* Berlin. Others are in the Soviet Zone There were hints that tbev«rincluded men highly placed m the Communist government itself.in the been m trial is be heldBerlinSeore-Jedge Pruskauer is getting his lumps these days..•stiveldrrelerus-ikecy,ath-anrOV-me,thetorynna:on-tro-Truman gave his virulent critics neo-apoplexy when he exploded against Mac and Ike. The New York News and its John 0'Dor.r.cll, thanwhomest of Harry Haters, blew all their gaskets. The News called him a screeching. screaming, screwball flap (and had a cartoon of a huge chair ' with the President represented as a tiny man on the seat holding his foot in his mouth It was labeled foot and mouth disease. The paper's parting shot was to call Truman a mental midget I vs. two giants.” The redoubtable Westbrook Pegler hasn’t been heard from yet but when he fireshis terrible thesaurus at Harryth* nrohahlv stoD shin-Iing[nonmenanlyting r. a her 68, \ug.redtheredRobert McDonald. Mayor ofOgdensburg. N. Y., took the standat Washington Thursday to testify that electric power was scarce and expensive xn the St. Lawrence Valley, on the United States side. He is a dealer in electrical appliances, he said, and has had frequent and recent complaints that industrial and domestic electrical machinery cannot operate effectively in this area because of low voltage and power deficiencies.A late report from Washington savs that Norfolk. N Y., bom Wil-Rothkrug was jailed Army stockade. He has custody four months. A being prepared and may in the next few weeks.The U. S. high commission has taken over the case from the Army. Authorities said the problem of how to try a man on such a charge without divulging the nature of the top secret documents loomed so large in that it was bucked up to tarv of State Acheson.Roth krug's home is in Wt port. Conn.. where his brother Mark Pothkrug lives, the Army said. 1'he U. S district attorney for Berlin has sent a letter to Mark Rothkrug advising him of the impending case in the event the family wants to engage anAmerican attorney.%The sudden disappearance * of about 4.000 separate document prompted the Army to send a General and a Colonel here from Washington in 1950 to investigate. At that time. Army officers said. Rothkrug was still on the Mid staff and told interrogators he had returned all documents for which he was responsible.The exact charge against Roth-krug now is possession of documents without authority. Government attorneys here said the charge could be expanded, however. to espionage and even treason. depending on whether the prosecution would develop the thought ai possible sale of the secret information to a foreigr power. The penalty coud be life imprisonment or perhaps death.Army lawyers said.Other officers said, however, that the Army might seek a guilty plea to the single charge of possessing document? without authority in order to avoiddisclosure of the contents of the documents in court.
Newspaper Details
Ogdensburg Advance News
Ogdensburg, New York, US
Sun, Dec 14, 1952
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 19 Oct 2019
Other Publications Near Ogdensburg, New York
Ogdensburg Journal
Ogdensburg Advance and St Lawrence Weekly Democrat
Ogdensburg Daily Sentinel
Ogdensburg Daily Journal
Ogdensburg Advance
