claiming that they were his relatives. Information furnished to the Interdepartmental Visa Committee by the FBI regarding Burd helped stop this Soviet espionage effort. Nicholas and Maria Fisher are dealt with hereinafter.
Nicholas and Maria Fisher
While we have no information indicating that Nicholas and Maria Fisher, who are mentioned above, plan to operate in Trotskyite infiltration, it would appear very likely that such was the case. The information from reflects that in the Summer of 1944 the MGB was laying plans to get Nicholas and Maria Fisher out of the Soviet Union and through the United States to Mexico. It appears that Michael Burd was laying these plans and one of the methods he apparently considered to use David K. Niles. It was reported that persons surrounding David K. Niles would do anything for a bribe and they had already been paid up to $6,000.
This method apparently was not used, however, and Burd attempted to claim to the State Department that the Fishers were his relatives. This failed and we do not know that the Fishers were ever able to reach the Western Hemisphere. Neither do we know their actual identities, nor do we have photographs of them. Our principal interest in the matter is its ramifications in this country through persons who were being used in connection with this matter. We are also continually alert for evidence of activities in Soviet espionage on the part of David K. Niles.
Altschuler Network
You will recall that we have conducted an extensive investigation in the Lydia Altschuler, was., et al, Internal Security — E case concerning an espionage network involving ⟨cipher⟩ messages in secret ink exchanged between persons in the New York City area and persons in Mexico City and South America. The secret ink messages dealt primarily with the efforts of the espionage parallel to free Frank_Jacson, Trotsky's killer, who was imprisoned in Mexico City. You may recall that there were eight messages in the Altschuler traffic which we were never able to decipher because we could not find the book used in the encipherment; however, from information we ⟨identified⟩ this book as "Una Excursiona a los Indios Rangueles," a paper-⟨back⟩
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