"Details emerge on swap of spies; Cambridge pair met diplomats in courthouse" by Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | July 10, 2010
The swap was in the works even before the arrests....
Translation: This has ALL BEEN a STAGED PRODUCTION for your consumption, America!
The government could have quietly deported them after ten years of surveillance, but no. Instead you get a pile of BS passed of as news.
By yesterday, the international episode was over....
(Isn't an applause meter or something supposed to light up?)
“I think it is reasonable to conclude from the way in which this all happened that the government had its endgame planned from before these arrests took place and I wonder if they decided to arrest these folks when they did so they could have them as a bargaining chip to get people out of Russia that they wanted to have as a swap,’’ said Boston attorney Peter B. Krupp, who represents Andrey Bezrukov. “From the very beginning of the detection of the Russians in the US and the watching of them, they became an asset of the United States to be cashed in on at a convenient time. This was all done so quickly I wonder if it was in the works all along.’’
US Attorney Preet Bharara of New York told reporters Thursday that the investigation was aimed at uncovering and deterring espionage and was “not undertaken for the purpose of having a bargaining chip.’’
He predicted the Russian government “is unlikely to engage in this methodology in the future, and that’s a good thing.’’
“The case sends a message to every other agency that if you come to America and spy on Americans in America you will be exposed,’’ Bharara said.
Oh yeah?
See: Israeli spy ring
I'm waiting for the newspaper articles, gummint!
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Zionist Spies Set Free
The same activities as the Russians defended by the AmeriKan government in that case?
Pfffft!
During the negotiations, Krupp said there was a last-minute glitch that threatened to be a deal-breaker. He said the Russian diplomats initially told Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova that they would be allowed to keep all of their property and could arrange to sell the townhouse they recently purchased for $790,000 and keep the profits after paying off the $632,000 mortgage.
But when Krupp received a draft copy of the plea agreement Tuesday night, he discovered that the US government was insisting on seizing the Cambridge couple’s townhouse and other assets. He said he told prosecutors about the inconsistency, triggering more discussions between US and Russian officials.
They must have felt like they were back in Mother Russia.
On Wednesday afternoon, Krupp said Russian Embassy officials told him they had signed off on the agreement, including the forfeiture, and “the deal was these people had to be on the plane Thursday evening.’’
The Trowbridge Street condominium will be sold, and after the mortgage is paid off, any profits will go to the government.
Oh, so this ALSO TURNED out to be a bit $elf-$erving!!!
“I assume it will sell for a million bucks because it’s the spies’ house,’’ Krupp said. “There may be bugs still in there.’’
Call whoever exterminates them, buyer, and have 'em over.
Can the tall MSM tale get anymore laughable?
"US began deliberating trade well before arrests occurred" by Jennifer Loven, Associated Press | July 10, 2010
WASHINGTON — The White House began deliberating a spy swap with Moscow nearly a month ago, well ahead of the arrests of 10 Russians in the United States less than two weeks ago, a White House official said yesterday.
So these PUBLIC SPOKESPEOPLE the WH trots out are a bunch of OBFUSCATING LIARS, 'eh?
That is NO CHANGE AT ALL, 'bomber!!!!
In the course of the following negotiations with Moscow, the United States put forward the names of the four people who were released by Russia as their part of the bargain, the official said, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
Translation: AmeriKan MSM reporters are government stenographers and megaphones.
The swap took place yesterday in Vienna.
The Russian agents had been under observation by US authorities for a decade. The decision to move against them was precipitated by indications that some planned to leave the United States this summer, the official said.
The case was brought to the White House in February by officials of the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department.
They presented the broad contours of what was known as “the illegals program’’ and some specifics about the individuals involved.
That triggered weeks of meetings at the White House about how to proceed.
Like I told you, a STAGED PRODUCTION for your consumption!
In early June, a decision was made to take action against the Russians and on June 11, a Friday, President Obama was briefed on the matter in the Oval Office.
He was told about plans for the arrests, how they would occur, what the Russians would be charged with, and the possible impact of the case on US-Russian relations, the official said.
That is when the idea of a swap was raised, among a list of options.
Thirteen days after learning of the case, Obama met at the White House with President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and the two men went out for hamburgers.
Obama did not mention the spy case, the official said.
This is discouraging to the extreme. AmeriKan "news" is NOTHING BUT STAGED, AGENDA-PUSHING PROPAGANDA!
Within days of the arrests on June 27, the United States offered to talk with Russia about an exchange of the 10 people in custody for four people held in Russia on charges that they had spied for the United States.
CIA Director Leon Panetta and Russia’s spy chief worked out the exchange, the largest spy swap since the Cold War, a separate US official said.
As part of the swap, there was an understanding by both sides that the deal should not be accompanied by any retaliatory steps or other actions, the US official said.
Okay, KEEP THAT in MIND, readers.
Now, just above that article is this one:
"Vienna hosts exchange, harkening back to Cold War days; Swap took place with no fanfare or announcement" by Nicholas Kulish and Peter Baker, New York Times | July 10, 2010
VIENNA — In a scene reminiscent of the dark days of the Cold War, Russian and US officials traded prisoners in the bright sunlight on the tarmac of Vienna’s international airport yesterday, quickly ending an episode that had threatened to disrupt relations between the countries.
Yup, FIRST PARAGRAPH and the NYT is PEDDLING BULLS***!
Now you know WHY I NEVER BUY or READ their stinky paper or visit their crappy website.
Planes carrying 10 convicted Russian sleeper agents and four men accused by Moscow of spying for the West swooped into the Austrian capital, once a hub of clandestine East-West maneuvering, and the men and women were transferred, according to a US official.
You have to love the bias.
Their spies confessed(?) and become convicts while our spies are convicted and become accused.
Great work, NYT.
The planes soon took off again, presumably heading back to Russia and the United States in a coda fitting of an espionage novel....
Yeah, that is what this is starting to feel like, all right!
A FICTION(?)!!!!!
The swap was among the biggest since the Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky — who as Natan Sharansky became a political figure in Israel — was released along with eight imprisoned spies in a classic Cold War exchange in 1986.
Related: Natan Sharansky
George W. Bush's inspiration, huh?
Also see: Israel's Russian Spy Stories
But that exchange took place in a wintry Berlin across the snow-dusted Glienicke Bridge at a time when the Iron Curtain cut Europe into rival ideological camps and this city provided one of few avowedly neutral havens.
The swift conclusion to the case just 12 days after the arrest of the Russian agents — including two in Harvard Square — evoked memories of that time, but it also underscored the new-era relationship between Washington and Moscow.
That is NOT the way you LED the piece, you agenda-pushing PoS!
President Obama has made the “reset’’ of Russian-US relations a top foreign policy priority, and the quiet collaboration over the spy scandal indicates that the Kremlin likewise values the warmer ties....
What GARBAGE!
A lawyer for one of four prisoners freed by the Russian government called it “a historic moment’’ and said she believed her client, a former Russian intelligence agent named Aleksandr Zaporozhsky, would be reunited with members of his family, who live in the United States.
Within hours of the New York court hearing, the Kremlin announced that President Dmitry A. Medvedev had signed pardons for the four men Russia considered spies after each of them signed statements admitting guilt.
The same as the Russians who are now convicted as these spies stand accused?
The Kremlin identified them as Igor V. Sutyagin, an arms control researcher held for 11 years; Sergei Skripal, a colonel in Russia’s military intelligence service sentenced in 2006 to 13 years for spying for Britain; Zaporozhsky, a former agent with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service who has served seven years of an 18-year sentence; and Gennadi Vasilenko, a former KGB major who was arrested in 1998 for contacts with a CIA officer but eventually released only to be arrested again in 2005 and later convicted on illegal weapons charges.
And yet look what the administration is saying on the Sunday TV show circuit:
"Attorney general says Russian spies posed threat to US; Defends decision to swap them for four prisoners" by H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press | July 12, 2010
WASHINGTON — While they passed along no US secrets, the 10 Russian agents involved in the spy swap posed a potential threat to the United States and received “hundreds of thousands of dollars’’ from Russia, Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday....
He defended the decision to allow the 10 to return to Russia in exchange for the release of four Russian prisoners accused of spying for the West because the swap presented “an opportunity to get back . . . four people in whom we have a great deal of interest.’’
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, sidestepping the question of whether Russia’s espionage poses a threat to the United States, said the swap came amid improved relations between the two countries.
“The economic discussions that President [Dmitry] Medvedev and President Obama had just recently and the progress that we’ve made in reducing nuclear weapons — and hopefully we’ll get a treaty through Senate this summer that will further reduce nuclear weapons — means our security is stronger and safer and our relationship is stronger,’’ Gibbs said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.’’
Holder also sought to relieve concern over the fate of the children of the Russian agents, saying they all were allowed to return to Russia “consistent with their parents wishes’’ or, in the case of those who were adults or nearly adults, were allowed to make their own choices of where to live.
The seven offspring embroiled in the spy saga ranged in age from a 1-year-old to a 38-year-old architect. In most cases they had been born in and grew up in the United States, making them US citizens.
On pending terrorism cases....
Also see: Any other silly s*** in my paper lately?
"US asylum OK’d for ex-spy for Israel" by Associated Press | July 1, 2010
SAN DIEGO — An immigration judge tentatively granted asylum yesterday to the son of a Hamas founder who turned his back on his father’s terrorist group and became a spy for Israel.
Un-flipping-real!
The ruling came after the federal government abruptly dropped concerns that Mosab Hassan Yousef was a terrorist threat.
Yousef, 32, was greeted by a small group of cheering supporters as he left an immigration detention center where the 15-minute hearing was held under heavy security.
He had argued that he would be killed if he was deported because he spied on Hamas for Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency and abandoned Islam after becoming a Christian.
Don't sully my religion with your traitorous ass!
I wonder what Christ would have thought of spying and torture.
“I will keep fighting the ideology that is behind terrorists, because I know how they think,’’ he told reporters. “I know that this is the real danger that is facing liberty, facing freedom, facing humanity.’’
I'm REALLY, REALLY, TIRED of the BULL, 'kay?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Department of Homeland Security initially denied Yousef’s asylum request in February 2009, saying he had been involved in terrorism and was a threat to the United States.
Kerri Calcador, a government attorney, gave no explanation in court yesterday for the sudden change in the US position.
Yousef said he could not explain the turnaround. His attorney, Steven Seick, said he was “totally surprised.’’
I can. He worked for Israel and needs protection.
Four months ago, Yousef published memoirs in which he claimed to be one of Shin Bet’s best assets.
Book tour next?
Related: MSM Monitor's Midnight Movie
Yeah, no one reads books anymore and I sure as hell don't want to hear his story.
If I want pro-Israel garbage I just pick up an Amerikan newspaper.
--more--"
Exhibit A:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former congressman accused of accepting stolen funds to lobby on behalf of a charity with alleged ties to terrorism pleaded guilty yesterday to two charges including obstruction of justice, but prosecutors said more serious charges would probably be dropped.
Doesn't seem to be a problem when Jewish charities kick back loot they Madoff with.
Mark Deli Siljander, a Republican from Michigan who served in Congress from 1981 until 1987 and as a UN delegate for a year, pleaded guilty in federal court in Kansas City to obstruction and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
I didn't know he worked for AIPAC.
Charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering will probably be dismissed under the terms of Siljander’s plea deal, said Don Ledford, a spokesman for the US attorney’s office of the Western District of Missouri.
Abdel Azim El-Siddig, a codefendant who was a part-time fund-raiser for the Islamic American Relief Agency, admitted to conspiring to hire Siljander to lobby for the group’s removal from a Senate Finance Committee list of charities suspected of having terrorist ties.
Prosecutors said that Siljander received $75,000 from the charity to push for its removal from the list and that the group paid him with funds obtained from the US Agency for International Development for work it was supposed to have done in Africa but did not.
I'm sorry, Americans, but AID = CIA!!!
Prosecutors said Siljander lied to the FBI about being hired to lobby for the charity and told investigators the money was a donation to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity.
Stop pitting us Christians against those Muslims!
There is NO NEED FOR IT!
US Attorney Beth Phillips said in a news release that Siljander engaged in illegal lobbying for the charity, then used his own charities to hide the payments for that lobbying....
Isn't that SOP in Washington and beyond?
