The Hibernating Russian Bear
[Guest post by DRJ]
America’s Presidents are bipartisan in their quest for peace with Russia. That’s why Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and Obama proclaimed his trust for Medvedev. But did Bush and Obama know what Putin and Medvedev knew — that Russia may well have sent spies to live among us?
Experts and laymen are astounded, and a little clueless:
“Jessie Gugig, 15, said she could not believe the charges, especially against Mrs. Murphy, who was an accomplished gardener.
“They couldn’t have been spies,” Ms. Gugig said. “Look what she did with the hydrangeas.”
I grew up during the Cold War so this doesn’t surprise me.
– DRJ
I believe that the “secrets” were to do with the Obama economic plan, and the Kremlin read them and said, “Been there. Done that.”
Comment by JVW — 6/28/2010 @ 7:32 pm
Solzhenitsyn said it: The Russian state has never kept faith with anyone.
(That was one ridiculous statement from the Shrub, BTW.)
Comment by nk — 6/28/2010 @ 7:36 pm
Yes, it was. I like to think it was Bush’s effort to be devious and disarming a la Putin, but it was probably just his overly sociable nature.
Comment by DRJ — 6/28/2010 @ 7:39 pm
Jingoistic xenophobes afraid of Teh Other, you all are.
Comment by JD — 6/28/2010 @ 7:42 pm
I wonder if they serve Ray’s Hell Burgers in hell…
well played, G-men!
Comment by Patricia — 6/28/2010 @ 7:45 pm
In 1779, Catherine the Great promised the Greeks of the Peloponnese military support from Russia if they would rebel against their Ottoman rulers. It never came. The Greeks were slaughtered. And there are a lot more stories like that in Europe about Russian treachery.
Comment by nk — 6/28/2010 @ 8:00 pm
In Star Trek, too.
Comment by DRJ — 6/28/2010 @ 8:01 pm
I am supposing the USA also has deep agents — a few, surely, but not none — in Russia and elsewhere. *shrug* They know the rules: if they get caught, they’re probably dead.
I’m not saying I don’t mind that Russia spies. I’m saying it’s one of those activities in which all nations engage, if they are able to.
Comment by Mitch — 6/28/2010 @ 8:40 pm
Godless Commies. Behind the curve.
Comment by Andrew — 6/28/2010 @ 9:42 pm
OMG! They were using invisible ink, and short-wave radios.
The Devils!
Now, back to our regular programming in the 21st-Century.
Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 6/28/2010 @ 11:24 pm
Time to review the 1985 interview of former KGB agent, Yuri Bezmenov.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2307456730142665916#
The steps they used worked!
Comment by Brooks — 6/29/2010 @ 3:10 am
Clueless idiot on NPR this morning (apologies for the redundancy) said the ‘spy ring’ was called ‘The Illegals.’ Y’know, like a band name.
Comment by RNB — 6/29/2010 @ 3:51 am
They were probably doing industrial espionage. Obama doesn’t know anything about that so their usual sources weren’t helpful.
Comment by Mike K — 6/29/2010 @ 5:32 am
I haven’t seen anything these agents of influence said or wrote that I would be surprised to see our beloved president say. “Blah blah blah, U.S. bad, third world good, Arizona evil”. I mean c’mon, can’t these guys at least come up with something original? The quality of Russian agents of influence has declined greatly since the days of Alger Hiss and I.F. Stone.
Comment by GregMan — 6/29/2010 @ 6:25 am
The one named Vicky seems kind of dumb.
Comment by dissident — 6/29/2010 @ 6:42 am
said Oleg D. Kalugin, a former K.G.B. general who worked as a Soviet spy in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s under “legal” cover as a diplomat and Radio Moscow correspondent.
For those not aware, Kalugin was one of the more infamous spymasters of the Cold War era, and was (and still is) a nasty character. But think of it this way – at least they didn’t attempt to poison anyone here.
Comment by Dmac — 6/29/2010 @ 7:04 am
Yes he was, but apparently, he’s one of those who’s
on really bad terms with Putin, right up there with
Gordievsky,
Comment by ian cormac — 6/29/2010 @ 7:14 am
These arrests may be historical throwbacks but they make me wonder what sort of message the administration is sending to the Russians.
As an aside, the El Diario columnist sounds like a mainstream Democrat, so she’s no big deal, and Anna Chapman strikes me as someone to whom we ought to offer asylum. Mrs. Murphy, she of hydranga fame, sounds like she was mostly concerned about the declining quality of Montclair public schools. Pretty silly spies, all in all.
Comment by MTF — 6/29/2010 @ 7:35 am
“They couldn’t have been spies,” Ms. Gugig said. “Look what she did with the hydrangeas.”
Best non-sequitor evah!
Comment by Mark L — 6/29/2010 @ 7:39 am
The Daily News report, is classic, they don’t really understand the word ‘demure’
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/06/29/2010-06-29_untitled__2spies29m.html
Comment by ian cormac — 6/29/2010 @ 7:49 am
This sounds about as illegal as a tree fort. OMG they talked to each other in code!
Comment by Wesson — 6/29/2010 @ 8:15 am
Right, that’s why they had the false passports, the cash from mysterious sources, the inquiry about CIA operations
Comment by ian cormac — 6/29/2010 @ 8:41 am
‘“Jessie Gugig, 15, said she could not believe the charges, especially against Mrs. Murphy, who was an accomplished gardener.’
‘“They couldn’t have been spies,” Ms. Gugig said. “Look what she did with the hydrangeas.”’
I gaze into my crystal ball and see her voting Democrat three years from now.
Comment by Dave Surls — 6/29/2010 @ 9:14 am
Ms. Gugig’s quote had been updated in the article as follows:
Jessie Gugig, 15, said she could not believe the charges, especially against Mrs. Murphy. “They couldn’t have been spies,” she said jokingly. “Look what she did with the hydrangeas.”
Comment by Hal Duston — 6/29/2010 @ 9:20 am
That’s nothing surprising the neighbors to the Myers
spy ring, thought just because they were antiBush,
they couldn’t have been spies
Comment by ian cormac — 6/29/2010 @ 9:39 am
Only 10 illegals during the Cold War? Impossible. There were probably 100+ if you counted all the Eastern Bloc, Cuban and other fellow travellers inspired by Soviet communism. After all, for the cost of a single spy satellite you could easily fund the recruitment, training, transport, and secret life of a hundred ‘illegals’!
Comment by John — 6/29/2010 @ 10:16 am
“…the inquiry about CIA operations…”
The CIA has operations? Who Knew?
Here, all this time, I thought they just wrote bogus sit-reps on non-existent Iranian weapons programs.
Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 6/29/2010 @ 11:59 am
“…’They couldn’t have been spies,’ Ms. Gugig said. ‘Look what she did with the hydrangeas’…”
Didn’t George Smiley putter about in the garden?
Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 6/29/2010 @ 12:02 pm
One might think that, but Sanger who put out some of the stories you mentioned, illustrates exactly
how much the Iranian program, Project 110 and 111,
moved forward under Fakrizedeh, in a book ‘the Challenge’ he wrote conveniently years later
Comment by ian cormac — 6/29/2010 @ 12:04 pm
Hey, don’t beat up on a 15 year-old girl. Jessie’s quote was actually …
Jessie Gugig, 15, said she could not believe the charges, especially against Mrs. Murphy. “They couldn’t have been spies,” she said jokingly. “Look what she did with the hydrangeas.”
Comment by Bruce — 6/29/2010 @ 4:35 pm