Russia sought long-term gains from US spy cell — expert FEATURE 07/02/2010

Russia sought long-term gains from US spy cell — expert FEATURE 07/02/2010 NEW YORK — Russia was happy to wait patiently for long-term rewards while its sleeper cell of US spies garnered a string of high-profile connections, a former CIA agent told AFP on Wednesday. Among the 11 suspected Russian agents, one was a columnist for over 20 years with the Spanish-language newspaper La Prensa in New York, and another ran a consultancy using connections he made while at Harvard University. “It is a kind of intelligence operation that you put in place not for today or tomorrow, but for years and years of operational activity,” former CIA agent Bruce Riedel said. “Most intelligence services rely primarily on intelligence officers who have diplomatic immunity — this is more characteristic of a Russian and Communist system than Western intelligence.” For one of the accused who used the false identity of a dead Canadian infant, Donald Heathfield, Harvard was a base he used to cultivate ties, said The New York Times.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100702com3.html