Posted on 01/19/2012 4:53:41 PM PST by Pan_Yan
Reporting from London— Calling the espionage episode "embarrassing," a former British government official has admitted that a fake rock discovered by the Russian security service in a Moscow park in 2006 concealed a listening device planted by British spies.
"They had us bang to rights," Jonathan Powell, the chief of staff to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, says in a BBC documentary, using a British expression for being caught red-handed. "Clearly, they had known about it for some time and had been saving it up for a political purpose."
The multi-part documentary, "Putin, Russia and the West," scheduled to begin airing Thursday, includes Powell saying, "The spy rock was embarrassing."
Russian TV video of men handling the rock was widely broadcast at the time, along with video showing it being taken apart to reveal the delicate listening mechanism inside.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin then ordered a crackdown on several foreign-funded organizations, saying they were a front for Western government intervention in Russia's internal affairs. A Russian-British diplomatic row followed.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The Ruskies would have fallen for the banana in the tailpipe scheme. . .
Can’t be anymore embaressing than the “Reset” button that the US gave the Russians.......(Or when Barry sent back the bust of Churchill to you Brits....)
So much more could have been done with the knowledge that a listening device had been planted.
The Ruskies should have sat around and bragged about assorted foreign government officials that were their moles, then sat back and watched the fun.
The fake rock was put there to make the Russkies not notice the fake tree.
Bang to Rights :D
It couldn't have been as embarrassing as when the CIA spent millions installing microphones in a cat and training the beast to hang around Russian officials only to have little Fluffy run over by a taxi on his first "mission"
Nice. You get a bonus point for that one.
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