- Spies Like Them?
- Spies Like Them, Actually
It’s one of the biggest spy busts in U.S. history. Eleven individuals have been charged. A spy exchange unfolded and it’s classic cold war stuff with a twist.
Glossing over main-stream articles or perusing StratFor, you could be forgiven for thinking this was a top-rate operation.
According to the FBI, some of the alleged “undeclared agents” moved to the United States in the 1990s, while others (such as Anna Chapman) did not arrive until 2009. The FBI says nine of the suspects were provided with fake identities and even fake childhood photos and cover stories (part of what would be called a “legend”) in order to establish themselves in the United State under “deep cover.” (Burton & West)
And:
Applying special software, the government says, they coaxed words from the innocuous imagery, a text file. Moscow was calling. A secret meeting in a suburban New York train station was proposed:
“C plans to conduct a flash meeting w/A to pass him $300K from our experienced field station rep (R). Half of it is for you. Another half is to be passed to young colleague (known to you) in fall ’09-winter ’10… (Montgomery)
Very clever stuff. Except…
A few details
Interesting fact: nobody’s actually been charged with the usual info-crimes that accompanies spying operations. That’s because virtually nothing valuable has been uncovered – just stuff like money laundering and not registering as a citizen.
A recent episode of The Bugle (below) poked some wonderful fun at what appears to be a lapse in Russian Spy Quality Assurance.
The Bugle (Spies bit from Episode 121)
Invisible ink? 99 Fake Street? Kinda lazy spies?
The Daily Show exploited an easy angle by pointing out how trading spies with the Russian amounts to nationalistic comfort food.
Finally, something we get.
There’s always the possibility that they’ve done damage beyond what was uncovered, but it doesn’t appear to be the case. From my angle, the operation looks like refuse from the Russian free-fall after the USSR’s collapse. As with so many other Russian institutions, repair is in order. If I were these captured spies, I wouldn’t be eager for a trade to the Kremlin.
But the story at this point is: Russian spies infiltrate America, then become lazy, self-absorbed, and fail to do any actual spying.
It’s poetic beyond words. God Bless America.
