More Russia sleepers walk U.S. streets

Washington Times ^ | 6/29/10 | Jerry Seper

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They posed as ordinary citizens, living daily, nondescript lives in communities from Arlington, Va., to Yonkers, N.Y. They were married couples with car payments, monthly rents, and telephone and medical bills. They bought computers, gave gifts and ate occasionally in restaurants.

But there was more.

The FBI says 10 people arrested up and down the East Coast on Sunday were part of a deep-cover, or sleeper network, of Russian intelligence agents operating inside the United States, where they sought to infiltrate "policy-making circles" in Washington, recruit government and business sources, and "search and develop" intelligence ties in the United States.

Worst of all, they may not be alone.

Andrew C. Kuchins, director and senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Washington Times that sleeper networks of other Russian agents continue to operate in other areas of the United States, adding that the deep-cover activities of Russian intelligence operatives in this country have increased under Russian leader Vladimir Putin "and the other former KGB types now running Russia."

Mr. Kuchins, an internationally recognized expert on Russian foreign and domestic policies and a director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said he is "not surprised" by the arrests, adding that U.S. intelligence officials have known for some time that Russian intelligence agents are "as active today as any time during the Cold War."

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Loosely described, they were talent spotters in place in this country since the 1990s — looking to cultivate and recruit government, political and business insiders who could be turned by other Russian intelligence operators into secret informers.

In other words, they were here to develop sources in U.S. government and business for Moscow (along with the potential of covertly manipulating U.S. public opinion to push the Russian agenda).

Such activity does not require the "illegal" to actually deliver secrets to their Moscow handlers. They only need to soften targets and provide contact information or an introduction to the Russian clandestine agents. Kind of like a layer of insulation. This ain't funny.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

God I hope so!!!

[UCANSEE2]

True, but the Russians TOLD us they were doing this from the start.

These spies have been around a long time, come and gone.
We do the same over there.

The question is, why is Obama ‘clamping down’ on them?

Why not Muslim sleepers? Why not the Commies that are in office?

I suspect these spies know more about the antics of our administration than most of the public, and that they could undermine the administration with that knowledge.

[shibumi]

"The name is Ivana. Ivana Humpalot."

[pyx]

Why not Muslim sleepers? Why not the Commies that are in office?

Good questions. Add to that, Chinese and other Asian sleeper cells as well as Mexican and sleeper cells other South American countries such as Hugo Chavez's Venezuela ?

More curious are the people born here and their willingness to give up America's secrets. Are those who post pictures of half-dressed Russian women willing to sell America down the drain for ... ahem ... the hope of horizontal pleasures ? I suppose the origins of the term, "loose-lips" is now a laughing matter.

[yorkie01]

I believe that Americans, by and large, are more concerned with Congress and THIS Whitehouse over Russian spies.

[Thunder90]

Some FBI agents and Justice Department officials will be losing their job over these arrests. Count on it.

It muddled Bambi's bootlicking strategy with Putin. Anyway, we have only scratched the surface of this problem.

Russia Today TV, a Russian government owned English TV news station which has it's US HQ in Washington DC, is rumored to be filled with SVR, FSB, and GRU agents.

[freebird5850]

America has been dumbing down for years. I saw a Russian official on TV lay out a model that was used in USSR that is being used here by our Government.