Another Perspective
The Truth About Illegals
Why the recent arrest of the Russian ten is no laughing matter.
The recent arrest of ten Russian illegal officers targeted against us — a superb performance on the part of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies — proves that the Kremlin still looks upon the United States as the main enemy. Most of the details about these new cases are still classified by the FBI. One thing is clear, however; this is not just business as usual — “we spy, they spy.” The Kremlin’s illegal officers have traditionally been dispatched to enemy countries to form an alternative presence there, should war break out and force the legal embassies to close; and to constitute a “homegrown” skeleton of the pro-Moscow governments that the Kremlin dreamed of setting up in those countries at the end of the war. In other words, vitally important assignments.
Today, most of the American media seem to find the notion of illegal officers a joke, calling them spy-novel fantasies, hilariously funny characters or do-nothing sleepers. No wonder. There are no books on the subject. The true nature of illegal operations, unique to the Russian intelligence community, has been an extremely tightly held secret. In 1964 I became a deputy chief of the Romanian foreign intelligence service, the DIE, but it was only eight years later that I realized now little I had actually known — that was when my former KGB adviser, General Aleksandr Sakharovsky, by then the Soviet Union’s spy chief, gave me supervisory authority over Romania’s illegal operations.
The term “illegal” has nothing to do with the idea of law breaking. Every spy breaks the law. In Russian intelligence terminology, a legal officer is one who is assigned abroad to a Russian embassy or other official government representation. An illegal assumes a non-Russian identity and appears abroad as someone who has no connection whatsoever with Russia. In any Western country, an illegal looks and acts just like your next-door neighbor.
An illegal never set foot in the intelligence service’s headquarters. His training was conducted on an individual basis in safe houses, where the trainee was continuously monitored through concealed microphones. The DIE had some 150 safe houses only for illegal officers. The general rule was that an illegal operating in a Western country should not be known to the official, or “legal,” intelligence station in that country, and that communications with him should be conducted through illegal couriers specially trained for such duties. Another rule was that the contact with an illegal should always be maintained through impersonal means in his country of assignment, and that personal meetings with him should take place only in safe third countries. While an illegal was assigned abroad, his parents — and wife, if he had left one behind — would understand that he had been sent to work in a remote country, such as Mongolia, where he could not be reached by phone. Letters from his family back home were always pulled out of the mails by the intelligence service, and some of them were shown to the illegal whenever he returned back to his country to “recharge his batteries” — i.e., to be further indoctrinated and trained.
“Johann,” a DIE illegal documented as a native German, was a typical example of the contemporary illegal. He had been secretly recruited as a future illegal when he was sixteen, and at the top of his school class in Bucharest. When “Johann” graduated as a mechanical engineer, again at the head of his class, he was secretly promoted to captain in the DIE. For the next eight years, the captain did nothing but train. “Johann” perfected his French, a language he would need to back up his legend, as well as his German, the language of his target country. He became a good tennis and bridge player, and he was coached in the latest KGB communications techniques. After he had been trained up to his eyeballs, he was given his new identity: the son of a German Protestant missionary who had spent most of his life in what had been a part of German East Africa and had since become the French-speaking country of Burundi. There had, of course, been a real German minister whose name “Johann” had taken. The minister and his wife had, however, died there of yellow fever some thirty years earlier, along with their newborn baby boy. It had been no problem for the DIE and the KGB, which worked together on the case, to “revive” that dead baby boy in the chaotic records of the city of Bujumbura. The minister’s wife had had a sister, who was still living in Munich. By then she was old and almost senile, but quite wealthy. When “Johann” wrote his first letter to her, which was mailed from Rwanda, the old lady was thrilled to learn that her only nephew was still alive, and soon she invited him to come visit her. When “Johann” arrived in Munich, he seemed to be a scared young man on his first trip outside of Burundi, and the old lady burst into tears at the sight of him. A few years later, “Johann” had earned a doctor’s degree in engineering from the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich. (I discuss “Johann” in my book Programmed to Kill, published in 2007 by Ivan R. Dee.)
Creating such dedicated illegal officers was an extremely expensive and never-ending job. Their initial preparation alone could take anywhere from three to eight years of intensive indoctrination, language training and practice in clandestine communications techniques, followed by more years of familiarization with the Western countries in which they would have to live. By far the most important goals of all those years of training was to make an illegal feel comfortable in his new identity; and to ensure that he would remain loyal to Moscow, no matter what Western temptations he might encounter.
IT IS VERY DIFFICULT to identify an illegal living in the West under a new biography. I approved many such biographical legends. All were supported by Western birth certificates, school diplomas, pictures of alleged relatives, and even fake graves. In some important cases, we also created ersatz living relatives in the West by using ideologically motivated people, who received life-long secret annuities from us. No wonder the FBI needed ten years to document the real roots of the Russian illegals recently arrested.
Herbert Wehner, a German Communist who during World War II took refuge in Moscow, where he became an illegal officer, was molded into a Social Democratic activist by the KGB’s predecessor, which also fabricated a documented background for him showing that he had spent World War II in Sweden — not in the Soviet Union, as was the truth. In 1946, Wehner was sent to West Germany via Sweden. His invented biography helped him to become deputy chairman of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) in 1958, to chair the SPD group in the Bundestag (1969-1983), and to become a member of the West German government (1969-1983). Wehner remained at the very top of West German political life until his death in 1990. His KGB affiliation was known to the West German counterintelligence service, but it could not be proved.
High-level illegals like Wehner helped the Kremlin attract other ranking West German politicians to their side. It was no coincidence that in 2002 Gerhard Schroeder, chancellor of the traditionally pro-American Federal Republic of Germany, agreed to join Putin in opposing most of the U.S. foreign policy initiatives. And it was certainly not an accident that in 2005, when Schroeder lost elections for his third term as chancellor, he became one of the top officials of Gazprom, a giant, state-owned Russian company headed at that time by today’s Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
ON JULY 5, 2010, MOSCOW OFFERED a “spy swap” reminiscent of the Cold War, in an effort to bring home the ten illegal officers recently arrested in the U.S. Recovering its compromised illegal officers from the West was always an absolute priority for the bosses of the KGB community. Why? It was considered crucial to protect the top-secret KGB tradecraft used to transform Soviet bloc intelligence officers into Western citizens who had supposedly never even heard about the Soviet bloc.
In 1978, a few days after Moscow figured out that President Carter had granted me political asylum, “Johan” and dozens of my other DIE illegal officers emplaced throughout the West abruptly dropped out of sight, never to be heard from again.
The Kremlin can go to incredible lengths to recover its illegal officers. On October 22, 1966, a dramatic prison break occurred in England. George Blake, a top officer in the British foreign intelligence service (SIS), was sprung from Wormwood Scrubs prison and soon turned up in Moscow. Blake was serving an unprecedented 42-year sentence for having compromised to the KGB two of NATO’s most productive intercept operations during the Cold War — the Berlin and Vienna tunnels that tapped into Soviet intelligence and military landlines — along with the identity of some 400 SIS and CIA agents. He was arrested following a tip from a Soviet bloc defector, but the British SIS never suspected that Blake, already seen as a possible “C” (chief of the SIS), was not a real British citizen but actually a KGB illegal officer.
On September 11, 2002, however, a select cluster of former senior KGB officers gathered at the Lubyanka to celebrate the 125th birthday of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet domestic and foreign political police. George Blake was among them, and his latest book, Transparent Walls, was prominently displayed there. In his writings he has made it clear, for all Russian illegal officers living their outwardly innocuous lives all around the world to hear, that he never disclosed he was an illegal, and that in recognition of his loyalty the Soviet government rewarded him with a marvelous life in Moscow and bestowed on him the Order of Lenin, the Military Order of the Red Banner and the Military Order of Merit — the last two awarded only to Russian military officers (as all illegal officers are in Russia).
I once met the famous KGB illegal Rudolf Abel, after he was exchanged for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. He introduced himself to me just as Colonel Abel. “An illegal should die an illegal,” Abel told me. In 1972, I was taken to his grave in Moscow. His gravestone displayed two names: Rudolf Ivanovich Abel and Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher. “Was Fisher his real name?” I asked my host, General Sakharovsky, who had just retired after spending fourteen years as head of Soviet foreign intelligence. “Who knows?” he remarked with a friendly wink.
Last yesterday, the U.S. intelligence community lost a unique chance to learn what was behind Russia’s current illegal operations. It is a huge mistake to have wasted this opportunity by rushing to exchange the ten illegals for, among others, a Russian who was framed as a spy (and does not want to leave Russia). There is nothing in this exchange for the United States. We should have first learned what we can from the ten illegals, before starting to think about exchanging them. Even the infamous Abel was not exchanged until five years after he was sentenced. And he was exchanged for an American who had made history for the U.S.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (112) | Leave a comment
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Deborah D | 7.9.10 @ 6:32AM
Kinda makes you wonder what other "illegals" are in this country and at what positions within the government or elsewhere. The way this current administration is acting toward Russia (take the START treaty) and the fact that these "illegals" were released back to Russia without the U.S. getting much for them or out of them -- perhaps they are high up in the ranks of the powerful. Scary thought, but if not a reality, it would make a really good spy novel.
Alan Brooks| 7.9.10 @ 9:00AM
I started writing that novel last night just to beat everyone else here to the punch, Deborah ;)
But Russians don't have as much muscle anymore, spies from Russia are a minor threat compared with illegal criminals (including narco-gangs) on the Southern border-- a Romanesque threat.
bnh34| 7.9.10 @ 11:19AM
HATE/VIOLENCE
Puzzling.
I am using a computer at my vacation condo complex business center, which has parental controls installed.
I have clicked on three articles that trigger the HATE/VIOLENCE pop up, and I am not allowed to read the articles.
I think this is indicative of the hostile tone of so many of the posters on this site. It seems to me that the angry, bitter rhetoric is increasing?
I think the readers of this blog should be told to use civil language. If they refuse, then their crude, incivil comments should be deleted.
Alan Brooks| 7.9.10 @ 11:39AM
When I was in Mexico (Mexico City, Tijuana) I heard violent language that makes the angry language at AS appear, in comparison, as a Disney commercial for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Alan Brooks| 7.9.10 @ 11:45AM
... so perhaps your vacation condo complex business center is a retreat somewhat out of touch with the unseemly realities of third world cesspools filled with hate/violence that makes the hate/violence (and yes there is a small amount of such here) at AS seem as NOTHING?
E.| 7.11.10 @ 12:35PM
Hate-Violence?
Same thing happened to me when I was visiting my brother, who has children, and whose computer has those controls. Tried to access AmSpec artcles and about half were labeled Hate-Violence, so I was denied access.
Ret. Marine| 7.9.10 @ 7:04AM
And just when I thought the intelligence agencies had some resemblence of original though and actions. It is a sad though that the possibility the pretender-n-theif, otherwise known as the president, may have known and does know of the Communist party members, who also welcomed him into their ranks and was supported by them, within his ranks have much that needs explaining to the American People, kinda make me now wonder who is he protecting and to what expense is he willing to risk for the safety of these United States. This swap deal is just a little too fast for this Jarheads confort levels.
ENOUGH ROPE| 7.9.10 @ 12:56PM
OBAMA, MASTER OF DECEIT. Given that known mentors and backers of Obama were Marxists, I wonder if BO could be an "illegal" for some Marxist or Islamist entity.
Charles Martel| 7.10.10 @ 10:32PM
It does put all those questions about the registration of his birth in Honolulu in a new context, now, doesn't it?
Move along, people, nothing to see here.
+++
RCV| 7.9.10 @ 7:31PM
I'm sure they'll run it by you next time for your approval.
coal carrier| 7.9.10 @ 7:12AM
Is the President an illegal officer? No, we know too much about him. Not!
SpiralAchitect | 7.9.10 @ 1:33PM
Surely the undocumented worker in chief is not an 'illegal' as defined by this piece.
He would ahve a very public and provable history/backstory.
The last thing desired would be to bring any attention to the mere notion that his lineage is not as it is 'supposed' to be.
However, as far as illegal citizen, I would most certainly think he fits the bill. Why else would someone go to such great lengths to not show information to immediately eliminate any doubt of ones stature... The answer is not difficult.
Dope and Chains| 7.9.10 @ 3:55PM
Why would the SVR settle for a mere chancellor when a chance at bagging the biggest prize of them all – the presidency of the United States – was at hand?
Me? I'm all for keeping Anna Chapman – and packing the Petulant Little Douchebag in Chief off to the Motherland.
Melvin| 7.9.10 @ 7:48AM
Another way of looking at this is, that President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is Obama's handler. A spy swap is worked out in a matter of hours and the Ruskies get the better part of the trade by only giving us four to their ten.
Comrade Putin might be KGB, but he is former KGB, dah?"
GW| 7.9.10 @ 3:30PM
If you want to look at how to lead a country, look at Vladimir Putin. He tricked Bush (which isn't too hard, I'll confess) into believing he was "good", and now is the puppet master handling Medvedev handling Obama. Two American presidents, one from each major political party, and he has handed both of them their asses.
What this country needs is strong leadership when dealing with neo-Soviets, like, say, Eisenhower or Kennedy. Can you imagine either of them agreeing to a "spy-swap" with a country so hostile to American interests (whether it be the missile shield in Poland or Iranian nukes)? Of course not.
Unfortunately I don't see a leader in either party having the fortitude in foreign relations to stand up for American interests. It's easier to pretend everyone is friends nowadays and be done with it.
RCV| 7.9.10 @ 7:29PM
Hate to break the news to you, guy, but it was under Eisenhower and Kennedy that the 1962 swap of American U-2 spy Francis Gary Powers for Russian super-spy Rudolph Abel was first negotiated and then agreed to.
GW| 7.9.10 @ 10:52PM
Hate to break it to you, gay, but it was a different era and case. At least during the swap of 1962 the US did so for reasons that helped the US. But my statement remains...can you imagine Kennedy or Eisenhower caving to the Russians with the issues of today, namely Iranian nukes or Polish missile defense?
RCV| 7.10.10 @ 11:04AM
Nice try, but your statement was, and I quote, "Can you imagine either of them agreeing to a spy swap with a country so hostile to American interests"? The Soviet Union in 1962 was placing nuclear missiles 90 miles from Florida!
vtwin| 7.9.10 @ 4:06PM
“Ruskies get the better part of the trade by only giving us four to their ten.”
Really? The four where Russians, Igor Sutyagin, Sergei Skripal, Alexander Zaporozhsky, and Gennady Vasilenko, all like Benedict Arnolds and Ion Mihai Pacepa, the commentary author, self-confessed traitors that conspired against their own country.
lumi Boldovici| 7.9.10 @ 5:36PM
Pacepa did not betray his country, he betrayed communism!
vtwin| 7.9.10 @ 7:02PM
So, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American born, committed Communists, convicted of passing secret information to the Soviet Union, were executed for betraying Capitalism?
lumi Boldovici| 7.9.10 @ 7:52PM
While capitalism is a free society (not talking about China) where humans have the freedom to pursue happines in freedom. Communism is a criminal illegitimate system (as in the case of Romania imposed by Soviet tanks) that violates human rights and denies the individual the inalianable rights of "life , liberty, freedom of sppech, assembly, property ownershop, guns etc. SO ,yes Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are traitors not only to AMERICA BUT TO HUMANITY! Anyone who supports a system that oppresses human rights and takes away the sacred liberty of the individual to decide for himself betrayes DEMOCRACY & Human Dignity. I lived in Romania long enough to understand what communism is! Pacepa had everything under communism, prestige, influence, good economic status and a lovely family. He left his daughter behind in a precarious condition. I can only admire him for his courage and valiance to betray the DIKTATOR and show the world what communism was really about.
I wish you well! God Bless America!
vtwin| 7.9.10 @ 10:22PM
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) described Ion Mihai Pacepa cooperation as "an important and unique contribution to the United States".
To betray one's country is give aid or information to an enemy or in Ion Mihai Pacepa case a potential enemy.
You have to exclude China because you are confusing economic systems, capitalism vs. communism, with governing systems, democracy vs. totalitarianism.
And, I to wish you well!
Lumi Boldovici| 7.10.10 @ 1:33PM
With all due respect Communism=Totalitarism
Democracy=Capitalism. There is always a direct relationship between political systems and economic systems. China is an aberration that is why I gave it as an example. So you are correct!
John II| 7.10.10 @ 3:58PM
As a not-so-minor point of logic, the real distinction is this: you can have the trappings of a market system without democracy, but you can't have a democracy without a market system.
Fam.Adams| 7.24.10 @ 3:16PM
Pacepa betrayed Ceuasescu and his companions.
RWinks| 7.10.10 @ 3:06PM
If anyone on this site still needed evidence you are an ignorant, irrational, pro-communist, left-wing, anti-American troll, you're libel of Pacepa removes all doubt.
martin j smith| 7.9.10 @ 7:51AM
Every country of significance has speis on US soil. Mostly you hear about those from Russia and China and occasional others. I am not counting terrorist--they are terrorist period. I just finished re-reading Topaz, by Leon Uris. Avery interesting book. Part of the story line related to the French government spying on the US to aid the USSR . I do not believe things really change much. Russia,USSR whatever you call it will always be Russia--the Empire that is.
bluecollarbytes| 7.9.10 @ 7:56AM
Thanks to you Ion Mihai Pacepa for some solid insight completely missing from PopMedia.
Speaking as a non-spy, I still wonder at the haste with which Barack Obama decided to help Russia out of this. Will we hear from FBI agents at some point expressing dismay over having wasted the fruits of a 10 year investigation? Maybe they got 'several valuable leads' before rushing the Russian spies back to the motherland.
Knowing Barack ( as best we can given his cloaked personal history), I assume he thinks this is all much ado about nothing. I refuse to think worse until/unless new revelations show otherwise. But it's certain that Obama real enemies are generally U.S. citizens opposed to Obamagenda.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.9.10 @ 8:02AM
This article exists on many assumptions:
1. It assumes Barack Obama knows what he is doing.
2. It assumes that Obama would care if he further wrecked the economy by letting spies take secrets back and by never finding out what they were up to with their plan.
3. There is an assumption that Obama and his administration are not sympatico with communism or it's effects.
Harry Flashman| 7.9.10 @ 8:18AM
There is widespread and growing speculation in corridors of power around the world as well as the meeting halls of the tea parties and other quarters that the current president's biological father was the CPUSA member and radical activist Frank Marshall Davis, rather than the Kenyan Barack Obama "Sr." Numerous indications supporting this theory are easy to find with an internet search engine, including the memoir of Davis that recounted his sexual relationship with a young woman named "Ann" that began when she was underage, the documented close association of Davis with Stanley Dunham and his family, the poem "Pop" and perhaps most telling, even a cursory comparison of photographs of Davis with photographs of the current president and the Kenyan.
People are saying that perhaps the so-called "birthers" have got hold of the wrong end of the stick, so to speak, and that this is the actual reason why the Obama 2008 campaign and subsequent administration has steadfastly refused to allow the original typewritten long form birth certificate to be released or be subjected to any sort of scrutiny. This document, which is known to exist, remains locked away in a state government vault in Hawaii, despite several years of repeated requests by numerous individuals and media organizations. The 2008 campaign did release a computer generated short form version that a child could have forged, but this only made matters worse for them, increasing the demand to see the original typewritten long form document. If releasing the original typewritten long form birth certificate would conclusively end this widespread and growing speculation about the current president's parentage and origins once and for all, why hasn't it been done long ago? What is being hidden and why are they hiding it?
The same goes for his school records, SAT and LSAT scores, college and law school transcripts and papers, medical records, passport history and other relevant information. Every other presidential candidate in modern history has willingly released this information upon request, sometimes directly to the campaigns of their rivals, because they have acknowledged that the process of running for president is and should be the toughest job interview on the planet. What is being hidden and why are they hiding it?
Will the 2008 presidential election ultimately be seen by history as the most stupendous confidence trick in American history?
Louis Jenkins| 7.9.10 @ 8:32AM
Mr. Flashman, you took the words out of my mouth, and much better than I could have said it. The 2008 election of Obamur is the most stupendous confidence trick, flim flam, in American history.
Margie| 7.9.10 @ 9:10AM
Yeah but get ready for Obama II as many are going to vote for him again. Including those who are too "pure" to pull the lever for the Republican candidate. Get ready folks, cuz it's coming.
I never thought it possible for Billy Boy Clinton to get re elected. But dealing with people who post here, seeing their utter insanity and how unless their candidate is a Paul-bot one, or unless they are the perfect "conservative" they aren't voting~~ I am convinced there is a good possibility the Marxist will be re elected.
RCV| 7.9.10 @ 7:24PM
I think there is an excellent chance he will be re-elected, primarily because it's hard to envision a viable Republican candidate who can unite the various warring factions of the party and still have sufficient appeal to independents and Democrats to win. But, it's early and you never know what the next two years will bring.
Margie| 7.10.10 @ 9:05PM
ANY Republican candidate is better than any Communist Democrat!
RCV| 7.10.10 @ 9:47PM
I know that's your view, and it's a rational one. But...you've read the rantings on here.
vtwin| 7.9.10 @ 12:47PM
“There is widespread and growing speculation in … meeting halls of the tea parties … that the current president's biological father was … the radical activist Frank Marshall Davis, rather than the Kenyan Barack Obama Sr.”
So that “birther” stupidity didn’t work out for you?
DaveS| 7.10.10 @ 6:45PM
Obviously, new speculation amenable to your viewpoint is wise while speculation not favorable to you is stupid. Tell me: what close to home part of 'stupid' don't you get?
vtwin| 7.12.10 @ 5:19AM
Stupidity is when con artists like rush Limbaugh, glenn beck, sean hannity, offer garbage about Obama; Muslim, terrorist, foreigner, Marxist…, to ignorant and irrational people who in turn regurgitate it!
May I ask you something? Remember during one of McCain’s campaign rally when one of his supporters embarrassed him when she called Obama a “Muslim”. Was that you?
Oldefarte| 7.9.10 @ 1:21PM
Excellent editorial. Harry Flashman's thoughts are spot on as well, and ,as said, Obama has militantly prevented any disclosure of his documented paperwork. WHY, and now this speeded up trading of spies with Russia? It would be a stretch to think that there's a connection with his paperwork, but there has to be some extreme [and politically damaging] reasons that this transfer has been effected. What do these spies know [and what could they reveal] that would be destructive to possibly the president and/or his Democrat collegues????????????????
RCV| 7.9.10 @ 7:21PM
...yes, I'm sure these 1o Russian agents know something about Barack Obama and that's why they were spirited out of the country. I hear that one of them was really Anastasia, long-lost daughter of the Czar, who was secretly communicating about Obama's secrets through the coded messages printed on Lindsay Lohan's fingernails.
Oldefarte| 7.10.10 @ 11:00AM
Okay then SMARTA*S [or maybe DUMBA(S], why has there not been any Russian spies that were captured by the United States in previous decades speedily spirited/traded away such as these ten were? Why will not Obama release his full birth certificate, his college courses list or term papers, etc and why does he and his administration so religiously guard them [and prevent them from release under the Freedom of Information Act]?????????????????????????????
Oldefarte| 7.10.10 @ 11:06AM
I'll answer the question for you, DUMBA&S.......for the same reason that he prevented his assiciations with Wright, Ayers, etc from being known pre-election; for the same reason that he/they secretly made an appointment of the radical Van Jones; and for the same reason that he/they made a recess appointment of this radical doctor to run the Medicare/Medicaid administration bureau; that's why, MORON!!!!
RCV| 7.10.10 @ 1:12PM
1. His "associations with Wright, Ayers etc." WERE known pre-election - maybe you were asleep during the primaries when they were extensively discussed.
Fortunately, the American people didn't fall for the smear nonsense.
2. The Van Jones appointment wasn't "secret". It was announced in a press release on March 11, 2009 and carried by most major newspapers and news services.
3. He made a recess appointment of Dr. Berwick because Republicans in the Congress have refused to allow the nomination to come to a vote, knowing he will be confirmed.
John II| 7.10.10 @ 4:05PM
"Fortunately, the American people didn't fall for the smear nonsense."
But "the American people" DID fall for eight years of smearing Bush, starting with Professor Gore's spoiler challenge of the Electoral results of the 2000 election?
I guess the question is, Who the hell are "the American people"?
Margie| 7.10.10 @ 9:09PM
Right on, John II. You know, the more i hear RCV talk, the more I think it's really "Liberal Reader" in a new outfit.
RCV| 7.11.10 @ 9:27PM
Sorry, Margie. Never heard of the guy.
RCV| 7.10.10 @ 9:49PM
I guess the didn't since GWB was reelected in 2004.
Charles Martel| 7.10.10 @ 10:45PM
Berwick never even came before the relevant committee, the scheduling for which is entirely in the hands of a Democrat. The recess appointment came about because no one who wanted him in the position wanted him questioned in public.
The Leader's associations with Wright and Ayers are not part of any "smear": they are at the core of what he is, a radical Leftist. There is no point in denying it now. Everyone knows it. The only question each voter must ask himself is whether he, the voter, actually cares.
+++
RCV| 7.11.10 @ 3:50PM
The electorate knew before the election, and no, they didn't care.
BREDNG10| 7.9.10 @ 8:25AM
What little bit we do know about Obama`s history is full of marxists,commies,and radical leftists.His staff and cabinet are full of commies.He is selling US out on START and just about everything he does.
The democrats have been coddling commies since the 1940`s,seating them in high offices of the U.S.,United Nations,and NATO.
Why the big hurry to get these people out of the country?Kind of seems like Obama is trying to hide something.Maybe these people have crossed paths with the commie in chief before.Maybe they have his birth certificate or have mutual friends from the past or present.
MAYBE HE IS THE MANCHURIAN PRESIDENT.
RCV| 7.9.10 @ 7:19PM
...and maybe you are Queen of Norway!
BREDNG10| 7.10.10 @ 12:24AM
RCV?Russian Comrade Vladimer didn`t you leave with your 11 fellow commies?
Oldefarte| 7.10.10 @ 11:07AM
And maybe you're Forrest Gump reincarnated also!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RCV| 7.10.10 @ 9:51PM
Anything is possible on this site!
Flipside| 7.9.10 @ 9:32AM
Obama is a fool, I even bet that the spies we get in return are already poisoned with plutonium? Russia will never be an ally, the are building Iran a Nuke plant, giving then the blueprints to a bomb, providing missile technology and weapons to them and our sworn enemies. It must be all Bush's fault because no one liked him, boohoo.
Ivan Denisovich| 7.10.10 @ 7:20PM
Auberon Waugh (Evelyn's son) wrote that the key to the Russian character is that they are all "shits."
davelnaf| 7.9.10 @ 9:35AM
Is the ‘new’ Russia as paranoid about the West as the old Soviet Union? Granted that two large invasions swept first into Russia and later the Soviet Union in the not so distant past, but even when the US had the bomb for five years we didn’t charge into Russia as almost certainly the USSR would have into Europe if they had had it. How did they rationalize our ‘failure’ to do this? Was it because of some weakness of ours to take advantage of them? And if we were that weak what was the reason for the paranoia then and now? It might be that the Russian national character is flawed and that Russians just like to spy on other countries. Or maybe it is all about control and, as we know, Russians are, as an ethnicity, one of the biggest control freaks on the planet. But we all have to contend with this primal drive, even in this country.
And, yes, it would be interesting to know why the Obamanoids released the spies so quickly. One can’t imagine anything being more hilarious and tragic at the same time than finding out that the Bamster is an illegal. It is more likely that he is a home grown illegal or plant. But what is the difference?
S af Ugglas| 7.9.10 @ 9:42AM
In Sweden the present governement has prohibited disclosure of the names of the swedish traitors, (52 known from Stasi records) It´s even made to a hush hush case swept under the carpet due to many of these tratiors are still alive and lead a prosperous life among us.
Trees Forest| 7.9.10 @ 9:59AM
If the 20,000,000 illegal aliens crossing our border from the south were white instead of brown. The border would be closed almost immedately. So fast the slam of the gate would be heard around the world. The 10 white Russians were most likely spotted years ago. Obomba just needed something to take focus off his current woes, and reached into his chicago bag 'o tricks to muddy the waters even more. Does the name Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe ring any bells?
RCV| 7.9.10 @ 7:17PM
NO.
PolishKnight| 7.9.10 @ 10:15AM
The great irony of this FASCINATING article is that Democrats and leftists already are so anti-American along with marxist that it's not really necessary to put an "illegal" into office to achieve Moscow's aims. Obama regards Americans with contempt and hatred as much if not more than a KGB officer running a Gulag.
I suppose the only happy side to this is that at least the Soviets killed their "useful idiots" when they were through with them.
Trees Forest| 7.9.10 @ 10:22AM
How perceptive Polish Knight. You are right, Obomba don't need 10 more marxist, soviets wishing to destroy The U.S. He , Harvard and the Democrat party are well on their way already.
KyMouse| 7.9.10 @ 10:17AM
Thanks so much, Mr. Pacepa, for a fascinating article! The truth is much more interesting -- and frightening -- than any James Bond fiction.
Petronius| 7.9.10 @ 10:28AM
As if this administruction isn't telling foreign intelligence services what they want to know gratis.
Conspiracy Theory| 7.9.10 @ 10:41AM
'On February 12, 2004, Russia's new tsar, Vladimir Putin, declared the demise of the Soviet Union a "national tragedy on an enormous scale." We kept quiet. In July 2007, he predicted a new Cold War against the West. We kept quiet. "War has started," Putin announced on August 8, 2008, minutes after Russian tanks crossed into the pro-Western country of Georgia. We kept quiet.'
*Gasp.* You all know what this means, don't you? George Bush was...secretly a communist!! OMG, we should have started tea partying sooner. There was a sleeper agent in the White House gazing into Putin's eyes and swooning for EIGHT YEARS!! How can it be? Oh, my beloved republic, I'm gonna CRY.
--Right-Said Fred, AKA Glenn Beck
GW| 7.9.10 @ 3:17PM
One of many of Bush's faults was his cozying up to Putin. Hell, Bush's dog Barney tried to bite Putin on one of Putin's trips to the White House. Seems like the dog is smarter than the president.
Shamus| 7.9.10 @ 4:21PM
Dogs are frequently smarter than their owners.
Conspiracy Theory| 7.9.10 @ 4:21PM
Bush wasn't soft. He was a COMMUNIST! And you are a TRAITOR if you don't believe in this theory.
--Ben Gleck
Fam.Adams| 7.24.10 @ 3:25PM
Do you know what means a communist?
If you did not live in communism, it is very heavy to speak about it.
Bently Dodd| 7.9.10 @ 10:45AM
In New York, the man who helps police officers rise in ranks and takes care of them when they get in trouble is known as the officer's"Rabbi" e.g.
"Who'se his Rabbi?" "Father Flynn." If you follow Obama's career the question arises, why Occidental College? why the transfer to Columbia? How did he get to Harvard? Who got him the job in Chicago? In other words;who was his Rabbi? I've long thought that the Obama story was a "legend" rather than a biography...
RCV| 7.9.10 @ 7:15PM
What in the name of God are you blathering about? What is mysterious about Occidental College? Obama graduated from a terrific private school in Hawaii, and went to a good small private college in California like lots of other HS graduates. He transferred to one of the Ivy League colleges, Columbia, like lots of other college grads. He got into Harvard because he was a bright articulate college grad from an Ivy League school, and performed so well at Harvard that he was elected President of the Harvard Law Review. Presidents of the Harvard Law Review have their pick at any law firm in the country, and Obama chose Sidley & Austin, a top Chicago firm.
You guys are certifiable in your paranoia, really. Get a life!
Oldefate| 7.10.10 @ 11:17AM
And, moron, he financed his extremely expensive Ivy-League college/law school education by means of STUDENT LOANS, and paid back said loans by working as a lowely paid [no doubt $20000/year maximum] COMMUNITY ORGINIZER in Chicago, right? And can you name the wealthy Middle Eastern oil shieks that wrote letters of recommendation to these Ivy League private schools on Obama's behalf in order to get him accepted into same? And can you identify his wealthy family background financial connections that provided is access to same sheiks in the Middle East? And can you explain to us all why Obama has never [repeat never] seen the inside of an inexpensive PUBLIC SCHOOL in his lifetime?????????????
RCV| 7.10.10 @ 1:05PM
I came from a working-class family poorer than Obama's, attended college and law school just as expensive, and paid off my law school and college loans with summer jobs like the one Obama had at Sidley and Austin. If you have some information that "Middle Eastern Oil Sheiks" wrote "letters of recommendation" on his behalf, put it out there. Otherwise, stop making up facts.
Tim*| 7.10.10 @ 2:58PM
Obama never made Honor Rolls at Occidental or Columbia ,meaning a GPA of Less than a 3.0 .
Then he shows up at Harvard Law School .
Figure it out .
He's an Affirmative Action Boy.
RCV| 7.10.10 @ 9:57PM
Who cares? He was elected President by a majority of the American people.
Emma| 7.11.10 @ 6:18AM
"He was elected President by a majority of the American people."
No. He was not. Not by a long shot. He was "elected president" by 52% of eligible voters who bothered to vote. Nowhere near 52% of the American people.
2 + 2 still = 4, but that fact isn't worth a whole lot when half the country doesn't understand simple math any more.
Tim*| 7.11.10 @ 10:05AM
Look at Obama's latest Approval Polls. Gallup 46 Percent Approve - 47 Percent Disapprove .
This is a Failed Presidency by Affirmative Action Boy .
The Tea Party Rebellion Escalates .
We Can See November From Our Houses .
RCV| 7.11.10 @ 3:56PM
Yes, just as Sarah can see Russia from hers. The only poll that counts is the voting booth on election day. And what the tea baggers have managed to accomplish so far is to turn three expected GOP landslides -- Florida, Kentucky and Nevada -- into horse races. We Democrats appreciate your help.
Tim*| 7.11.10 @ 5:36PM
More Fruit Talk From An ObamaBoy.
FLIT ANDERSEN| 7.14.10 @ 5:29AM
"TEABAGGERS"; "Sarah can see Russia"
Yep. You can always tell when some DOPE from the WWP creeps into the site.
What's RCV stand for?
Real Commie Vermin?
RCV| 7.11.10 @ 3:57PM
Yes, just as Sarah can see Russia from hers. The only poll that counts is the voting booth on election day. And what the tea baggers have managed to accomplish so far is to turn three expected GOP landslides -- Florida, Kentucky and Nevada -- into horse races. We Democrats appreciate your help.
Tim*| 7.11.10 @ 5:40PM
We'll give ya the last word for now , since ya seem to need it always , LawBoy .
Conspiracy Theory| 7.9.10 @ 10:52AM
*Gasp.* OMG, you are right! There is no reason for anyone to transfer to Columbia from Occindental College. It's preposterous. It's down-right un-American. And now I'm goint to cry again.
--Ben Gleck
Al Adab| 7.9.10 @ 12:30PM
You guys are way too busy scoring points against one another. Get focused.
Twenty percent of those caught coming across the southern border are classified as "Other Than Mexican" or OTM. This includes countries such as Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Mozambique, Libya, Syria and so on. Many of those captured have learned Spanish in South America. One might think that a Spanish speaking Iranian or Syrian is not trying to find a restaurant or landscaping job in Texas or Arizona.
This is a much more serious issue that your posts imply.
Charles Martel| 7.10.10 @ 10:53PM
Precisely, and it is to obscure the real issues that they post as they do.
+++
Mojo Risin| 7.9.10 @ 1:42PM
Someone tell me, when is there going to be a "spy swap" that takes Obama, AKA, King Samaz Maboloo off our hands. Yeah, we could only be so lucky...
Nancy in NC| 7.9.10 @ 2:08PM
Didn't hear much about these spies from the MSM, other than one was "hot".
In fact, they were shuttled out of the States so fast that it was unbelievable. I didn't know the government could get anything accomplished that quickly.
And how about that exchange rate...10 for 4? Doesn't seem quite fair to me. Did the Ruskys have anyone we wanted that badly?
I wouldn't be sure that this group wasn't all that dangerous...now, we'll never know. I'm sure Obama wanted them gone as quickly as possible before anyone could spill the beans.
To think Russia is our friend is sheer stupidity.
GW| 7.9.10 @ 3:25PM
Great article and insight by some one who knows what he's talking about. But here's my statement. The CIA has to know about Russia's spy programs and what the Russian Federation's game plans are. As incompetent as the CIA is, it gathers quite a bit of information that can ultimately be advantageous to our republic. Having said that, the problem is with leadership. Once again, the current administration chooses political posturing...Obama wants the world to see we have a "reset" relationship with Russia and Medvedev so the "spy-gate" is really, well nothing.
In stead of offering appeasement (which is all the spy swap is) to a nation who will only see it as a sign of weakness, the Obama admin. should have prosecuted the spies to the fullest. Regardless of what the spies' intentions were, espionage is illegal and for good reason. In doing so, Obama would have further appeared to look tough in international relations, helping to combat his embarassing bowing events in various countries.
Oh well, it's their funeral come November.
ABNCP| 7.9.10 @ 4:18PM
Flashman's post offers some very disturbing information. Mr. Pacepa's article is solid on the way Intel. agencies operate. I worked for the DIA for a number of years and could tell some funny stories about the FBI tracking a couple of KGB types across the country in the 70's. It would be
easily possible for a legend to be set up in Hawaii on a birth certificate. Don't know if that happend but the whole mess could be setteled if the records would be confirmed and released. The problem we are getting into is the unbelieveable decisions this White House has made that much of our country believes are not in the best interests of the United States of America. What the hell is going on in D.C.? Stop the B.S. and release the records.
Marc Jeric| 7.9.10 @ 4:28PM
Abu Hussein al-Mombassa (or wherever in Kenya our marxist Muslim President was born) is communizing our country in rapid consecutive steps. Community Organizer-in-Chief has his local soviets in place, financed by him with $8.7 billion of stimulus money, to perform voter intimidation, vote fraud, and other activities as designed by the inventor of local community organizations Lenin, and by Obama's mentor Alinsky.
David| 7.9.10 @ 4:35PM
Hey Al Adab, they don't even have to sneak into the country. We have been bringing them in from Afghanistan and training them at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. In the past 18 months, 46 Afghanis who we have trained have disappeared from the Base, and we have not been able to find them. I suspect Afghanis blend in pretty well with the huge Hispanic populations in SA, Texas, and other states across the south.
I wonder what they learned and what their plans are. You would think that after the first few disappeared someone would have seen a pattern developing and kept a much closer watch on the others.
Yep, it's pretty scary.
Thom| 7.9.10 @ 6:16PM
I’ve used my birth certificate throughout my adult life for various purposes including security clearances. I’m 58 years old and my certified birth certificate is a legal forgery because I was adopted 6 months after my birth. My surviving adoptive parent didn’t reveal the whole truth of the matter until I was in my 40s and as far as I can tell the whole truth is sealed behind closed records in the “state” of my birth. I know who my real parents are and my real name and that specific information on my birth certificate is false. There are witnesses from the medical facility that witnessed this and signed the birth certificate indicating the information was true and correct. All a lie. This is practice in many states regarding adoptions.
If this kind of false history can be legally created and kept from view of even security agencies pulling back ground checks image what a 100 spot could do for willing government official in falsifying records such as this for other purposes? The “state” is already producing such false histories and protecting that information even from the subject of the practice.
In my case the irony is that I knew the truth since I was 11 years old by applying biological science to one of my adoptive parent’s genetic traits such as blood type. My type cannot be produced by my adoptive parents.
One of the most powerful men in the world has virtually his entire life’s paper trail under lock and key by some means and the ultimate qualification for being President is under lock and key by a State agency while anyone even thinking about passing a security clearance, applying for any activity that requires citizenship verification has to produce at least one certified birth certificate for said purposes. As this article points out, professionals go to extreme measures to set up their agents, spare no expense and are quiet successful at that.
My forged certified birth certificate can be found in a lot of government databases today. As part of any significant background check, it SGA wants my academic records and contacts from that time they can get them. If I refuse to release them then no security classification. Many poo-poo the possibilities here but a good covert undercover agent is worth billions today given what is at stake.
My birth certificates are legal forgeries and protected by the “state”. Why would anyone conceal the original handwritten copy? Because just like my original “black photo copy” from the early 50s it contained information no one outside the signing parties were to know about. Such information can lead to places some don't want it to lead. The telltale shadow on my original copy tipped me off to something being hidden on the original form. My certified copies do not show this.
Food for thought.
Sarbo| 7.10.10 @ 3:51AM
It gets curuiouser and curiouser. There are two types of espionage illegals .... those operating under official cover like a trade represeantative, say. Once these get caught, they enjoy diplomatic immunity from pleibian stuff like arrest and production before court. They quietly get deported.
These latest ten were supposed to "sleepers", operating under deep cover ... in effect, NOC agents, no official cover. If they are caught, the parent authority disowns them.
So, what these NOCs getting deported to Russia for? For a swap? And, why? This is not your usual Israeli-Palestinian swap. So, what is it?
Bob K.| 7.10.10 @ 8:32AM
There is an interesting article in this morning's (Saturday July 10, 2010) newspapers written by AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven. The headline says it all: "SPY SWAP PLAN HATCHED IN OVAL OFFICE COMES TO FRUITION." ............"The swap idea was Washington's, first raised with President Barack Obama nearly a month ago when the FBI and Justice officials who had been watching the 10 Russian agents hiding in suburban America for over a decade informed the president it was time to start planning their arrests,............."
indifferent| 7.10.10 @ 2:50PM
The whole thing is concocted BS. Wait and see. They are not spies. It's BS and the target is Russian American immigrants. They prolly still live here. The bloviators admin lies constantly as well as BS main stream media.
Don't fall for it.
Ross Kaminsky | 7.10.10 @ 3:15PM
Since it's Saturday and I'm not up for much deep thought, just two quick comments:
1) It seems reasonable to wonder if, like every other deal Obama has made with foreign nations, he got the worst of it. I would think that there's no way we learned all we could have from the spies in the short time between their capture and release. Maybe, like Ahmadinejad, Obama thinks that Putin is just a nice but misunderstood guy in need of a group hug.
2) This was one of the most fascinating articles I've ever read. Articles of this quality are the reason I've come to love the Spectator and to be so proud to be associated with it.
John II| 7.10.10 @ 4:15PM
If I follow your grammar correctly, Ross (allowing for the time of day), I doubt that Ahmadinejad is interested in group hugs, but there is nonetheless much to be said about Professor Obama's being "like Ahmadinejad." Among "world leaders" past and present, the Professor certainly has much more in common with the likes of Ahmadinejad and Chavez than, say, with the likes of Churchill.
Charles Martel| 7.10.10 @ 11:01PM
Would you be happier if Ross had written instead, "Maybe Obama thinks that, like Ahmadinejad, Putin is just...."?
+++
Harry Flashman| 7.10.10 @ 4:29PM
Does it really matter in the final analysis whether the current president's real father was the CPUSA member and radical activist Frank Marshall Davis or the alcoholic bigamist Kenyan Barack Obama "Sr." or some other man? No. Except if a deliberate deception of the American people was involved. A case can be made that authenticity is the character trait that is most important to the American people in their legislators and leaders. That a candidate or elected official really is who they say they are and truly believes in what they claim are their beliefs and are not a phony or fraud or hypocrite or liar.
Apart from all of the other indications that Frank Marshall Davis may be the current president's biological father, which I have previously mentioned, some of you reading this might care to take a moment to use a search engine to pull up photographs of Davis and the Kenyan and the current president. See if you can tell which one of the former two looks very much like the current president and which one does not. I believe that the widespread ongoing speculation about the current president's parentage and origins is growing to a degree that even the mainstream media will eventually have to seriously address. The current president's original typewritten long form birth certificate, school records, SAT and LSAT scores, college and law school transcripts and papers, medical records, passport history and other relevant documents continue to be deeply hidden away from any sort of objective scrutiny, despite several years of repeated requests by numerous individuals and media organizations. Indeed, the Obama 2008 campaign and subsequent administration has gone to considerable time and expense to continue to stonewall this issue of truth and accountability, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight Freedom of Information Act requests and other inquiries to obtain this information. What is being hidden and why are they hiding it?
Charles Martel| 7.10.10 @ 11:08PM
I've always been amused that the Dear Leader's mommy apparently had such issues with the man who named her Stanley that she went out of her way to give it up as early as possible and in ways that were considered way outside of the norm for her time. And then she handed the little runt off to her own parents and moved on.
But there is, of course, absolutely no way that the Leader has any psychological issues stemming from his treatment by either... no, make that *any* of his many parents. None at all.
You can all relax. There is nothing to see here.
+++
Michael L. Hauschild| 7.10.10 @ 7:36PM
This is fascinating reading; I had always wondered how the “other side” worked. In the latter part of 1969 I was given a clearance and stationed at Fort Gordon GA at the South East Signal School for training as a 72B20 (communications center clerk). During that rather extensive training we were instructed how to detect, divert, and resist “Agents” of, I assume, the Evil Empire. The bottom line of course is; simply say nothing of what you do to anyone. After my stint in the service, I actually only fulfilled that com center role while at Base Camp Radcliff, most of the time they found me far more useful as a field radio operator with the 1/22nd Infantry. I was cautioned that I could not speak of the information I handled for twenty five years after I was discharged. (that happened in 2001) Rest easy, vets, I never spilled the beans once. Up to the time I read this article I’ll admit I really was suspicious of the extreme measures that were taken to assure the confidentiality of our duties. Sure would have been nice resisting the wiles of that redhead Russki, though.
Defend| 7.11.10 @ 4:07PM
Ride down I-35 - anywhere on it - and count the number of buses giving "tours" to "Mexicans."
When they exit the bus in our country...notice who is tracking them. NO ONE.
cow rie| 7.11.10 @ 6:29PM
I wonder wha
cow rie| 7.11.10 @ 6:31PM
I wonder what political paty these 10 illegals were registered under? Isn't the goal of Obama to register all illegal aliens as Democrats?
Howard| 7.12.10 @ 3:59PM
Mr. Pacepa is an inspiring individual (who by the way, believes Oswald was a KGB Agent). I am including a link to an interview with George Blake 2 years ago. That bastard still believes the Reds were fine people. In fact, in said he became a Communist because of U.S. atrocities during the Korean War. What a crock of horse****. Obama loves to make nice, nice with our adversaries.
http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kg....._blake.htm
DES| 7.12.10 @ 7:35PM
Obama really was one. Gee, he's smart to figure it all out and become Presicent.
Solitario| 10.18.10 @ 10:03PM
Pacepa always was a master bullshitter and he always knew how to make a (very) good living out of it.