The Cellar - Spy Ring Busted

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Interesting in the face of recent attempts by US and Russian attempts to normalize relations.

My guess is that someone defected, otherwise they are usually caught as one or two at a time. But to lose 10 or 11 in one big arrest seems like someone else was giving us a hand in catching them and setting them up.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local...-97334329.html

And it is another reason that we really cannot trust Russia. They stab us in the back (along with China) every time we try to do something about North Korea or Iran through the UN Security Council. It's a joke.

The current President is just a puppet. Putin is the real one in charge. I think everyone knows that.

Yea, the cold war never ended, they just changed the names of their agencies. I am just finishing a book called "Comrade J". Not that great of a book in the way it was written, but quite telling about how they do business here in the US. It is about a defector who was the SVR Chief of station in NYC until he came over to our side in 2003.

All they have to do is form a corporation, then they can do anything they want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary (Post 667254)

My guess is that someone defected, otherwise they are usually caught as one or two at a time. But to lose 10 or 11 in one big arrest seems like someone else was giving us a hand in catching them and setting them up.

Actually the FBI have been tracking these guys for about eight years. One guy was going to permanently leave the country and FBI couldn't allow that so they had to arrest everyone affiliated. If they just arrested him everyone would have fled.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/wo...py.html?ref=us

The article is kind of funny in a weird way.

The deal for the trade was apparently set up months ago. . .

. . . found the article

Quote:

WASHINGTON – The White House began deliberating a spy swap with Moscow nearly a month ago, well ahead of the arrests of 10 Russians in the United States less than two weeks ago, a White House official said Friday.

In the course of the following negotiations with Moscow, the United States put forward the names of the four people who were released by Russia on Friday as their part of the bargain, the official said, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

The swap took place Friday in Vienna. The official said all of the children of the Russian spies had left the United States for Russia or were in the process of leaving.

The Russian agents had been under observation by U.S. authorities for a decade. The decision to move against them was precipitated by indications that some planned to leave the United States this summer, the official said.

The case was brought to the White House in February by officials of the FBI, CIA and Justice Department. They presented the broad contours of what was known as "the illegals program" and some specifics about the individuals involved. That triggered weeks of meetings at the White House about how to proceed.

In early June, a decision was made to take action against the Russians and on June 11, a Friday, President Barack Obama was briefed on the matter in the Oval Office. He was told about plans for the arrests, how they would occur, what the Russians would be charged with and the possible impact of the case on U.S.-Russian relations, the official said. That's when the idea of a swap was raised, in a list of options.

Link

Today Attorney General, Eric Holder, discussed the case on Face The Nation .

One part (4 min into interview) I found of interest was his discussion of the children of these 10 people, some of whom were born here and so were legally US citizens, and some were near adulthood or already were adults. He said these children were given their choice whether to stay in the US or to go to Russia with their parents, and they all decided to go with their parents.

This sounds a lot like what will probably happen with regards to the US-born children of "illegal immigrants", and some of the older children (adults) may very well decide on their own to stay in the US.

Some of the public may be unhappy about it, but this may be the most reasonable way to go in dealing with difficult family decisions.

I read about that also. I can't seem to find the article though.

There will most likely be many families broken up over the immigration issue. Now that I think of it there probably have been many we just don't know about. But that was not our doing, and to hold the collective "us" responsible seems ludicrous. They chose to come here illegally.

I'm not sure where to put this, but I think it sort of ties into the spy genre overall so .... (If a mod thinks it belongs elsewhere go ahead and move it)

No asylum for a hero?
Team O's bid to deport 'son of Hamas'

Quote:

The Obama administration goes to court today to try to deport an anti-terrorist hero. Why is our government working overtime to persecute Mosab Hassan Yousef, who saved hundreds of lives from terror attacks while risking his own?

Yousef is the son of a founder of Hamas, a terrorist organization that has killed scores of Americans, Israelis and Palestinians. He grew up hating Israel, even throwing rocks at Jewish homeowners. At 18, he was beaten by Israeli soldiers.

Things changed in 1996, after his conviction for buying three illegal guns. Serving 16 months in an Israeli prison, he was impressed with the "humanity" of his Israeli interrogators. He began to see the darker side of Hamas, which his father had shielded him from. From his fellow inmates, he learned that Hamas tortures and kills its own members.
His eyes opened, Yousef agreed to become a covert operative for the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet. "Shin Bet recruited and directed me to act like a terrorist and live like a terrorist," Yousef said in a sworn statement, "in order to gather intelligence on Hamas and other Palestinian organizations."

Inside Shin Bet, he was dubbed "the Green Prince."

One night in Ramallah, Shin Bet was urgently searching for a suicide bomber, but didn't have his name or photo. Yousef's handler asked him to go into the crowded Manara square to find the bomber. Drawing on his experience with Hamas, Yousef quickly spotted the man and trailed him to his contact, who was handing him an explosive belt. He alerted Shin Bet, which swarmed in.

In another case, five would-be suicide bombers literally knocked on his door -- turning to Yousef for help (because of his family) after their contact was captured. He gave them tea, money and a ride to a Hamas safe house -- then tipped off Shin Bet, which encircled the hideout. The terrorists opened fire. When the smoke cleared, one terrorist was dead and four others captured -- another mass murder thwarted.

Yousef's information led to the capture of senior Hamas officials and the murderers of five American students killed at Hebrew University.

While saving the lives of others, he rethought his own. Raised a strict Muslim, he secretly began to study Christianity in 1999. He was baptized in 2005.

In 2007, with Hamas in control of Gaza, he ended his 10-year relationship with Israeli intelligence and sought asylum in the United States. He wrote "Son of Hamas," a best-selling book about his extraordinary life.

His family publicly disowned him; Hamas has privately promised retribution.

Yousef should be a textbook case for political asylum, but the Obama Department of Homeland Security sees it differently. Its briefs for his deportation allege that he provided "material support" for Hamas -- with his book as the main evidence against him.

Yet the DHS' briefs are laughably incomplete -- for example, citing his leading of five Jordanian suicide bombers to a safe house while leaving out the key fact that he was setting a trap for them.

While DHS lawyers insist that Yousef was a Hamas member, Hamas issued a statement: "Mosab was not an active member of Hamas or in any of its military, political or religious branches, or any other body."

Israeli intelligence agrees. In a sworn statement filed with a federal immigration court, Yousef's Shin Bet handler said: He "was never a member of any terror group."

What's going on? Yousef's attorney, Steven A. Seick, says that Kerri Calcador, the senior DHS attorney targeting Yousef, told him she'd never agree to asylum, and would appeal if the judge grants it. She said that she had "marching orders from DC," Seick told me.

Seick believes that Yousef is a pawn in Obama's Middle East strategy -- his life to be traded for better relations with the Muslim world.

Yet Yousef's problems with DHS began just weeks after Arif Alikhan was sworn in as a top official at DHS. Alikhan recently spoke at a fund-raiser for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which terror analysts have linked to the Muslim Brotherhood -- which also fathered Hamas.

Today's immigration-court hearing may not decide Yousef's fate: Lawmakers of both parties are working to save this hero.

Let's hope they succeed. Deporting Yousef is not just wrong, but foolish: It will discourage others from risking their lives to save innocents. Has the Obama administration no shame?

link
Very partisan, opinion piece, but I know someone who knows this man. To deport him after his family has removed the protection it could offer because he against Hamas and has aided the US in so many ways is nothing short of insane. To me, this goes counter to everything that we, as a country, believe in. How can we possibly expect anyone to make the sacrifices that this man has made if we are going to turn our backs on them afterward?

Here is another link for those who wish to read some more from him.

Quote:

Al-Qaeda started with huge attacks like September 11. But bin Laden has learned from Hamas’s war against Israel how to bleed its enemy. Al-Qaeda understands how effective the Hamas strategy will be on American soil.

Americans have never experienced anything like this. This country is not ready. Try to imagine attacks by suicide bombers and car bombers, attacks on schools, in shopping malls, in the gridlock of rush-hour traffic, week after week, month after month, year after year, here and there, in big cities and rural towns. No one feels safe anywhere. There seems to be no reason behind the attacks, no pattern. Everyone is a target. Men, women, children, office buildings, private homes, town halls, schools and hospitals. The government is powerless to stop them. Every car and truck you see is suspect. Every suitcase and package is suspect. Someone standing in line in a bank points to a briefcase on the floor and asks the person in front of him, “Is this yours?”

“No,” the man says, wide-eyed.

Seconds later, the bank is empty.

Don't know about validity of this one, but seems interesting:
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed...ght-by-the-fbi

And don't forget to read the comment by RaulDeSouza at the bottom of the article :)

I'm seeing a one paragraph story with no comments??

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