ethel had no codename and we know from these cables, all kgb spies had codenames. ethel did not and she was referred to in one cable by her own name. nobody pretends that the kgb were actually dealing directly with ethel so it's not a crime to know. it's not a crime to think. what has to be proven is an overt fact that by charging them with conspiracy to commit espionage it was almost impossible to disprove. and depending on the prior view of communism and the cold war we are still arguing about what venona proves there doesn't prove but i think it's very hard to argue against the kgb. and it stars the kgb is concerned apple was not an act of spite that those that believe because she knew and probably approved and as i say in my book we can't know the extent to which she knew everything. she often went away in the summer and perhaps she was sent away deliberately so she wouldn't be part of it but you know that's conjecture. but she was involved in acts of spying and that's what venona tells us. >> if we are going to take venona is truth and julius was indeed engage

they�*re basing my grandfather�*s heroicism on the kgb documents.eir entire case is based on 3,000 pages of transcripts of the interrogations of my grandfather. and they were interrogating him for leading a rebellion against the soviets. that�*s all they cared about. they really did not care about the massacre of dues. yeah, it was still early days for the soviets. so, in those 3,000 pages, there is no evidence that he killed thejews. but in their own archives, their own lithuanian archives in siauliai, when he was district chief of siauliai during the nazi occupation, he wrote about 1,000 documents. of those 1,000, 70 have to do with the holocaust. so, his signature is on, you know, 70 of the documents that have to do with the holocaust. creating a ghetto, funding, rounding up thejews, collecting their property, distributing their property, and even details of, like, finding barbed wire and nails for a ghetto. so, um, to me, this is pretty overwhelming! well, the whole story�*s overwhelming. i mean, here you sit as an american, but of course with l

list for a list or could have been on a list, anyway he was not ever sure was the precursor to the kgbd so once the russians came back as i just indicated he was not happy with the russians. and he called my mother on the telephone with our neighbor we did not have a telephone. and told her to grab me and some stuff and take the last train out before the borders closed. said our goodbyes did not know whether that would be for a week, two weeks, or whatever. it turned out to be forever. my mother and i spent a very difficult train ride and it would stop off we would all come back on the train anyway. we made it, we then lived under with the rule for a little bit until the treaty between hitler, stalin was broken. and at that point poland was divided partly to the not these and partly to the russians. and in the process russia overtook lithuania. so we found ourselves in russian rule. which again was not good for my father. he used to leave and often hid in the forest nearby. and would visit us from time to time. it was a very difficult life. i course was in school they put their childre

he was never really sure what the nkdb was the precursor to the kgb.nce the russians came back to capture bialystok, he did not return. he was not happy with the russians. he called my mother on a telephone that our neighbor had -- we did not have a telephone -- and told her to grab me and some stuff and take the last train out before the borders closed. she did that and we said our goodbyes. we did not know whether that would be for a week, two weeks, or whatever. it turned out to be forever. we did not know it at the time. my mother and i spent a difficult train ride from bialystok to vilna and it would stop off and everybody would run out for fear of bombings and there would be a whistle that would blow and we would all come back on the train. anyway, we made it and lived under lithuanian rule for a bit until the nonaggression treaty between hitler and stalin was broken and at that point, poland was divided partly to the nazis and partly to the russians, and in the process, russia overtook lithuania. we found ourselves in russian rule, which was not

which is the precursor to the kgb and so once the russians came back into capture biala stock. he did not return from vilma for the reason that i just indicated. he was not he was not happy with the russians and he called my mother and on a telephone that our neighbor had we didn't have a telephone and told her to grab me and some of some stuff and take the last train out of biala stock before the borders closed. she did that and we said our goodbyes. we didn't know whether that would be for a week to weeks or whatever. it turned out to be forever. but we didn't know that at the time and my mother and i spent a very difficult train ride from balestock to vilna. and it would stop off and and everybody would run out to fear of bombings and then there would be a whistle that would blow and we would all come back on the train. anyway, we made it and we then lived under lithuanian rule for a bit until the the non-aggression treaty between hitler and stalin was broken. and at that point, um, poland was divided partly to the nazis and partly to the russians and they and the process ru

example, which is highly suspected of being responsible given vladimir putin's past of being in the kgb we need to be able to again detect any future attacks and stop them and do all the work that we can to prove who was responsible and then take action. this is going to be a major policy challenge for the biden administration if they do you attribute these attacks to a state actor like russia. ashley: really quickly, 10 seconds or so, this last question, why vienna and why now? >> vienna's always been a hot spot for diplomatic and espionage activity and it's quite possible the perpetrators of these attacks are seeking to cause harm to our mission in austria. but it's not to say it's not happening in other place as well. and that's the concern for us. ashley: scary stuff. dan hoffman, thanks for being with us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thanks. ashley: todd. todd: ashley, author of secret empire, peter schweisser, calling out hunter biden as he prepares to sell his paintings to anonymous buyers with price tag as high as $500,000. >> this opens the gateway to massive corruption. t

and it shouldn't be the president that the message should be look if your fsp formerly known as the kgbdeal with the criminal organizations operating within their territory then we can either provide you with support and training to make them more effective and work as partners in this and that's never going to happen or we and our allies will start taking proactive responsibility for this and deal with it ourselves. that's exactly what we should be doing. we have to treat groups like this. they were responsible for the jbs meat industry attack recently. we need to start treating these groups as terrorist organizations just as we normally do. we target terrorists around the world. we act in a fight them, we profiled him, we start gathering data that's going to allow at some point to either acquire them or to stop them from doing what they are doing. and look we can't fly in a drone in russian territory but there's no reason we shouldn't be tougher on this. moodna has no interest in working with us. his interests are not allied with us. he doesn't care. kennedy: he is just pushing biden'

soviet union ends and accepts arms, implements socialist policies, is accepting soviet advisors from the kgbilitary, eisenhower believed that we had a an even bigger problem with cuba -- we had an even bigger problem with cuba than in guatemala years previously. for eisenhower, it was a matter of keeping the soviets out of our hemisphere and the saying is, it is only 90 miles from the united states. why kennedy went forward with it is a little harder to justify, he did campaign in the 1960 election on freeing cuba, on providing support. he was actually and wittingly saying what the eisenhower met -- administration was doing secretly. he was advocating it openly. he was committed to moving forward on that and he inherited this plan, this plan that had grown from a guerrilla infiltration and supply operation to a conventional amphibious landing and kennedy later rude -- rued the fact that he trusted the experts. host: back to our phone lines, as we do, i want to remind everyone that this is a coproduction with american history tv and being simulcast on c-span3, so let's talk to henry, calling

>> yeah former kgb operative vladimir putin that takes on any dissident that poses a challenge to hisshouldn't believe this for a second. vladimir putin has the ability to clamp down on this and he's choosing not to do it, this is a couple weeks after president biden came out of that meeting and told the press there that he gave putin a list of 16 targets that should be off limits for ransom where attacks. so what i want to know is the latest ransom where attacks, were they on or off the list? i don't know which is worst for president biden. clearly president putin understands that he wasn't going to get -- he wasn't the white house said certain ransom where attacks were okay leave the 16 areas alone. one of them is financial. that could be a big economic hit here. i'm wondering, rebecca, the response here and whether if russia isn't going to listen, we don't we hack back? you know what i'm saying? seems childish to get on that level. if they're not listening to anything else, maybe we should. >> i would go even further. we can't go tit for tat. we have to have a response that makes t

this state sponsored attacks like those run bis the svr which is one of the spinoffs of the old soviet kgb. and it is primarily an intelligence gathering operation and to some degree that's less upsetting to the administration because states spy on each other. we spy on them. they spy on us. so that's less likely to be punished. except for the fact that the rnc is a political target and warnings after the dnc hack five years ago now. the ransomware is largely private criminal groups although as alex suggested it is hard to know where those stop and the state steps in. in that case, the president's concern is that this gets to the heart of economic disruption in the united states. and that's really where the focus of the administration's attention is. >> to follow up to understand, biden handed over the list of 16 critical infrastructure items to putin. where do these attacks fall on that list? >> the list is a pretty vague one and you can look at it yourself. it was published by the department of homeland security several years ago, actually during the trump administration. it's categories

he's a former kgb guy, he runs the press in his country. the same thing with president xi. he does the same thing with the chinese communist party propaganda all throughout the globe so when he sits down with these people, they laugh at him because they know his cognitive decline. probably some of the other people that get to sit one on one with him. very few members of congress have sat down with him for any length of time. so the way i would explain it is when you get out of the real world where people will kill others, take over companies, takeover economies, things get real. they can handle it. >> sean: a 57% of the american people in this trafalgar pole -- a great poster. a57 percent don't think he's in charge and then you add to the equation that social media is not showing the video clips that we just showed that we've been showing, i would argue that the number would be dramatically higher except if you have big tech and the media mob not showing their audiences what's really going on when the struggles he's really having fun they are protecting him. >> that is exac

say if the cubans took it to the scientific level because they have t are the and borrowed from the kgbrtal. it's a titanic nightmare and where the poor cubans have lived for 62 years. it's a historical moment for the biden administration to demonstrate that we are still a beacon of hope in the world that he is stepping up. elizabeth: critics are saying this shows the shocking depravity of thef far left and stepping up and speaking out of what's going on in cuba. we are seeing china russia and iran on the rise. they are all over cuba and oliver venezuela. what's happening in cuba and venezuela they have taken people's rights to defend themselves and took away their guns in the communist party seizedse everything seize property. they are seizing at the borders food and medicines for themselves so is the bidens administration missing this historic moment where george h.w. bush and reagan picked up on this moment? are they missing this historic moment? >> absolutely they are. it took them 24 hours to say a word about what was happening in cuba and they have to send a message to the biden a

the message should be, look if you are fsb formally known as the kgb is not capable enough deal withthin their territory, we can either provide you with support and training that is never going to happen. or we and our allies can start taking proactive responsibility for this and deal with ourselves. that is exactly what we should be doing. we have to treat groups that are responsible for this, the responsible for the meatpacking or meat industry attack recently. we need to start treating these groups as a terrorist organization. we have terrorists around the world we profile them going to allows us some points to either acquire them or stop them from doing what they're doing we cannot go in and drone on russian territory we need to be pragmatic. there is one no reason we should not be tougher on this of the stage of the game. putin has no interest in working with this but he does they are not aligned with us he doesn't care. in fact think he finds it pretty entertaining. >> he keeps pushing biden's buttons. once defined the one that makes him go pp. that is not a good thing. if they

the kgb officer who is now their leader so what do we do because now china is purchasing africa every day giving them infrastructure and we cannot even give ourselves infrastructure the chinese community build a railroad all they want is underground rights they are thinking long-haul. [laughter] and that's not even bringing up the fact with all the domestic issues and with white supremacy or caught killings or cop shooting is on you. it is a rugged time. >> grover cleveland is the only president to have run twice into different elections. so the big question of courses will it be 2024? or the chance that trump could win again? you know the guy a little that. you know he sees these things and do you see that as a viable situation quick. >> i think both men are running against each other next time but yes if biden could be trump twice he is a heavyweight champion trump comes back is a heavyweight champion again but they would be close because most of the states stakes are taken maybe you argue about pennsylvania or wisconsin but coming down to the short hairs it so close it will be like

starting to accept arms, is starting to implement socialistst policies,s accepting soviet advisers, both kgb and military. eisenhower believed we had a bigger problem with cuba becoming partas of the soviet orbit versus a few years previously. for eisenhower, it was a matter ofof keeping the soviets out of our hemisphere. the saying is, it's only 90 f miles from the united states. why kennedy went forward with it is a little harder to justify. he did campaign in the 1960 election on freeing cuba, on providing support. he was actually unwittingly saying what the eisenhower administration was doing secretly.tt kennedy wasfo advocating it openly. to as politically committed moving t forward on that, and h inherited this plan, this plan that had grown from a guerrilla infiltration and supply operation to a conventional amphibious landing. kennedy later rued the fact that he hadad trusted the experts. this left him with great skepticism of the judgment of cia leaders and u.s. military leaders who were encouraging him on. >> let's go back to our phone lines. as we do, i want to remind everyone, th

is accepting soviet advisors both kgb and military?isenhower's even a bigger problem with cuba becoming part of the soviet orbit than we had with that possibility in guatemala several years previously. so for eisenhower's a matter of keeping the soviets out of our hemisphere and you know the saying is it's only 90 miles from the united states. why kennedy went forward with it is a little harder to justify he did campaign in the 1960 election on freeing cuba on providing support he was actually unwittingly saying what the eisenhower administration was doing secretly. he was kennedy was advocating at openly so he was politically committed to moving forward on that and he inherited this plan this plan that had grown. from a gorilla infiltration and supply operation to a conventional amphibious landing and kennedy later rude the fact that he had trusted the experts this left him with a great skepticism of the judgment of cia leaders and us military leaders who were encouraging him on let's go back to our phone lines. and as we do i want to

majority of people in the regime are hooked by him, and a lot people in the regime, especially in the kgbare in blood already. and he is money parading these people -- he is manipulating these people. it is one system. but the usual workers in the regime in the ministries, they want changes. you know how many times people told us when they were jailed , that the policemen say, i am supporting where you, i am with you, but i have to do my job. people who are inside the regime, sometimes they are even more slaves of this regime than usual, and they are more scared svetlana tikhanovskaya, thank you so much for being here. mrs. tikhanovskaya: thank you. ♪ judy: president trump's year in office was book ended by an impeachment trial and in between, marked by other historic events -- a deadly pandemic, economic collapse, racial unrest across the country, and a violent insurrection at the u.s. capitol. in their new book "i alone can fix it," washington post reporters carol lennon and her partner reveal new details about chaos inside the trump white house, and the alarm that rippled across the go

they took it to scientific levels because they borrowed from the kgb in russia.s is a historical moment for the biden administration to demonstrate that we are still the beacon of hope in the world. that he is stepping up and -- elizabeth: but here is the thing. >> tell me. elizabeth: you know, it is, it, critics are saying it shows the shocking depravity of the far left in not stepping up speaking out what is going on in cuba. we're seeing threats from china, russia and iran on the rise. they were all over cuba. they were all over venezuela. what happened in cuba, venezuela. they took the people's right to defend themselves. they took away their guns. then the communist party just seized everything. seized property. they're seizing at the borders food, medicines for themselves. so is the biden administration missing this historic moment? in the past george h.w. bush and reagan picked up on this moment. are they missing this historic moment? >> absolutely they are. it took them 24 hours to say the first few words what was happening in cuba. i sent a message to th

people although, i bet his relationship with trump was less like, "buddy buddy" and more like, "former kgblike, putin obviously preferred trump policy-wise, but there's gotta be a small part of him that's relieved not to have to make small talk with trump anymore in those long one on one meetings i mean, trump is like your weed dealer who drops off a baggie and then won't leave before i get an uber one up so, anyway, vlad, it was 1986, and i was at studio 54 with tommy lee and wally backman. bad guy, nasty guy, nice to me, though he was in a platoon with tim teufel remember tim teufel? "i do not know this teufel man." "well, the 'late night' crew remembers him, i promise you that i promise you that you can bend john o'malley's ear about tim teufel [ laughter ] he'd be happy to fill you in." so, even putin was willing to admit that he was dealing with a more experienced statesman in biden. our key allies in the g7 and nato ao seemed excited throughout biden's trip about the fact that they were finally dealing with a u.s. president interested in global cooperation to solve common problems an

attacks to interference in elections to plots to kill, like the 2018 nerve agent attack on a former kgb britain. frank gardner, bbc news. more than 70 people have now died after a week of unrest in south africa sparked by the jailing of former president jacob zuma. shops and warehouses have been looted and set on fire — with the worst violence in years centred on durban and johannesburg. here's our south africa correspondent nomsa maseko. dramatic scenes in durban show the extremity of desperation of those people caught in the middle of this mayhem. people were screaming, "throw her, throw her!" she threw her child to safety after her home was allegedly set on fire by looters. i was scared, i was really scared, but there were people down in the street. i wasn't. .. like, the way i was panicking, i was trusting anyone to take my baby away from me, because the place was burning, and there was smoke outside. this is day six of looting and rioting in kwazulu—natal and gauteng provinces in south africa. violent protests began hours after south africa's former president, jacob zuma, was jaile

attacks to interference in elections to plots to kill like the 2018 nerve agent attack on a former kgbuse of al-qaeda training camps there when the taliban were in power. are we going full circle back to that potentially?— to that potentially? there is at risk. the decision _ to that potentially? there is at risk. the decision was - to that potentially? there is at| risk. the decision was triggered to that potentially? there is at - risk. the decision was triggered by president biden who said enough is enough, we can stay there forever, were pulling out. once america pulled out his forces there was no way the brain and other native forces could say. they are all going or have gone. and this is posing a huge intelligence headache for western agencies like mi five, mi six, the cia and so on. they do worry that as the taliban takes more territory that will create a benign environment for al-qaeda, territory that will create a benign environment foral-qaeda, isis territory that will create a benign environment for al-qaeda, isis and other extreme is to rebuild terrorist training camps wher

not aware of this, it might be happening in russia and not aware of it and i'm thinking he was a top kgb aware of this, and we had to slap on additional sanctions or to we do something more on his level and hack right back? >> welcome, we have to obviously, as we sync through the different courses of action, we have the capability to strike back, but we doesn't want to have a cyber escalation either where we strike back and then they come after our critical infrastructure. so, one of the things that we can do is do both covert and overt messages to putin. he's smarter than the average bear, he'll get it. you know, do some things like the department of defense did, reached out to russian internet trolls and said we know who you are and unless you back off the keyboard there will be repercussions, we could do the same things here and probably plans underway whether or not we hear about it, neil, remains to be seen, but i would like to see us use some of the capabilities in a nuanced way to make sure we don't have a cyber escalation. neil: theresa payton, former white house information offi

third, president biden needs to warn the kgb operatives if they enjoy having these hacking groups inhould be delivering at the expert meeting supposed to be taking place next week between the united states and russia. neil: while i have you, dan, so much we don't know, but haiti's president was assassinated in his home. his wife was injured. she is being helicoptered to miami for treatment after the wounds she endured, the president is very disturbed about it, worried about it. there has been a lot of gang violence there, a lot of crime there. gets people's attention when the leader of the country is killed. what do you make of this? >> i mean massive corruption there. questions about, about issues with the government with president malis ruled by decreed and whether he overstayed his election term which some say ended last february. i think the interim prime minister, clawed joseph, has to be concerned about collecting information what happened because he may be the next one targeted. this has implications for illegal migration into the united states. we have to be focused on this.

he said the biden administration wants to knock on your door kgb style to force people to get vaccinated. we must oppose forced vaccination. and then marsha blackburn, big government in control. these are just lies, an effort to use community volunteers and community public health workers. local people knock on doors to provide information about how someone can get the vaccine easily and safely. doctor, can you see areas where this kind of outreach would work, and do you feel doctors are doing enough to proactively reach out to their patient base and try to convince them to get the vaccination? i think ministers and doctors may have a lot more power than they republic lies they have. they realize they have. >> david knows this as well. if you see someone you know and trust, a neighbor, a friend, even someone who works at the store, a familiar face, they can be more influential. doctors do play a role. doctors and nurses alike. i think there's more we could be doing proactively. claire, we're at our wit's end. we're now dealing with the increase in cases trying to balance how to get peopl

don't forget, it's actually someone from the kgb a few years ago claims that the system of repression the status city -- stasi in the days of east germany. the fact that we're seeing this uprising quite so big and that it took them by surprise is amazing. i mean, it's stunning. but in order for this to really continue, you need to give them access where you have connectivity between the people who are on the ground and the reverberation, messaging. and the first time we saw this was, of course, ever since the arab spring a decade ago the importance of getting internet communications and having the people overseas, the diaspora keep resonating that. and in order for them to also see that the world cares and if they keep progressing and rising up, the world will stand by them and to keep pushing for that. so it's a difficult line to tread because you want to help the people without generating a revenue stream that further finances their oppressors. neil: got it. we'll watch closely. vanessa, thank you very, very much for this. eerily kind of spelled all this out when all this started wh