Is there a Russian city named Remulak?
"This story feels weird for some reason. The information the spies are accused of accessing is information any decent researcher on the internet can find without breaking any laws. This story is either take the heat off of Israel's spies (who did far worse), bash the Russians just when they are starting to dig in their heels regarding Iran, or this "New York financier" is the start of a new political scandal to "clear out the competition" going into 2012. But the same network that softballed both the 2001 spy scandal and the AIPAC spy scandal is hitting this very hard considering the actual "crime". " -- Wake the Flock Up
And the more you read the more it stinks.
"10 in US held as spies for Russia; Cambridge couple arrested in sweep; Allegedly cultivated ties to policymakers" by Shelley Murphy and Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | June 29, 2010
They allegedly used invisible ink, passed coded messages, and made cash deliveries by swapping identical bags while passing one another in the stairwells of train stations.
In a case that conjured images of a seemingly bygone era of international espionage, 10 alleged Russian Federation agents, including a married couple living in Cambridge’s Harvard Square, were arrested Sunday on charges that they infiltrated American society by using stolen identities while on deep-cover assignments to spy on US policy makers.
Yeah, good thing there are no AmeriKan spies running around anymore.
Now they are businessman, professors, hikers, diplomats....
The Cambridge couple, who go by the names of Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley and identified themselves as Canadians when they arrived in the United States in 1999, were arrested Sunday night by the FBI at their home on Trowbridge Street.
They are among 11 people — including three other married couples in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, and an alleged Russian agent who remains at large — charged in complaints unsealed yesterday in US District Court in Manhattan.
An FBI affidavit said Heathfield, Foley, and the others are agents of the SVR, the foreign intelligence organ of the Russian Federation. An encrypted message indicated that their mission was “to search and develop ties in policymaking circles’’ and send intelligence back to Russia, it stated.
See: Israeli spy ring
Yeah, they dumped crap on us that sent us to war.
According to the affidavit, Heathfield in 2004 reported to his Russian director that he had made contact with someone who worked for a US government research facility “on issues of strategic planning related to nuclear weapon development.’’ The next year he reported establishing contact with a former high-ranking US national security official.
Oh, yeah? Who?
“I’m absolutely floored,’’ said Paul Hesselschwerdt, president of Global Partners Inc., a Cambridge-based consulting firm where Don Heathfield has worked since 2000 as a sales consultant. “He’s a good person. He’s lived in the United States for a long time. We’re just completely shocked.’’
***********
The arrests served as a reminder that two decades after the end of the Cold War and despite the Obama administration’s declared effort to “reset’’ relations with Moscow, Russia and the United States remain suspicious rivals. Spying between the two countries with the largest nuclear arsenals remains a fact of life, said John E. Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a military information website.
“They’re the only other country on the planet that can wipe out civilization,’’ Pike said. “They are one of the few countries on the planet that could pose a military challenge to us.’’
But while Washington’s intelligence effort centers on Russia’s military secrets, the Kremlin’s spies on US soil are usually after trade secrets.
Yeah, NO PROBLEM with US having OUR GUYS there, right?
Expect the Russians to bust a spy ring during the next few days as a tit-for-tat.
Update: Russia furious over Cold War-style US spy arrests
The FBI affidavit said the alleged spies have been under surveillance for a decade by law enforcement officials who tailed them, bugged their conversations, tracked their electronic messages, and conducted surreptitious searches of their property.
That means they DID IT IN SECRET without a warrant and while THEY WERE NOT HOME!
And KNOWN ABOUT 'EM for 10 YEARS and they are JUST BEING UNVEILED NOW?
Oh, STINKOLA!!!!
They are charged with conspiring from the 1990s to the present to serve as agents for a foreign government....
In federal court in Manhattan yesterday, Assistant US Attorney Michael Farbiarz said the charges are “the tip of the iceberg,’’ said Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for the US attorney in New York.
All of their expenses — including housing, utilities, insurance, and educational costs — were covered by the Russian intelligence agency, the FBI said.
At Global Partners in Cambridge, Heathfield was viewed as a sophisticated international sales consultant, fluent in English and French, with a sharp intellect and great people skills. With his impeccable manners and charm, Heathfield capably handled projects at home or overseas, Hesselschwerdt said.
“When we needed him to deliver something, he did it,’’ Hesselschwerdt said.
The Heathfield he knew was French-Canadian, with a mother in Montreal, who had lived in the United States for years. He was so fluent in English he could have been mistaken for an American.
He liked to ski, and one of his children attended George Washington University. The couple donated money to the university during the 2008-09 school year.
The company website describes Heathfield as a “manager, entrepreneur, and scholar’’ focused on global business.
Hesselschwerdt said Heathfield also went to Harvard, and the Harvard Crimson reported that he graduated from the Kennedy School with a master’s in public administration.
The documents unsealed yesterday in New York offered a starkly different portrait of Heathfield and his wife.
In addition to establishing contacts in the US government’s nuclear research and national security networks, they allegedly received a directive from Moscow Center in April 2006 ordering them to gather information on US policy on the use of the Internet by terrorists.
They were also asked to probe US policies in Central Asia, problems with US military policy, and “Western estimation’’ of Russian foreign policy.
So PICKING UP and READING NEWSPAPER is SPYING now?
In May 2006, the couple allegedly sent a message to Moscow focusing on a new CIA boss and the 2008 presidential election.
The investigation appeared to intensify this year as one of the suspects allegedly sat in a Manhattan coffee shop, using a laptop to communicate on a wireless network with another alleged Russian operative who was driving in the vicinity.
Hours after Heathfield and his wife appeared in court yesterday, neighbors on their quiet side street voiced shock.
“I didn’t have a clue about that at all,’’ said Montse Monne-Corbero. “They were my neighbors, and they were nice people. I thought they were from Europe.’’
And not France.
Updated: A spy, with a modelling portfolio, and NY Post already has it ready to go?
"Russia says U.S. spy accusations baseless and improper
"Of course Russia is going to deny spying, just as Israel did in 2001 and in the AIPAC spy case. But the Israeli spies were actually caught spying, in possession of classified documents, feeding false information into the Pentagon, and dancing while the World Trade Towers fell. In contrast the accusations against the Russians are rather vague. We are told they were looking at gold trading, something that is actually legal to do.As I pointed out yesterday this story feels weird and it looks like Obama wanted to put Russia on the defensive, which means that whatever Obama and Medvedev talked about in their meeting, it did not go well for Obama. This is Obama's bitch-slap back at Medvedev!" -- Wake the Flock Up
