FBI searched for Soviet atom bombs in 1950s’ New York, files show
July 28, 2014 Leave a comment
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org
American authorities suspected that Soviet intelligence had smuggled atom bombs in New York City and that Moscow was planning to detonate them “at an expedient time”, according to declassified documents. The revelation comes from a set of internal FBI files, which were declassified and released in redacted form in 2010. Copies of the documents, which date from the early 1950s, were posted (.pdf) on The Government Attic, a website specializing in publishing US government files obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. The documents were then noticed last week by The Village Voice‘s Anna Merlan. The file (.pdf), titled “Atomic Bomb in Unknown Consulate, New York City”, is nearly 80 pages-long. It indicates that the search for a supposed Soviet atomic weapon in New York began shortly after the summer of 1950, when the FBI received a tip from a source in Brazil. The source reportedly told the Bureau that Soviet operatives had “placed an atom bomb in a consulate […] in New York City to be detonated at such time as the Soviets consider expedient”. The problem was that the FBI was not aware of the identity of the consulate, which was presumed to belong to the USSR or to a country politically aligned with it. The Bureau thus actively engaged in searching for the bomb during the years of 1951 and 1952. The search was primarily conducted by the FBI’s informants in various communist-bloc consulates and agencies in New York, including the Soviet mission to the United Nations, located on Park Avenue, as well as the Polish, Hungarian and Czechoslovakian missions, located a few blocks away from their Soviet equivalent, on East 67th Street. The FBI also appears to have mobilized its informants inside the Soviet government-run Amtorg Trading Corporation, which handled the USSR’s trade with foreign countries, as well as the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) offices at Rockefeller Plaza. A clandestine search was also conducted at the Soviet diplomatic mission’s retreat on Long Island. American customs agents were also notified to keep their eyes open for oddly shaped diplomatic packages “which appear to be suspiciously heavy in proportion to their dimensions”. Read more of this post
intelNews.org 
FBI’s top New York official urges personnel to ‘dig in’ for ‘battle’ with White House
February 3, 2025 by intelNews 4 Comments
On January 31, President Donald Trump’s administration summarily dismissed nine senior FBI officials. The following day, the Bureau’s interim leadership received a DOJ directive instructing them to provide information on all employees involved in the January 6 investigation. This request applies not only to special agents but also to thousands of FBI personnel who provided support services for what remains the largest investigation in the agency’s history.
Approximately 15% of the FBI’s workforce —an estimated 6,000 employees— was involved in the investigation. On Sunday, around 4,000 of them received an email from the Department of Justice asking them to voluntarily disclose their role in the probe. Reports indicate that recipients must submit the requested information by 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. Many within the FBI fear this inquiry is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to remove rank-and-file employees who worked on January 6 cases.
In response, Dennehy, a former U.S. Marine who joined the FBI after seven years in the Corps, sent an email on Sunday afternoon to personnel in the New York field office, delivering what appears to be a message of defiance. “Today,” he wrote, “we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the FBI and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and FBI policy.”
Dennehy praised the Bureau’s interim leaders, Brian Driscoll and Robert C. Kissane, for resisting DOJ requests to provide lists of FBI personnel, calling them “warriors.” He also recounted his Marine Corps experience, describing a time when he had to dig a five-foot-deep foxhole to survive, stating he would “dig in” similarly now. He emphasized that he had no plans to resign from the FBI or step down from his current position. Read more of this post
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Brian Driscoll, Donald Trump, FBI, FBI New York Field Office, James Dennehy, News, politicization, Robert Kissane, US Department of Justice