*It kills me that there's a female Russian agent who's a hot social-networking VC chick who does Linked-in, Facebook and Youtube. Nice to see the Millennial digital-natives really pitching into espionage there! Time-honored tradition not dead!
*They've come a long way since this 'Paul William Hampel' deep-cover guy. Presumably ol' Paul was briefing the newbies. Not very adequately, I guess... but one has to try.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucesterling/sets/72157594560198223/
"They embedded coded texts in ordinary-looking images posted on the Internet, and they communicated by having two agents pass casually with laptops containing special software flashed messages between them." – NY Times.
*It's all just so touchingly up-to-date! Steganography, no less! Is it really even possible for "illegals" to build any "legend" in the days of Google? They've sure as heck got a Google legend right now. That's for sure.
*Surely it's gotta be easier just to find some wandering Russian who actually is an American, and bribe or bully him into working for intelligence services. I mean, the "legend" is the hard part, while the spyware takes maybe a week.
*Ladies and gentlemen, there is gonna be a MEGATON of Anna Chapman cult material. If she pleads out and defects she could be a talking head on Fox News pronto. It's like watching traditional espionage evert, eviscerate and explode.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/30/AR2010063005074.html
"Ever since photos of Anna Chapman began circulating online late Tuesday, the Internet at large has been foaming, frothing, fanatic for details about the reported 28-year-old secret agent/Maxim model look-alike who specialized in sultry-eyed, pouty-lipped, come-hither stares. Da, da, da!
"News sites immediately uploaded photo galleries. Someone said "Bond Girl" and we all immediately began casting her biopic in our minds. Scarlett Johansson – no wait, Jessica Biel!
"Someone said that she drank Alma De Agave tequila and almost immediately the company issued an official statement explaining its role in Chapman's drinking habits: "Russell Terlecki, President of the East Coast Operations . . . met her on the Seastreak going to Atlantic Highlands, NJ. She loved Alma De Agave tequila." (((That is really scary. You see how much faster and crueler social-networking ad people are than actual Russian spies? Good Lord a-mighty.)))
She had a Facebook account (and why not? In America, the best way to fly under the radar is to fly over it. Wouldn't it be much more suspect if she weren't on Facebook?), which we immediately began obsessing over.
Unlucky for us: Much of it was written in Cyrillic.
Lucky for us: Chapman's friend list was available for public consumption. Apparently, she didn't understand Facebook's new privacy controls any better than the rest of us...
It's so much easier when "From Russia With Love" is a total babe. It's all so Natasha, so Ninotchka, so Cold War retro. The things that Chapman has been accused of doing – exchanging covert information with a Russian government official – seem downright quaint when you read the Justice Department's description of the activities. There were code phrases – Haven't we met in California last summer? – and there were weekly Wednesday check-ins at a coffee shop. In the Red Scare 1950s, this would have been terrifying, but it sure beats a shoe bomber today.
Maybe this is why we've been treating Chapman more like she's June's Playmate and less like she's a threat to national security – desperately seeking out her likes and dislikes, her hopes and dreams, as if we plan to take her for a romantic walk on the beach....
(((More: maybe the "timing" of this FBI bust is a little "suspicious." 'Cause the targets knew they'd been tumbled and a couple of them were about to scram. Now even Al Jazeera's in on this tabloid freakout. I don't want to take espionage lightly, because the world's second-oldest profession has gotta be a serious matter, but GEE WHIZ, people! Yeah, this Russian guy on the lam over in Cyprus, the money-laundering offshore capital of the Russian world? Oh yeah. He's real "Canadian." You betcha.)))
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/06/201063018482943541.html
(((Imagine that you were a daring Cypriot secret agent who was an "illegal" "sleeper" cell guy deep inside the USA. Would anybody know that? Care? Could you prove it, even if you wanted to?)))
(((Time to put the borscht on the back burner and settle in for a while:)))
https://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/whos-who-in-the-russian-spy-ring/
