Russian 'secret agents' arrested in US
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ted-in-US.html
Russian 'secret agents' arrested in US
Ten alleged secret agents of the Russian government living in "deep-cover" in the United States and engaged in Cold War-style espionage have been arrested in a coordinated operation by the FBI.
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Published: 11:43PM BST 28 Jun 2010
Link to this video The FBI accuses the SVR, the successor organisation to the Soviet Union's KGB, of running a network of "illegals", described in court documents as Russians who received training in languages, codes and ciphers, invisible writing and counter-surveillance before living in the United States under false identities.
Each of the 10 was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison on conviction.
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Anthony Blunt: confessions of an MI5 traitor They were alleged to have met US government officials given codenames such as "Farmer", "Parrot" and "Cat" as well as engaging such tried and tested espionage methods as dead drops and brush passes.
The arrests come after President Barack Obama met his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Washington, praising him as a "solid and reliable partner" and taking him out to a burger restaurant.
As well as the 10 arrested in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Virginia over the weekend, the FBI identified an eleventh suspect, known as "Christopher R. Metsos" who remains at large.
The nature of their work was said to have been outlined in a secret message to two of those arrested: "You were sent to USA for long-term service trip.
"Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc – all those serve one goal: fulfil your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policy-making circles in US ..."
Many of the details of the criminal complains read like an outline of a John LeCarre novel.
A defendant known as "Anna Chapman" allegedly communicated with a Russian official in Manhattan in January as she sat in a coffee shop and he pulled up outside in a van. The FBI alleges that they used a wireless network via paired computers.
Two months later, a similar communication allegedly took place when she was in a bookshop and the Russian official, based at Russia's mission to the United Nations, was outside with a briefcase.
Chapman was later approached by an FBI agent posing as a Russian who told her: "My name is Roman, I work in the consulate."
He told her to give a false passport to another agent and that she was to introduce herself her by saying: "Excuse me but haven't we met in California last summer?" The other agent was to reply: "No, I think it was in the Hamptons."
A message from alleged conspirators in Boston gave details about a new head of the CIA and the 2008 presidential election gained from a "former legislative counsel for US Congress".
The complaint also detailed how one of the accused known as "Donald Howard Heathfield" met a former high-ranking US government official to discuss "research programmes on small yield high penetration nuclear devices.
An accused known as "Cynthia Murphy" allegedly sent back a number of reports about the global gold market.
Court papers allege that the defendants led ordinary suburban lives, "deepening" their false identities by taking ordinary jobs, living as married couples, having children and even trying to buy homes in the US.
Prosecutors claim: “Illegals will sometimes pursue degrees at target-country universities, obtain employment, and join relevant professional associations; these activities deepen an illegal’s ‘legend’.
“Illegals often operate in pairs – being placed together by Moscow Centre while in Russia, so that they can live together and work together in a host country, under the guise of a married couple.
“Illegals who are placed together and cohabit in the country to which they are assigned will often have children together; this further deepens an illegal’s ‘legend’.”
Experts have expressed their astonishment at the scale and dedication of the scheme allegedly undertaken by SVR.
Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB general who was a Soviet spy in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s under “legal” cover as a diplomat and Radio Moscow correspondent, said he believed the project was more ambitious than similar attempts by spies during the cold war.
He told the New York Times: “It’s a return to the old days, but even in the worst years of the cold war, I think there were no more than 10 illegals in the U.S., probably fewer.”
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