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At Large
Career Day for the Second Oldest Profession
The Kremlin still hasn’t come to terms with the “sleeper agent” fiasco of last summer.
From the public’s standpoint it was straight out of a Hollywood B Film. The bad guys of Russia’s foreign intelligence organization, SVR, had sneaked into the United States but were all captured by the hardworking FBI. There even was the sexy glamour gal to spice up the story. The trouble was that Hollywood stopped making those films decades ago. Somebody on the other side obviously needed some coaching by Steven Spielberg.
The Kremlin gave its stars a hero’s welcome when they were quickly exchanged for four Russians convicted of working for Western intelligence. Not a bad deal, Moscow congratulated itself in the media — eleven for four. The old days were back, implied the ex-KGB’er, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, as he sung with the released officers something akin to an old Soviet intelligence fight song. (Who knew they have songs?) Everything was done to cover up one of the worst run operations in the history of Russian foreign intelligence. .
From the beginning the entire concept was flawed. Infiltrating in a scatter shot manner ten (or more?) SVR “illegals” under various covers as U.S. citizens or legal immigrants spread around the Northeast and Middle Atlantic is just not operationally sound. Theoretically they were to develop political contacts with an aim ultimately to influence U.S. policy and/or gather classified information on such. Aside from Vicky Palaez, the El Diario columnist who was a well- known left-wing TV reporter in her native Peru, and her husband, Juan Lazaro, raised as a Soviet citizen though passing as a Uruguayan, the other intelligence personnel had no unusual background or technical strength that could aid in penetration of the American government/political scene.
The operational concept of introducing intelligence officers with assumed identities and little in personal qualifications other than knowledge of English and reasonable intellect into the American environment was unprofessional. To expect that over many years they would gain important access into the American official and political system indicates the U.S. operations division of SVR had a warped understanding of the American scene.
Normal tradecraft dictates infiltrated “sleeper agents” with no particular scientific or technical expertise generally are limited to support roles for communication, finance, and supply. Only in novels and films do they take on serious information-gathering assignments. Peer recruiting of indigenous agents among existing government bureaucrats, scientists, the media, and even political personalities has a far better chance of success. History has proved this and the KGB First Chief Directorate had known it for years. Russia’s lineal descendant to this directorate, SVR, ignored is own lessons.
In spite of the winning face placed on their expensive, completely blown ten-year development operation, the Kremlin has been deeply embarrassed by the incompetent nature of the SVR activity. The old-fashioned public area dead drops and other WW2-era methods of contact is not the issue. The SVR well knows and has used burst transmissions and electronic ciphers. Sometimes the very old ways are safer — if slower. In this case it was just plain inadequate.
To have one senior deep cover officer act as the principal support and liaison contact for all ten in-place agents and regularly travel to the U.S. from Canada was another operational vulnerability. In the end the young glamour girl, Anna Chapman, telephoned her father (an ex-intelligence official) to ask what to do when she suspected she had been targeted by an American counter-espionage agent. Speaking “in the clear” over international phone lines, daddy told her to break off the contact immediately. He must have been appalled.
Apparently President Medvedev shares Anna’s father’s (Vassily Kushchenko) revulsion at the unprofessional aspect of this operation. The SVR director reports directly to the Russian president. Immediately the president’s office started shaking up the self-satisfied staff chiefs of SVR’s Sections S and PR who administered this totally unproductive long- term operation. Out of nowhere an explanation was offered by a major Moscow newspaper, Kommersant, that a certain “Colonel Shcherbakov” had fallen prey to the CIA and had been cooperating with it for many years. This otherwise unknown top Russian intelligence supervisor (safely now in the U.S. with his family) is pointed to as the reason why the project collapsed. Of course, except for the work of Vicky Palaez as a spotter and agent of influence in the Hispanic community, the rest of the project had been effectively without operational result other than development of its own cover.
The argument is now made in Moscow that a reunification of domestic and foreign intelligence as it was until 1991 under the old KGB is a necessary reformation to prevent such organizational and security ineptitude as has been proven to exist in SVR. Neither of the heads of the security committees of the lower and upper houses of parliament is as yet willing to support such a drastic move. No matter what happens, SVR will undergo a serious revamping. It is unimaginable to think Putin, still carrying a sense of personal responsibility for his alma mater, would allow anything less.
Maybe it’s time to bring back some of the old Cold Warriors. This new crowd in SVR needs to go back to spy school — or at least stop reading those foreign intrigue novels. But who’s complaining!
About the Author
George H. Wittman writes a weekly column on international affairs for The American Spectator online. He was the founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
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JimH| 11.19.10 @ 9:21AM
Of course these agents could be decoys to divert our attention from the real spys.
Robert Pinkerton| 11.19.10 @ 10:37AM
The stage-magician tells his audience, "The hand is quicker than the eye." While he is doing this, his pretty assistant, who may be wearing little, does what she must to attract the attention of the audience. Alternatively (Although I have not ever seen such an act, only heard of them.) the assistant might engage in acrobatics, or an improv stand-up routine, etcetera of like ilk.) Sluzhba Vneshni Razvedkii does a pratfall. The audience has a big laugh, all the while ignoring Glavnoye Razvedivetelnii Upravlenyi, the GRU.
Alan Brooks| 11.19.10 @ 5:14PM
At any rate, what a fox!
She makes Miley Cyrus look like a plain Jane.
Alan Brooks| 11.19.10 @ 5:39PM
Deal:
if you can get me in bed with her, I'll give up gay activism-- and vote KKK.
Paul D| 11.19.10 @ 9:49AM
If the SVR has really become this incompetent, we should count our blessings. The "laws" of bureaucratic ineffectiveness are immutable. In this case, those laws work to our advantage to counter our own Intelligence agency ineffectiveness.
Marc | 11.19.10 @ 12:39PM
I fear the author is right and the risk is non-negligible, which we are threatened by the spies.
Pat| 11.19.10 @ 2:26PM
Wasn’t this story originally a media flop – two thumbs down as the saying goes? The Cold War is over, both the FBI and the KGB, or whatever Russia calls their current version of the CIA, need to get over it and move on with their lives. Sure, the Russians must still have a “spy on the Amerikanskis” budget, but invest it in a good 3G cell phone and surf the web instead - these days we have no national secrets which aren’t considered public domain.
And what’s the big deal about spies in our country anyway? You can casually saunter across our border any night from Mexico, watch out for the gopher holes and please don’t litter, remember it’s your desert too. And we aren’t supposed to profile people from other countries. If you have a funny accent, the traffic cop isn’t allowed to ask if you’re a citizen or why you’re in the U. S. - you might turn out to be an illegal immigrant instead of a spy which could prove very embarrassing for Washington. So, when it comes to strange acting foreigners, isn’t it “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”?
And, somehow, many of us feel no safer knowing the FBI is hot on the trail of Russian spies, those competent ones or the other kind. In fact, anyone getting body scanned these days at their local international airport is looking suspiciously at other passengers in line but certainly not wondering if they could be a spy, that’s the least of our worries. Instead, we shuffle past confiscated piles of 2 inch nail files and suspicious looking bottles of hair shampoo which hold more than 3 ounces. We’re shoeless, of course, which keeps all those “shoe bombers” from getting any funny ideas.
And we’re probably focused on that cute 6 year old and the 82 year old man being vigorously wanded by a TSA security guard in the holding area. The 6 year old is suspected of having 2 pounds of Semtex hidden in the Leap Frog she is desperately clutching to her chest. The old guy had a knee replacement last year which made the security arch go “beep”, “beep” and “clang”. Meanwhile, Osama Bin Laden accompanied by 6 Muslim clerics strolls by smiling, they didn’t have any nail files and never use shampoo if they can help it.
Spycatchers of the world, take the generous buyout and enjoy an early retirement. The big money these days is in catching terrorists. Hollywood recently announced there will be no future James Bond films and no one wants to read your memoirs - unless they’re about breaking up a ring of dangerous nail file hijackers or “sleeper agent” shoe bombers.
dac| 11.19.10 @ 2:40PM
Maybe I'm missing something, but I find the glib arrogance of this column revolting.
How exactly do we know what the little Russkie slut and her cohorts found out or influenced? From our own Inspector Clouseau's at the CIA? The CIA is nothing more than a collection of raised-pinkie bureaucrats who cleverly insert themselves into each other, and cocktail parties. They have no clue what the Russian spies are up to, or know, or have divulged to other hostile governments, because they don't care, and more to the point, because their bosses and masters in this fascist African's administration don't care. To the extent they do care, they care about making sure the U.S. is undermined and humiliated overseas, and that the U.S. government continues to make war on its own citizens (see the above post) at airports rather than on serious people willing to kill us by the thousands. In fact, depending upon what kinds of rednecks and flyover country dolts (their view) get killed, that's not so bad (again, in their view).
We should not rely on the CIA for anything but treasonous workings against the nation, at least not under present management. And we should assume that little Russkie sluts are just as good at finding out information and influencing people, whether they operate vertically or horizontally, as they have been historically. And further, that their intentions are just as evil.
jstwndring| 11.19.10 @ 5:36PM
"Peer recruiting of indigenous agents among existing government bureaucrats, scientists, the media, and even political personalities has a far better chance of success."
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Or, better yet, wait for some Democrat like, oh, I don't know, say, Ted Kennedy to freely approach you and offer to help free of charge! Thanks Ted. What a great American!
Anyway, combine this amateur hour espionage with Russia's poorly coordinated attack and illegal intrusion into Georgia, and I think we have literally no peers in the world. Some may say China, but, they are of the same collectivist build, so, I think not.
PCP Smoker| 11.19.10 @ 10:25PM
Why did they need to spy to begin with? Obama is giving away the store with Start II and the infamous "reset" of relationship.
I'm always puzzled by America's enemies lack of understanding of the political situation. During the Carter years, the KGB apparently hated the one president they should have loved and courted. Stupid leftists.
Christopher Holland| 11.19.10 @ 10:51PM
I couldn't understand why the Russians bothered with spies when all they have to do is read the New York Times, or ask Colin Powell. He was the biggest leaker in Washington, he couldn't keep his mouth shut about anything.