Posted on 06/29/2010 11:28:50 PM PDT by saundby
... "The choice of timing was particularly refined," Lavrov said sarcastically, referring to the fact that the arrests occurred after Obama met with Medvedev on Thursday for a visit widely seen as the latest step in the "reset" of relations between the former Cold War rivals.
A source in Obama's administration said the president was not happy about the timing of the arrests, but investigators feared that some of their suspects might flee, The New York Times reported.
The arrests might have been spurred by an FBI sting operation on Saturday in which one of the, Anna Chapman, was given a fake passport by FBI operatives posing as Russian agents to pass on to someone else. Chapman instead turned the passport over to New York police, her lawyer said in court Monday. The police visit, if leaked to the media, could have potentially blown the entire FBI operation.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that several suspects were Russian citizens, and NTV television identified two of them as Chapman and Mikhail Semenko.
The suspects, who are not accused of espionage, have been charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying U.S. authorities, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Nine of the suspects also have been charged with money laundering, which carries a conviction of up to 20 years.
An 11th suspect was detained in Cyprus on Tuesday but released on bail.
"In total, 11 defendants, including the 10 arrested, are charged in two separate criminal complaints with conspiring to act as unlawful agents of the Russian Federation within the United States," the Justice Department said in a statement.
...
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it did not understand what motivated the U.S. Justice Department to publicly speak in the spirit of "spy passions dating back to the times of the Cold War." It said the "unfounded" arrests pursued "unseemly goals" that contradicted the "reset" in U.S.-Russian ties proclaimed by the Obama administration.
Putin took a low-key approach to the arrests.
"Back at your home, the police went out of control [and] are throwing people in jail," Putin told former U.S. President Bill Clinton during a meeting in Moscow. "But that's the kind of job they have. I hope that all the positive gains that have been achieved in our relationship will not be damaged by the recent event."
In Washington, the State Department said Tuesday that the spy case would not derail "reset" efforts. "We feel that we have made significant progress in the 18 months that we have been pursuing this different relationship with Russia. We think we have something to show for it," Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told reporters.
But Gennady Gudkov, a former KGB counterintelligence official who serves as deputy head of the State Duma's Security Committee, said the spy allegations threaten to upset the "reset" by tarnishing Russia's image in the eyes of the American people and could have been masterminded by opponents hoping to discredit Obama.
"Now millions of Americans will think that Russia was only pretending to be a partner of the United States but is in fact still going after U.S. secrets like during the Cold War," he told The Moscow Times. ...
love your tag!
The one is displeased with this as he needs no help in this matter.
Sounds like a dangerous law to some politicians we all know...
I’ve got news for ya: he is already discredited.
The suspects, who are not accused of espionage, have been charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying U.S. authorities, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Nine of the suspects also have been charged with money laundering, which carries a conviction of up to 20 years. An 11th suspect was detained in Cyprus on Tuesday but released on bail.Cyprus?
Arrested Russian spies used Irish identities and passportsOne of the spies, American alias Richard Murphy, traveled in February this year to Rome to collect an Irish passport which bore the name Eunan Gerard Doherty and which had been issued in Dublin in July 2001.
Irish Central
Monday, June 28, 2010
He then flew on to Moscow and returned on March 3 with a mysterious laptop which he later tuned over to another Russian agent in New York.
In order to get the Irish passport in Rome Murphy was told to would approach a Russian operative and ask, "Excuse me, could we have met in Malta in 1999?"
"Yes indeed," the answer should be. "I was in La Valetta, but in 2000."
According to Moscow's instructions, the stranger then slipped the spy a false Irish passport, for travel on to Russia.
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