Free Republic

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 Friday.

1962 the Soviets swapped a U.S. airman to the Americans in return for their spies, but they kept the pilot's plane. Here's what happened to it. By Joe Pappalardo It looks like Russia and the U.S. are negotiating the biggest spy swap since the Cold War ended, as accused and convicted spies in both nations are set to be bartered, and some being moved from prisons in America to Vienna in anticipation of a deal. The episode harkens to the 1960s, when spies were traded to maintain the brittle peace between nations. The most famous of these cases involved Francis...

The Obama administration's rapid release of 10 Russian intelligence officers removed the prospect of a public trial revealing embarrassing facts about Russian influence operations, like the targeting of a key Democratic Party financier close to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Current and former national security officials critical of the speedy exchange with Moscow also said trading the 10 spies for four Russians less than two weeks after their arrest also limited U.S. counterspies from learning important details of Russian espionage and influence operations. Questions about the handling of the case were raised Tuesday during a closed-door briefing of the...

Freed Russian spies to face lie detector at home 13:13 13/07/2010 © REUTERS/ /Christine Cornell Ten Russian spies freed in a swap deal with the U.S. will take lie detector tests as part of an evaluation of their performances, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily said on Tuesday, citing an intelligence service source. After their arrival in the Russian capital, the ten were delivered directly to the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the source said. "Specialists are currently working with members of the spy team. They are trying to find out who, and in what circumstances, could have failed,"...