Russia Captures Alleged American CIA Agent In Moscow

wiredmikey tips this AFP report: "Russia on Tuesday said it had detained an alleged American CIA agent working undercover at the U.S. embassy who was discovered with a large stash of money as he was trying to recruit a Russian intelligence officer. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB, ex-KGB) identified the man as Ryan C. Fogle — third secretary of the political section of Washington's embassy in Moscow — and said he had been handed back to the embassy after his detention. Photographs published show his alleged espionage equipment including wigs, a compass, torch and even a mundane atlas of Moscow as well as a somewhat old fashioned mobile phone. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Fogle was carrying 'special technical equipment, written instructions for recruiting a Russian citizen, a large sum of money and means for changing a person's appearance.' The FSB also said the U.S. intelligence service has made repeated attempts to recruit the staff of Russian law enforcement agencies and special services. The incident comes amid a new chill in Russian-U.S. relations sparked by the Syrian crisis and concern in Washington over what it sees as President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on human rights."

Comments

Re:yeah.

[cold fjord]

You seem confused, so I'll help you sort it out.

the US with its imprisoning of more people (by absolute numbers and percentage of population) than any other country

They are imprisoned for what are recognizable as ordinary criminal offenses, such as drug offenses. People in the United States are not imprisoned for things like singing songs that insult the president, such as this.

Indefinite detention

You are referring to Prisoners of War. Completely legitimate and a recognized standard. You can keep POWs in detention until the end of the conflict. Unfortunate that they made a bad choice of fighting for Al Qaida.

torture

The US waterboarded a total of three people, the most recent of which was 10 years ago. The US has waterboarded at least thousands, or tens of thousands, of military pilots and special forces personnel both before and since in the same way. It is certainly a form of coercion. But torture has a legal definition, and waterboarding under those circumstances didn't meet that at the time. Or would you claim that the US actually tortured its service members?

summary execution

Killing people on the battlefield or in the theater of war isn't summary execution, but simply killing, and in no way illegitimate. The people killed were in the same status as these people shot dead by the US Government without trial or warrant.

Yeah. The US has credibility when it comes to human rights.

Yes, it does.