Alleged Russian Spy Ring Exposed In US

Several readers sent in the story of an alleged Russian spy ring busted yesterday by the FBI after a decade-long investigation. The FBI says that Moscow trained and planted long-term "moles" in the US in order to infiltrate the upper echelons of US government and business circles and pass back intelligence to the Russians. Twelve people have been charged; ten were arrested in the US (one is at large) and one in Cyprus. Wired and the New York Post have colorful coverage. Wired's leans on the tradecraft and discusses steganography, while the Post favors the femme fatale angle (alleged spy Anna Chapman). The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the US actions were unfounded and pursued "unseemly" goals. One of many choice quotes from copious coverage: "They couldn't have been spies. Look what she did with the hydrangeas." From the WSJ report: "Officials said no secrets were compromised or revealed in the alleged plot, and the spy operation seems to have yielded little of value given some of the elaborate methods deployed. None of the 11 charged by US prosecutors was accused of accessing any classified or sensitive US government information."

Comments

Impossible!

[Anonymous Coward]

The cold war ended!

Lobbying VS Spying

[Mrdzone]

I love how when they don't declare themselves it's "spying" but when they do it's simply "lobbying." Brilliant!

Re:finish this

[TheKidWho]

Make that 10 bullets, I'll take care of Anna, she's been very naughty.

Re:Nothing to see here

[MightyMartian]

Where do you think the information in the "CIA World Factbook" comes from?

Wikipedia?

Sex Sells

[Daetrin]

Okay, raise your hands, how many people got to the bit about "while the Post favors the femme fatale angle (alleged spy Anna Chapman)" and immediately stopped to go do some google searches on this spy in particular?

Re:finish this

[Sulphur]

During the Cold War, some spies were being tossed. A reporter asked "What is your name?"

"No name ... just KGB number."

Espionage has fallen on hard times, they are on their last Oleg.

She looks like a spy.

[elucido]

Too good looking and too smart.

Any woman who looks like that and who has a masters degree in economics is almost certainly a spy. No ordinary woman looks that good and is that smart.

Re:She looks like a spy.

[elucido]

Well, you could argue that most actresses essentially run their own business, they have assistants to a greater or lesser extent but in the end they are selling a product. Everyone always assumes that actresses are stupid, the reality is that while they are doubtlessly attractive, even if they're in the top .01% of women that still leaves an awful lot of competition. Look at Pamela Anderson, how much money has she made over the years selling what basically amounts to her personality and appearance? That does in fact take a kind of intelligence, maybe different from a PHD in economics kind of intelligence, but certainly still intelligence.

Anyone that hot, that smart and that successful is automatically suspect. Most successful actresses may very well be spies, but the same could be said about most successful actors. They do fit the profile.

Re:She looks like a spy.

[royallthefourth]

Have you invented a time travel device that allows you to post from 1955?

"intelligenct"???

[jc42]

to infiltrate the upper echelons of US government and business circles and pass back intelligence to the Russians

If they're looking for intelligence, the past couple of decades of US government and business decisions should be enough to convince anyone with a few ounces of brain that that's not the place to look for it.

just google "US Government Secrets"

[peter303]

Who needs spies anymore when you have google.

Re:see how powerful hollywood is?

[Anonymous Coward]

Look, they even hired someone to post on /.

Re:see how powerful hollywood is?

[zill]

Too bad CIA used all their mod points to mod him troll.