Posted on 07/08/2010 3:18:13 PM PDT by Palter
John L. Martin supervised 76 espionage cases during his 26 years at the Justice Department, but he’s never seen one end like this one.
Martin said swapping spies who have not been sentenced to time in prison, much less served it, is "all but unprecedented."
Martin could recall only one case in which an accused spy was swapped without first being convicted and sentenced to prison.
Alice Michelson, a courier for the Soviet KGB, was arrested in late 1984, indicted on espionage charges, held without bail, and eventually exchanged in a deal for 25 Europeans accused of spying for the West in Eastern Europe.
"In this particular case I remember we held off the proceedings in court until the terms of the exchange were finalized" in 1985, Martin said in a telephone interview.
“For earlier exchanges, we worked for a number of years before we came up with a final number of people we would be willing to release,” among other considerations, he said.
"Both sides were doing that," he said of the Cold War era.
"We would arrest people, they would arrest people. As we arrested more people, the negotiations would intensify."
All of which makes the speed with which the latest case played out "absolutely unprecedented," he said.
Martin helped negotiate the release of Soviet dissident Anatoli Shcharansky in February 1986, which turned out to be the last time Moscow and Washington traded spies across the Glienicke Bridge linking East and West Germany
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
But evidence that their parents' citizenship was falsely obtained will complicate matters.
"Children who are foreign-born and whose parents used false documentation to obtain their child's citizenship, places the children in jeopardy in terms of their status," Martin said.
Those over 18 can decide for themselves what to do, unless they are here illegally.'
-Snicker--snicker
As Beck siad, maybe Newsweek got it right when they ran the cover with “We are all Socialists”......=.=
Citizenship aside, what is up with this?
These people were sentenced to time served...11 days.
And they are exchanged as SPIES?
Something isn’t adding up here.
Their children ARE NOT CITIZENS.
That doesn't mean we should ship the kids home. Young Russian orphans are in great demand on the adoption circuit. Just seize the kids and give them to people who seek to adopt. The paperwork will be remarkably less burdensome Fur Shur.
And in the future the Russians will have a slightly harder time getting people to come here under the same circumstances.
“Even” trade - 11 for 1 ????
No investigation, trials?????
You’re right....This had to be going on for a while....and Putin was trying to tell us something when he spoke about it with Bubba...and Hillary will say absolutely nothing....so who pulled the strings and why.
GEE....wonder who is trying to PROTECT someone.....from being exposed.
Everything that happens under the Obamao Administration is “all but unprecedented.”
No time for outrage so Obama's disarmament deals can go forward as planned.
Martin could recall only one case in which an accused spy was swapped without first being convicted and sentenced to prison. Alice Michelson, a courier for the Soviet KGB, was arrested in late 1984, indicted on espionage charges, held without bail, and eventually exchanged in a deal for 25 Europeans accused of spying for the West in Eastern Europe.
Intrigue and Ambiguity in Cases of 4 Russians Sent to West in Spy Swap
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