Venona


The U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service, the precursor to the National Security Agency, began a secret program in February 1943 later codenamed VENONA

The mission of this small program was to examine and exploit Soviet diplomatic communications but after the program began, the message traffic included espionage efforts as well.

Although it took almost two years before American cryptologists were able to break the KGB encryption, the information gained through these transactions provided U.S. leadership insight into Soviet intentions and treasonous activities of government employees until the program was canceled in 1980.

The VENONA files are most famous for exposing Julius (code named LIBERAL) and Ethel Rosenberg and help give indisputable evidence of their involvement with the Soviet spy ring.

The first of six public releases of translated VENONA messages was made in July 1995 and included 49 messages about the Soviets' efforts to gain information on the U.S. atomic bomb research and the Manhattan Project. Over the course of five more releases, all of the approximately 3,000 VENONA translations were made public.

ImageTitle
 8MAR_COVERNAME_RABIN.PDFCovername RABIN 8 March (Release 4)
 25FEB_RIO.PDFCovername RIO
 27JUN_COVERNAME_SCOUT.PDFCovername SCOUT
 29MAR_SEM.PDFCovername SEM should be paid 300 dollars. He has been access to information about U.S. aircraft and rada
 6MAY_TAYLOR.PDFCovername TAYLOR (probably a Naval GRU officer) 6 May 1943 (Release 4)
 9AUG_THORNTON.PDFCovername THORNTON 9 August 1943 (Release 4)
 14JUL_VANO.PDFCovername VANO's family 14 July 1943 (Release 4)
 28JUN_COVERNAME_VEGA_LEFT_SHIP.PDFCovername VEGA has left on a Soviet ship
 21JAN_ROBERT_POET.PDFCovernames "ROBERT" and "POET" 21 January 1942 (Release 5)
 8JUL_COVERNAMES.PDFCovernames assigned to all Purchasing Commision department heads 8 July 1942 (Release 2)
 28DEC_COVERNAMES.PDFCovernames designated to the crew of several ships 28 December 1942 (Release 2)
 28MAR_LUD_ULLMAN.PDFCritique of information from KGB agent Lud Ullman 28 March (Release 3)
 1JUL_DAEDALUS.PDFDAEDALUS gets signed on 1 July 1942 (Release 2)
 28OCT_TORPEDO.PDFData about a torpedo 26 October 1943 (Release 2)
 25MAY_MILITARY_AIRCRAFT.PDFData on construction/distribution of military aircraft 25 May 1942 (Release 2)
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