For example, among the first messages we received in 1948 was one concerning an individual with the cover name "Antenna." The message was dated 5/5/44 and it set forth information indicating that "Antenna" was 25 years of age, a "fellow countryman" (member of CP, USA), lived in "Tyre" (New York), took a course at Cooper Union in 1940, worked in Signal Corps at Ft. Monmouth, and had a wife named Ethel. We made a tentative identification of "Antenna" as Joseph Weichbrod since the background of Weichbrod corresponded with the information known about "Antenna." Weichbrod was about the right age, had Communist background, lived in NYC, attended Cooper Union in 1939, worked at the Signal Corps, Ft. Monmouth, and his wife's name was Ethel. He was a good suspect for "Antenna" until sometime later when we definitely established through investigation that "Antenna" was Julius Rosenberg.
Cover names were used not only to designate Soviet agents but other people mentioned in the messages were given cover names. For example, "Kapitan" (Captain) was former President F.D. Roosevelt. A survey of the traffic as a whole suggests that a cover name like "Kapitan" serves a different purpose than cover names assigned to agents operating for the Soviets in an intelligence capacity. The latter type of cover names are presumably designed to protect the person of the agent directly. The "Kapitan" type of cover name merely obscures the sense and thereby affords indirect protection to the agent and at the same time is calculated to baffle foreign intelligence organizations as just what intelligence is being transmitted.
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