the spy situation.

It's like the intelligence community didn't fuck it up for the first time ever.

Very little drama and controversy. No claims of illegal search and seizures. No false claims. Etc.

The potential was there for it to be ugly if we or the Russians wanted it to be.

The solution was simple: spy swap.

Done deal.

America fuck yeah?

7/9/2010 8:14:07 PM

[Edited on July 9, 2010 at 8:16 PM. Reason : op.]

7/9/2010 8:16:00 PM

Quote :

"Done deal"

How about the kids?
Children of illegal Russian spies, are now US citizens.
I, for one, think that's pretty fucked up.

7/9/2010 8:19:35 PM

send 'em back to mexico!!!!

wait what?

7/9/2010 8:22:07 PM

For all we know those children could be russian intelligence assets!

7/9/2010 8:47:05 PM

Quote :

"How about the kids? Children of illegal Russian spies, are now US citizens. I, for one, think that's pretty fucked up."

Children are children, common sense is common sense, fair is fair


pick one

7/9/2010 8:48:51 PM

^
What are you talking about?

7/9/2010 10:30:13 PM

Pick your weapon.

7/9/2010 10:34:21 PM

as spies go, these ones seemed pretty dense. either that or they were so good that they were just able to make it look that way.

7/9/2010 11:05:20 PM

^^
So you basically agree it's a fucked up situation without easy answers, right?

7/9/2010 11:11:03 PM

indy, you made a good point there

on the other hand it could be argued that the spies were really under the jurisdiction of the Kremlin the whole time and therefore their kids are ineligible for birthright citizenship (at least if two of the spies had kids together...expect an epic custody battle if a spy had a kid with a US citizen)

7/9/2010 11:19:57 PM

7/10/2010 1:26:47 AM

Quote :

"It's like the intelligence community didn't fuck it up for the first time ever."

How do you know? The situation in question involved multiple clandestine foreign agents who were run through our legal system like shit through a goose and hurriedly jetted off to Moscow.

Yes, I'm sure that the American and Russian spy agencies--widely known for their openness[/sarcasm]--told the world everything about the incident. Just wow.

7/10/2010 1:48:39 AM

Is a US-born child of an illegal Russian spy eligible to run for President?

7/10/2010 2:18:43 AM

i would wish him luck

7/10/2010 2:31:56 AM

OR HER

7/10/2010 2:32:44 AM

they don't let women run for president

[Edited on July 10, 2010 at 2:40 AM. Reason : it's called Palin's Law]

7/10/2010 2:39:56 AM

OK, here are my thoughts on this spy thing:

1. I wouldn't be surprised if we knew about the spies for quite a while before "catching" them. A compromised spy who doesn't know he's compromised is a useful thing--my guess is that we left them in place and used them until an opportunity presented itself where it was more useful to "catch" them.

2. One such opportunity might've been that we felt we'd exhausted the utility of having them (by feeding misinformation, using them to identify our own leaks, etc), and felt it was now time to use them to trade for the recovery of some of our own spies.

3. I don't think that #2 accounts for everything, though--there was some additional purpose in this. We would not have needed to make it public that we caught them...we could've just quietly turned them over to the Russians in a quiet exchange for our own spies. Besides that, the timing of the whole thing was impeccable.

Quote :

"The solution was simple: spy swap. "

You're looking at it completely backwards. There is no way in hell that we went to the trouble of catching these spies, then made a massively public issue out of it at such an interesting time, and then said "Well, shit, what the hell should we do with them now? Any bright ideas? Swap them for some of our own spies? Brilliant!"

The spy swap was no "solution" out of some precarious situation we "just happened" to find ourselves in. Stuff like this is all calculated, planned ahead by several steps, and part of a bigger picture agenda.

[Edited on July 10, 2010 at 7:59 AM. Reason : ]

[Edited on July 10, 2010 at 8:03 AM. Reason : ]

7/10/2010 7:56:01 AM

Quote :

"1. I wouldn't be surprised if we knew about the spies for quite a while before 'catching' them."

Um. . .this was put out when the story broke, Duke.

In Ordinary Lives, U.S. Sees the Work of Russian Agents
June 28, 2010

Quote :

"An F.B.I. investigation that began at least seven years ago culminated with the arrest on Sunday of 10 people in Yonkers, Boston and northern Virginia."

Quote :

"After years of F.B.I. surveillance, investigators decided to make the arrests last weekend, just after an upbeat visit to President Obama by the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said one administration official. Mr. Obama was not happy about the timing, but investigators feared some of their targets might flee, the official said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29spy.html

But a couple of points: First, I'm sorry that the existence of Russian spies in our midst upset the pressing of Obama's "reset button"—again[/sarcasm]. Second, this:

Quote :

"But on Monday, federal prosecutors accused 11 people of being part of a Russian espionage ring, living under false names and deep cover in a patient scheme to penetrate what one coded message called American 'policy making circles.'"

I think this approach was more significant and potentially more sinister than some here have acknowledged.

7/10/2010 7:28:48 PM