From: Rockwell.com
America owes
Russia a big apology for the embarrassing case of bumbling CIA spy
Ryan Fogel caught red-handed in Moscow trying to recruit a Russian
agent.
Shame on the
US. What ever happened to professional respect? Russia has always
been the grand master of espionage. In Russia, spying is a high
art form, like ballet.
Having been
given an exclusive visit to the KGB’s museum of espionage, I can
heartily attest to Russia’s mastery of spying. Too bad most people
don’t known how masterful and patient the Russian were – and continue
to be.
Sending an
amateur American spy on a ham-handed attempt to recruit a Russian
agent was an insult to the profession. Russia deserves the top US
agents, not bumblers from the backwoods.
Agent Fogel,
under thin diplomatic cover as third secretary at the US Moscow
Embassy, was certainly no James Bond. More like agent 000. According
to the Ruskis, he even had a nifty little spy kit with a Swiss Army
knife, map of Moscow, two wigs, and compass. And a letter offering
a bribe of "up to" $1 million to work for CIA.
Why didn’t
CIA just run a spy-wanted ad in Moscow’s Pravda newspaper?
A counter-story
was immediately spread that the bumbling Fogel was somehow trying
to glean information related to the recent Boston bombing.
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Coming just
before crucially important US-Soviet talks over Syria, the Fogel
affair was either incredibly inept or a crude attempt to sabotage
the peace talks.
Agent 000’s
case underlines concerns of veteran US intelligence professionals
that CIA has become too absorbed running its own paramilitary operations
around the globe and hunting so-called terrorists to pay proper
attention to its basic business of gathering information.
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The Cold War
is long over, but intelligence operations continue at a higher intensity
than during the long US-Soviet confrontation. China’s spies are
increasingly active across the globe, particularly so in the US
and Canada, but also in Russia.
Even allies
spy on one another, most often to acquire advanced technology. The
venerable "honey trap" where an attractive female agent
seduces a target remains a favorite of the Russians, French, Israel’s
Mossad, and, yes, the prudish CIA.
I recall nights
in my awful Moscow hotel waiting for lovely Soviet female agents
called "swallows" to tempt my devotion to the Free World.
Alas, none ever came.
This writer
has closely followed Soviet, then Russian intelligence operations
. In 1989, I was the first journalist ever allowed into KGB headquarters
at Moscow’s dreaded Lubyanka Prison. I interviewed two senior KGB
generals who told me the Soviet Union was about to collapse due
to the ineptitude of the Communist Party.
"What
we need," said one, "is a leader who will make Russians
work at bayonet point, like Chile’s Pinochet or South Korea’s Park
Chung-hee." A decade later, they got their wish in the form
of a former tough KGB/FSB agent, Vladimir Putin. MORE
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