U.S. arrests 10 alleged Russian secret agents

[Kitschum]

I'm not surprised. Cyprus is full of Russians, not all reputable.

[C0ckney]

"[suspected] russian spy flees after being released on bail"

this is perhaps the least surprising story ever.

[Saras]

Is he the handler of both og you?

Nope

[SlowwHand]

I'm not surprised. Cyprus is full of Russians, not all reputable.

That's a real shockaroo.

[The Mad Monk]

Sergei Tretyakov (Courtesy of Sky News) Related Stories
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We told you so
Arlington agency places children of alleged spies Russian spies interested in Pres. Obama's desk
J.J. Green, wtop.com


WASHINGTON - The stunning announcement from federal authorities that 10 alleged "long-term, deep cover" Russian spies have been arrested here on American soil and the ring leader in Cyprus was no surprise at all to Sergei Tretyakov.

"Cold War never ended. It's like a virus, you apply the medicine and virus develops a resistance and it continues."

Tretyakov has been warning for years that the Russians have never let go of the Cold War.

Sitting on his porch in an undisclosed location on a sunny afternoon in early spring, he reiterated his ominous message to U.S. leaders.

He said during the Cold War the Soviet Union identified the U.S. as a "potential enemy. Potential meaning an attack might have come in 10 days or 100 years or it may never happen at all."

But now he says Russia has reclassified the U.S. as a "main target." That, he says, is much different from a "potential enemy" and a bigger threat to the U.S.

"When you are my main target. You are my main target, today, tonight and the same minute (constantly)."

Still smarting over the perception that the Soviets lost the Cold War, Tretyakov says Russia's leaders are committed to restoring Russian honor. According to Tretyakov, who allegedly brought along with him thousands of classified documents and more than 100 classified cables from the KGB and its successor the SVR, the Russian intelligence establishment planned to flood the U.S. with "deep cover" spies.

Ultimately, according Department of Justice documents, the 11 arrested this week hoped to "establish a network in the United States tasked with recruiting sources and collecting information for Russia."

Also, they allegedly planned to blend into American society and quietly increase their numbers and collect as much information as possible.

"The intended recruitment targets are American citizens," says Tretyakov.

A main focus of their operation was government information and their efforts allegedly reached all the way to the top.

The No. 1 collection target was thought to be the White House. According to Tretyakov, President Barack Obama's desk is of greatest interest to them (Russian spies).

Tretyakov, recalling his goal as Russia's top intelligence official in the U.S., said, as a spy, "I'm not interested in what he (the President) has on his table. I want to know what he has under his table. What he is hiding from me."

As a result, he says, "The activities of Russian intelligence in the U.S. increased dramatically from the Soviet period."

He says the numbers will continue to grow. Russia's leadership is made of former KGB ideologues.

"Seventy five percent of those who run Russia to and in the foreseeable future are linked with the KGB or former KGB structures."

Waiting at the airport gate, before the interview began, Tretyakov was ebullient and excited to discuss his life since heading into semi-seclusion.

Arriving at the comfortable and spacious home he shares with wife Helen, he cautioned that small talk in the car on the way, the surroundings and key indicators about their life must remain off the record.

When asked about what kind of protection they have against agents that may be sent to retaliate against them, he responded, "What are we supposed to do hide under a rock?"

"No", he said, "We have normal lives as any American family. I think it's too late for the Russian government."

"If they (the Russian government) have any brains left, they would send a team from the FSB here to protect me because, if anything, were to happen to me, no one would believe it wasn't the Russian government."

Check back Friday for the final report in this series.

(Copyright 2010 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

Russian spies interested in Pres. Obama's desk
J.J. Green, wtop.com


WASHINGTON - The stunning announcement from federal authorities that 10 alleged "long-term, deep cover" Russian spies have been arrested here on American soil and the ring leader in Cyprus was no surprise at all to Sergei Tretyakov.

"Cold War never ended. It's like a virus, you apply the medicine and virus develops a resistance and it continues."

Tretyakov has been warning for years that the Russians have never let go of the Cold War.

Sitting on his porch in an undisclosed location on a sunny afternoon in early spring, he reiterated his ominous message to U.S. leaders.

He said during the Cold War the Soviet Union identified the U.S. as a "potential enemy. Potential meaning an attack might have come in 10 days or 100 years or it may never happen at all."

But now he says Russia has reclassified the U.S. as a "main target." That, he says, is much different from a "potential enemy" and a bigger threat to the U.S.

"When you are my main target. You are my main target, today, tonight and the same minute (constantly)."

Still smarting over the perception that the Soviets lost the Cold War, Tretyakov says Russia's leaders are committed to restoring Russian honor. According to Tretyakov, who allegedly brought along with him thousands of classified documents and more than 100 classified cables from the KGB and its successor the SVR, the Russian intelligence establishment planned to flood the U.S. with "deep cover" spies.

Ultimately, according Department of Justice documents, the 11 arrested this week hoped to "establish a network in the United States tasked with recruiting sources and collecting information for Russia."

Also, they allegedly planned to blend into American society and quietly increase their numbers and collect as much information as possible.

"The intended recruitment targets are American citizens," says Tretyakov.

A main focus of their operation was government information and their efforts allegedly reached all the way to the top.

The No. 1 collection target was thought to be the White House. According to Tretyakov, President Barack Obama's desk is of greatest interest to them (Russian spies).

Tretyakov, recalling his goal as Russia's top intelligence official in the U.S., said, as a spy, "I'm not interested in what he (the President) has on his table. I want to know what he has under his table. What he is hiding from me."

As a result, he says, "The activities of Russian intelligence in the U.S. increased dramatically from the Soviet period."

He says the numbers will continue to grow. Russia's leadership is made of former KGB ideologues.

"Seventy five percent of those who run Russia to and in the foreseeable future are linked with the KGB or former KGB structures."

Waiting at the airport gate, before the interview began, Tretyakov was ebullient and excited to discuss his life since heading into semi-seclusion.

Arriving at the comfortable and spacious home he shares with wife Helen, he cautioned that small talk in the car on the way, the surroundings and key indicators about their life must remain off the record.

When asked about what kind of protection they have against agents that may be sent to retaliate against them, he responded, "What are we supposed to do hide under a rock?"

"No", he said, "We have normal lives as any American family. I think it's too late for the Russian government."

"If they (the Russian government) have any brains left, they would send a team from the FSB here to protect me because, if anything, were to happen to me, no one would believe it wasn't the Russian government."

Check back Friday for the final report in this series.

(Copyright 2010 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved)

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=778&sid=1989344

[Hauldren Collider]

This would be a "meh" news story if it were not for the fact that it enables newspapers to print pictures of hot redheaded russians.

[Dinner]

Nope

Make sure you give Serb a bonus, he's putting up a good show.

[Dinner]

What I don't get is what sort of valuable intelligence did the FSB get out of buying houses and paying for hot chicks to live the high life in NYC? It must have cost a lot of money to keep them in Guicci and appearing at socialite parties in NYC yet clearly you're not going to get any government secrets living in the suburbs in Yonkers or going to charity balls in NYC. The FSB should really look to getting a better return on their money.

[bc1871]

They were actually employed by the SVR, but it still begs the question what the Russians were trying to accomplish.

[The Mad Monk]

Suspect Placed Love for Russia Before His Son, Prosecutors Say
By BENJAMIN WEISER and MICHAEL WILSON
Published: July 1, 2010

They have been described as scheming secret agents living in the shadows of the suburbs, but they looked no more sinister than bored parents in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, slumped, arms crossed, as if enduring another long PTA meeting.

Enlarge This Image

Michael Appleton for The New York Times
Juan José Lázaro Jr., left, and Waldo Mariscal, sons of two of the defendants, leaving court on Thursday.

The Times's Ben Weiser on The Takeaway
Husbands and wives shared the defense table, two mothers and two fathers, as the sensational charges were fleshed out even as the more mundane sides of their lives were explored.

Kindergarten play dates versus the tap-tap-tap of coded radio transmissions. Housework versus the “brush pass” exchange of parcels. They were described as having concealed their missions from even their closest observers.

“There is no inkling at all,” said Assistant United States Attorney Michael Farbiarz, “that their children, who they live with, have any idea that their parents are Russian agents.”

In the end, in court, the side of their lives described as cloaked in secrecy and deception mostly won out over parenthood, with two defendants denied bail. Another was allowed to serve a kind of house arrest under conditions yet to be met.

She is the only one that the government concedes lived under her own name: Vicky Peláez. Ms. Peláez is a veteran columnist for El Diario La Prensa, a newspaper in New York. Her husband, known as Juan José Lázaro Sr., postponed his request for bail.

Mr. Lázaro, a former professor at Baruch College who has a 17-year-old son with Ms. Peláez, told officials that although he “loved his son, he would not violate his loyalty to the ‘Service’ even for his son,” prosecutors said.

Mr. Lázaro made the comment in a long and damaging statement after his arrest on Sunday, prosecutors revealed, in which he admitted his ties to the “Service,” a reference to the Russian S.V.R., the successor to the K.G.B., the Soviet-era spy agency.

Of the second couple, known as Richard and Cynthia Murphy of Montclair, N.J., the judge said he was not confident that they would not flee.

“In order to have confidence in somebody’s appearance, you have to know who the person is,” the magistrate judge, Ronald L. Ellis, said in denying them bail. “The court came to the conclusion that it just doesn’t know who these individuals are.”

In Boston, another husband-and-wife team — among 11 suspected “illegals,” or “deep cover” Russian agents, in the case — appeared for a hearing that was quickly postponed two weeks. But their true identities were an issue there, too, however superficially.

When asked by a magistrate judge how they would like to be addressed, a lawyer for one stuck to what prosecutors said was an alias, Donald Heathfield. His wife, known as Tracey Lee Ann Foley, however, preferred a new name: “Defendant No. 5.”

And so it went on Thursday, as nine of the defendants showed up in federal courts in New York, Boston and Alexandria, Va. The detention hearings in Boston and Virginia were more style than substance, postponed as lawyers asked for more time to prepare their arguments for bail.

In New York, prosecutors offered details of Mr. Lázaro’s double life. Writing to Judge Ellis, they said Mr. Lázaro, after waiving his Miranda rights, had admitted that Lázaro was not his true name, and that the Yonkers house where he and Ms. Peláez live was paid for by the “Service.”

He also “refused to provide his true name,” prosecutors added.

They also revealed a 2009 message, written in broken and misspelled English, that they said the S.V.R. had sent to the Murphys.

“The only goal and task of our service and of all of us is security of our country,” the message said. “All our activities are subjected to this goal.

“Only for reaching this goal you were dispatched to U.S., settled down there, gained legal status and were expected to start striking up usefull acquaintances, broadening circle of your well placed connections, gaining information and eventually recruiting sources.”

(Page 2 of 2)



In the back row of the heavily guarded courtroom appeared to be family members and supporters of some defendants. And defense lawyers argued that their clients were rooted in their communities, had jobs and had no incentive to flee.

The Times's Ben Weiser on The Takeaway
But Mr. Farbiarz, the prosecutor, used that very claim against them. The family situations and professional and community connections — typically considerations in bail hearings — were not relevant, he said, because they were fraudulent and “riddled with deception.”

“The government’s view is those things don’t count as they would in a normal case,” Mr. Farbiarz said.

But defense lawyers criticized what they suggested was a weakness in the unfolding case, that their clients had sent nothing noteworthy in what the criminal complaint says were coded messages to their Russian handlers. None of the defendants are charged with espionage.

“Innocuous information,” as the lawyer, John M. Rodriguez, for Ms. Peláez put it. “I view the charges against my client as the equivalent of a tempest in a teapot,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

Winston Lee, a lawyer for Ms. Murphy, told the judge, “The government was waiting for 10 years, waiting for something to come up so that they could charge somebody with something, and it never happened.” He said no evidence would have surfaced over another 10 years. “It was just not there,” he said.

All 11 defendants have been charged with conspiring to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government. Nine of them have also been charged with conspiring to commit money laundering.

Seemingly working against the defendants was the fact that a co-defendant, Christopher R. Metsos, who was taken into custody in Cyprus this week, fled after being released on bail. Judge Ellis, though, indicated that would not bear on his decision.

The judge said Ms. Peláez could be released on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond, and must wear an electronic ankle bracelet and remain in home incarceration. In contrast to the other defendants, he said, she apparently was not a trained agent and had not used any false names.

“She has in fact an identity which goes beyond the facts in this case,” he said.

Mr. Farbiarz said his office would consider appealing.

On Monday, the judge denied bail for another defendant, Anna Chapman, on the ground that she might flee.

Mr. Farbiarz noted that the defendants would not have to leave the country to escape, or even the island of Manhattan. He cited the New York offices of the Russian Consulate and Russian Mission to the United Nations. “Getting uptown is not that hard,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/nyregion/02spies.html?_r=1&src=mv&ref=nyregion

On Peleaz:

Why Alleged Spy Vicky Peláez Was Granted Bail
by Marianne McCune
NEW YORK, NY July 02, 2010 —The El Diario newspaper columnist accused of collaborating with a ring of Russian spies was granted bail in a Manhattan federal courthouse yesterday evening. That’s despite the fact that another suspect in the alleged spy ring disappeared after a judge from the island of Cyprus allowed him out on bail. WNYC’s Marianne McCune was in the courtroom and she explains the latest developments:

It sounds like this was more exciting than your average bail hearing.
That’s right. Vicky Peláez has a big following here and throughout Latin America because of her reporting --it's been very critical of the U.S. and supportive of some of the Latin American leaders the U.S. considers foes. And there was a crowd of supporters outside the courthouse who were jubilant, chanting "Libertad" after they heard she was going to be released.

Carlos Moreno, one of her defense attorneys, told reporters Peláez herself was strong and in great spirits.

"She basically said she was very happy because this would give her opportunity to explain what has been going on to people who, after her arrest, had passed quick judgment as to whether or not she was a Russian spy or not," he said.

So she’ll be released as soon as she can make bail?
Yes, her family has to put up $10,000 in cash or a $250,000 bond, and her attorney said that will likely be done by Tuesday.

And this is all a bit of a surprise, isn’t it?
A bail hearing is about whether, if you let a suspect out of jail while they’re awaiting trial, they will still show up in court when they're supposed to. And after Christopher Metsos, the suspect U.S. authorities arrested in Cyprus, was granted bail by a judge there and released, he just disappeared. So it seemed like the courts here in the U.S. might be pretty sympathetic to the argument that there was indeed a flight risk with this group. That’s a big part of what prosecutors argued -- and in the case of some of the other suspects, they were denied bail. One was denied bail on Monday, and yesterday the couple known as Richard and Cynthia Murphy who lived in Montclair, NJ were also denied bail.

So why them but not Vicky Peláez?
What Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis said is that the Murphys, like many of the other suspects, were using false identities and given that he couldn’t even guarantee who they are, he could not guarantee that they would show up in court if released. But he said Peláez was a different and more complicated case. Her defense attorney had centered part of his argument on how she’s had a long career as a respected journalist, that she wasn’t using any aliases, that she has a reputation to defend and a teenager to take care of, and that she was only "tangentially related to the case.” The idea behind that argument is that while the others are accused of collecting and sending information to Russian agents, prosecutors have painted Peláez more as someone who was doing errands for her husband, who is also accused. Not minor errands -- allegedly delivering secret messages to Russian agents in Peru and picking up thousands of dollars of cash there. Anyway, Judge Ellis said that since she does not appear to be a trained agent and she does not have any false identities, and she has some incentive to stay and defend herself, she can wait for trial at home.

But she will be wearing an electronic ankle bracelet under house arrest.
Yes -– and the judge was careful to say that, from the documents filed so far, she does not appear innocent.

And that’s partly because of what prosecutors say her husband, Juan Lazaro, has been telling them.
Yes, in a letter to the judge in the courtroom yesterday evening, prosecutors said that since his arrest, he has been talking to them. And though there’s no signed confession, they say he’s told them that Lazaro is not his real name, that he says he would not violate his loyalty to the Russian intelligence service even for his beloved son. And prosecutors said he also talked about the role Peláez has played -– in delivering letters and picking up money. The prosecutor called Peláez a practiced deceiver and noted that this couple seemed even to have kept their alleged activities secret from their two sons.

Were the sons there in the courtroom?
Yes they were, and when they came out, they were mobbed by reporters trying to get them to comment. Though the older brother has called the charges a farce, last night they said their lawyer had instructed them not to talk. Some of the South American reporters were really hounding them. The older son, Waldo Mariscal, finally couldn’t stop himself and told reporters his father was pressured. But that’s all he said, besides "No comment." And his younger brother just looked upset and confused. Of course, Pelaez’s attorney also said he suspected Lazaro was coerced.

I learned from that same lawyer that Ramsey Clarke is also going to Peláez’s team. He is a former Attorney General whose strong left-wing views are actually similar to hers. And he’s also represented the likes of Saddam Hussein and the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/156773

The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

by Vicky Pelaez

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

If anyone can find a source of more articles, I would love a link.

[Serb]

What I don't get is what sort of valuable intelligence did the FSB get out of buying houses and paying for hot chicks to live the high life in NYC? It must have cost a lot of money to keep them in Guicci and appearing at socialite parties in NYC yet clearly you're not going to get any government secrets living in the suburbs in Yonkers or going to charity balls in NYC. The FSB should really look to getting a better return on their money.

That's why I think it's a nice pile of bullsh!t for internal American consumption.

p.s. Besides FSB is analogue of FBI, not CIA.
SVR is our intelligence service (CIA).
This whole spy story is bullsh!t. I can guarantee that.

[SlowwHand]

They're falling all over themselves trying to confess now.

[Al B. Sure!]

Hot redhead Russian? She's middling. Very pasty for one.

[SlowwHand]

OMG! I bet Tassadar is one of them!

[Dinner]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128378783

Poor Serb. All ten spies have now plead guilty and the Russian government has agreed to exchange 10 CIA operatives in return for the Russian spies.