was not overly anxious to cooperate fully with the MGB because he was afraid that his exposure might lead to a political scandal involving the Administration. You will recall that Harry Dexter White is deceased at the present time. We did furnish, in a carefully paraphrased form, the identification of Harry Dexter White on the basis of information to the White House under date of October 17, 1950.
Vladimir S. Pravdin
Vladimir S. Pravdin, who was the head of the Tass News Agency in the United States during 1944 and 1945, was also an MGB agent assisting in the infiltration of United States Government agencies. It is not entirely clear on the base of the information from whether these operations tied in directly with the Silvermaster network or whether he was operating a separate network. We do know that he was maintaining contact with, and receiving information from a number of newspaper correspondents in Washington. One of the individuals who as being reactivated into use by the MGB was Isidore F. Stone, in 1944 on the Editorial Staff of The Nation and Washington correspondent for "PM." This identification of Stone has just recently been made and we are undertaking an active investigation of Stone.
Another of Pravdin's network was an individual designed under the cover name of "Yaz." We initially considered as a ⟨susp⟩ for this individual David Karr, the "leg man" for Drew Pearson. We have now discounted this possibility and are considering Laurence Todd and Samuel Krafaur. Another member of Praovin's network was Josef Berger, who will be described separately hereinafter. Pravdin deported on the United States on March 11, 1946, for Russia.
Josef Berger
Information from indicates that as of May 26, 1945, Josef Berger was being recruited by the Soviets as an espionage agent. Berger, in 1942, was employed Department of Justice as a speech-writer for former Attorney General Biddle. He thereafter went to work as a writer for the National Democratic Committee in Washington, D. C. He is ⟨presently⟩ residing in New York City and appears to be employed as a writer. We have an active investigation on this individual at the present time.
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