Chef Julia Child was part of early U.S. spy ring, documents show

[tekisui]

WASHINGTON - Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world. They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The secret comes out Thursday, all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series.

Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.

more at link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080813/ap_on_go_ot/spies_revealed;_ylt=ArKDU7yHC2cG2tuEiKrAa1Os0NUE

[NashVegas]

1. She Was OSS - That's No Secret

It's been on her Wiki bio for I don't know how long. OSS was often referred to as "oh so social," as it generally was made up of the wealthiest families.

Copeland never made a secret of his father being a spook, either.

[tekisui]

2. I never knew that.

:shrug:

[bridgit]

13. Yep, NPR (for one): The Lady Was a Spy

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/apr/spies/index.html

[stillcool]

3. Steve Kangas wrote some great stuff...

about the Company...

A Timeline of CIA Atrocities

By Steve Kangas
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html
--------------------
1929

The culture we lost — Secretary of State Henry Stimson refuses to endorse a code-breaking operation, saying, "Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail."

1941

COI created — In preparation for World War II, President Roosevelt creates the Office of Coordinator of Information (COI). General William "Wild Bill" Donovan heads the new intelligence service.

1942

OSS created — Roosevelt restructures COI into something more suitable for covert action, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Donovan recruits so many of the nation’s rich and powerful that eventually people joke that "OSS" stands for "Oh, so social!" or "Oh, such snobs!"

1943

Italy — Donovan recruits the Catholic Church in Rome to be the center of Anglo-American spy operations in Fascist Italy. This would prove to be one of America’s most enduring intelligence alliances in the Cold War.

1945

OSS is abolished — The remaining American information agencies cease covert actions and return to harmless information gathering and analysis.

1948

Covert-action wing created — The CIA recreates a covert action wing, innocuously called the Office of Policy Coordination, led by Wall Street lawyer Frank Wisner. According to its secret charter, its responsibilities include "propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, antisabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world."

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html
The Origins of the Overclass
By Steve Kangas

[no_hypocrisy]

4. "Bumby" was OSS?

Geeeez . . .

[Occulus]

5. Now THAT'S a job that'll drive ya to drink

:D

[AllentownJake]

6. I wonder if my Grandmother is in those documents

She turned over a few American Nazi Party members that she knew of as soon as the war started. If you going to have Bund meetings best to hide the paraphanalia when you have company or you end up in the internment camp.

[Thothmes]

7. From what I have read

She was a clerk in the OSS office in Chun King China during the war.

[XOKCowboy]

9. I believe it's where she met her husband wasn't it?

I miss Julia. The Food Network should build a monument with their millions to her. She taught America that food was more than fried chicken and mac and Velveeta. "Fat is Flavuh" and "Save The Livuh" always make me smile.

[Thothmes]

10. he was an OSS agent in Chun King

After they got married, he was stationed in Paris. She got interested in cooking to occupy her spare time. Remember this from what she said on one of her shows. Loved them.

[XOKCowboy]

11. That's right...

I think I saw it on a Biography show on her. She was bored and took cooking lessons. We should all be very thankful! :)

[Captain Hilts]

16. Friends of mine knew them in Paris. nt

[Captain Hilts]

8. This is not news. She was a paper pusher because a 6'2" woman was too ...

noticeable to be a spy.

Sons of Theodore Roosevelt? Quentin was killed in World War I.
Kermit Roosevelt is one of the folks that created the current mess in the Middle East.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

12. There was always something about her that had me imitating her voice in my Kitchen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohiUbQyDhk&feature=related

All these years later, I sometimes find myself thinking with her voice when in the kitchen. Esp. when cooking with wine. So, she was more than just a Cook? Not surprising, she really was something to remember.

I miss the Frugal Gourmet a great great deal, also.

[XOKCowboy]

15. I just wish there was a clip online of Dan Ackroyd...

portraying her. It was truly priceless.

Julia Child: Welcome. I'm Julia Child. Today, we're going to make a holiday feast, and we're going to start with a half-boned chicken, a fine, fat roasting chicken. Now, first, remove the giblets - and you really should save the giblets. They make a fine stock for soup. Or you can save the liver and fry it up with some onions for a little snack; or if you have a number of livers, you can make a lovely liver pate, or a delicious liverwurst which you can spread on a cracker - a Ritz cracker, a Saltine ... or rye bread, or pumpernickel bread ... or if you're celebrating the Jewish holidays, you can make a chopped liver and shape it into the bust of a friend ... if someone's getting married or bar-mitzvahed. Or, if you have a little cat or a dog, they love liver. Save the liver! Don't throw it away! I hope I've made my point. Don't throw the liver away.

Now, where was I? (looks around the kitchen) Oh, yes. Anyway, it's time to bone the chicken. Now, for this, you need a very sharp knife. You can't do nothing without a sharp knife! (holds chicken and cuts) Now, you place the chicken on its stomach, and cut along the backbone to the pug nose like so ... (drops knife) Crap! Oh! Oh, now I've done it - I've cut the dickens out of my finger. Well, I'm glad, in a way, this has happened ... (blood squirts onto the chicken) We have never really discussed what to do.

First, we must stop the bleeding. (holds her apron over her hand) The best way is to put pressure on the apron, like so ... (blood keeps squirting all over the kitchen) Now, you want to raise your hand above your head so the blood doesn't pump all the way up. (blood continues to squirt) Well, the apron doesn't seem to be working, so I recommend natural coagulants, such as chicken liver ... (picks up the chicken liver) Remember not to throw away the liver! (blood squirts over the chicken liver)

Oh, God, it's throbbing! Well, a tourniquet can be made, using a chicken bone ... (wraps towel and chicken bone around her hand) Find a pressure point between the heart and the wound - in this case, the wrist - and cut off the blood. This is a last resort, however, because you could lose your hand if you tighten it too much! (blood keeps squirting)

If you're too woozy to tie the tourniquet, you might call Emergency Help - there's not much time left ... (hobbles towards the phone on back wall and picks it up) Now, every kitchen phone should have the Emergency number written on it somewhere ... (looks at phone) Uh-oh! This one doesn't! 9-1-1! (tries to dial the number with bloody hand but can't, blood keeps squirting) Oh, this phone is a prop, it doesn't work! (drops the phone, becoming woozy)

That's a shame, because I'm remembering a time when I was a little girl and I ... had a dog named Admiral ... I used to give him liver ... and my mother gave me a doll ... (starts tipping from side to side)

Why are you all spinning ... ? Uh ... I think I'm going to go to sleep now ... Bon Appetit! ... (falls headfirst onto the counter, then jumps up one last time)

Save the liver! (falls back onto the counter and twitches before dying)

Off the subject but one of the funniest SNL bits ever. I'm sure Julia got a kick out of it too.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Pretty much common knowledge.

Both she and her husband were spooks

[XOKCowboy]

17. Back in the day when it was honorable..

to serve your country.

[Stinky The Clown]

18. Indeed