McKellar Act, the BSC & the Spanish Embassy in America

[Andy H]

Hi

Some background info before my questions:-
In early 1942 the Dem Senator Kenneth McKellar (TN) introduced HR6296 to the floor for debate. Basically the Agents of foreign governments working in the USA would now have to register with the Justice Dept (which was fair enough).
In addition they would also have to detail the activities they were undertaking, who was carrying them out and how much was being spent on these activities. The bill drew no distinction between friendly or unfriendly powers. These last two statements caused uproar within the British Security Coordination (BSC) more basic details here:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Se ... ordination The Act if left in tact would curtail the ability & activities of the BSC and also impact on the fledgling OSS. The Act was passed as was on Jan 28th'42 but was vetoed by FDR. The Act was then re-introduced with a exemption which didn't apply to foreign governments "the defense of which the President deems vital to the United States", it was duly passed in early Feb'42.

In the summer of '42 the western Allies were discussing moves against North Africa, and the intentions of Franco's Spain were key in them. The BSC had been regularly burgling (every month) the Spanish Embassy in Washington to obtain the keys to Spanish cypher codes, which were changed every month. However with the McKellar act the BSC in the July became very twitchy about the monthly burgling of the Spanish Embassy less it drew attention or saw the BSC kicked out of the US. Thus BSC asked OSS to undertake the op's on their behalf. This was against OSS SOP's about operating on US soil, as such a Op should have fallen to the FBI. The OSS burgled the embassy on July 29th and got all they wanted. They repeated the break-ins in Aug & Sept. However in Oct as the OSS team were inside the embassy the FBI surrounded it and arrested them. Ths OSS team was thrown in jail. The FBI had 3 men working in the embassy at the time.

Main source: Roosevelt's Secret War by Joseph Persico

Questions:
i) When I look for HR6296 I seem to get numerous other acts other than the one I want! Are such acts not uniquely numbered? and also where can I see a full copy (online) of this act?

ii) What countries received a exemption from the Act?

iii) Didn't the Spanish Embassy ever suspect it was being burgled & what was it's response to the Oct burglary?

iv) Did the FBI or whoever continue to burgle the Embassy after Oct'42

Regards

Andy H

[paspartoo]

iii) Didn't the Spanish Embassy ever suspect it was being burgled & what was it's response to the Oct burglary?

iv) Did the FBI or whoever continue to burgle the Embassy after Oct'42

According to the ‘Intelligence and National Security’ article: ‘No immunity: Signals intelligence and the European neutrals, 1939-45’ the FBI was able to retrieve material from the embassy during the war:

‘In June 1944 the Spanish desk at Arlington Hall notified its section head that the tapes currently in service at the Washington embassy would soon run out and that it was time to acquire a copy of the next set of tapes. Soon thereafter the FBI delivered copies of five Spanish additive tapes.’

This was necessary for the exploitation of Spanish codes since from 1943 a new system using non repeating additive sequences was used. This could not be solved cryptanalytically.

[Andy H]

Hi

Thanks for the response.
So it seems that FBI did continue what the BSC has started!
Were the non repetitive additive sequences introduced as a direct result of the Oct incident or were they already in the pipeline?
Also did the FBI share their findings with the BSC?

Regards

Andy H

[paspartoo]

Were the non repetitive additive sequences introduced as a direct result of the Oct incident or were they already in the pipeline?

It is not stated in the article. I guess it could be one of the reasons.

Also did the FBI share their findings with the BSC?

The FBI? I don't think so but the material would probably be shared with Bletchley Park through the US crypto agencies.