Ну, что пишут российские средства массовой информации по поводу вчерашнего задержания Третьего секретаря Посольства США в Москве г-на Райана Фогла, достаточно предсказуемо, и, вне всяких сомнений, расчитано на российского же потребителя информации.
Реакция американских средств массовой информации - гомерических хохот. Над российскими и американскими спецслужбами. Я не беру в расчёт официоз типа "Вашингтон пост", там они обязаны хоть как-то приличия блюсти. А вот остальные порезвились вволю. Особенно порадовали комментарии касательно "цены входного билета на найм русских шпионов" к одной из статей. Для любителей читать в первоисточнике привожу тексты понравившихся опусов из зарубежной прессы, а заодно и фотографии.
А вот и сами статьи:
Vanity Fair
Ну и напоследок:
May 15, 2013
Ryan Fogle Detained By Russia, Accused Of Spying For C.I.A.
Реакция американских средств массовой информации - гомерических хохот. Над российскими и американскими спецслужбами. Я не беру в расчёт официоз типа "Вашингтон пост", там они обязаны хоть как-то приличия блюсти. А вот остальные порезвились вволю. Особенно порадовали комментарии касательно "цены входного билета на найм русских шпионов" к одной из статей. Для любителей читать в первоисточнике привожу тексты понравившихся опусов из зарубежной прессы, а заодно и фотографии.
А вот и сами статьи:
Vanity Fair
3:27 PM, MAY 14 2013
Exclusive!
Interview with a Girl Who Totally Went to College with Ryan Fogle, Alleged
Captured Spy
by Juli Weiner
Ryan
Fogle is a (totally dishy) young man who was recently picked up by Russian
intelligence and identified as an operative working for the C.I.A. Who could
play Ryan Fogle in the movie of this caper? Ryan Fogle, actually, because he is seriously really hot.
ABC News reports: “The Russian
Federal Security Service (FSB), successor of the KGB, said in a statement on
its website that Ryan Christopher Fogle was arrested late Monday night in
Moscow with a stack of money, disguises and a letter with written instructions
for a Russian citizen who was allegedly the target of recruitment.” Custody of
Fogle has since been transferred back to the United States government, which
did not see fit to comment on the matter.
A
member of the Vanity Fair staff who would
only agree to be identified as “Carly H.” attended the prestigious and preppy
Colgate University with Fogle five or so years ago. “I’m pretty sure, like 98
percent sure—corroborated by my boyfriend, who was Fogle’s year—that he was in
the ‘dry’ frat,” VF.com’s own undercover informant reveals. And lo, a simple
Google search for the gentleman in question turns up an online newsletter in which Ryan Fogle,
class of 2006, “sends his greetings from Virginia” to fellow members of Phi
Delta Theta. Virginia, eh? McLean, Virginia?
Watch
your back, third season of Homeland.
To find out more about the intellectual and
social milieu in which this young government employee came of age, we spoke
with aforementioned classmate, Carly H.:
VF Daily: Thanks
for joining us. Immediate reaction?
Carly H.: Apparently years spent in
a frat in a small middle of nowhere college where entertainment solely involves
themed mixers and costume parties were insufficient preparation for him to
choose the right wig.
What sorts of disguises might a Colgate student have worn to frat
parties?
Well, you have your garden-variety 80s
party—less useful in blending in in Russia (. . .actually, maybe more useful,
given Russian street-fashion.) Then there’s the cowboys-and-Indians theme, a
study in anthropological character-acting.
Do the freezing, endless winters of upstate New York adequately
prepare one for a life in Russia? I understand you have never been to Russia,
much less lived there, but if you had to guess? There were many coats involved
at Colgate—layers, yes?
Yes. Colgate students wear as many layers of
Patagonia as possible. Except for the ladies on going-out nights—then there was
just one black “going-out fleece.” It’s less to keep track of and provides
easier access to the “going-out top” worn beneath. I can’t say whether perhaps
Mr. Fogle wore layers of things other than Patagonia to prepare for his time in
Russia, but I have a hunch that Patagonia is not as common over there.
I’d also be curious to know if Phi Delt will
create a “Russian Spies” themed mixer in his honor—blond wigs required.
Yeah, that wig! Colgate theater department?
Best guess is that it was taken off a drunk
Phi Tau dressed up as a lifeguard at the Beta beach party, and tucked away in
his spy box for later use.
И ещё:
The CIA is far too sophisticated for this kind of thing
Not so. Veterans of US intelligence work say that despite
the trillions of dollars spent on satellites and signals intelligence,
spying—especially in post-cold-war Moscow—comes down to very low-tech “humint”
or human intelligence. So it’s common for undercover operatives to skulk around
trying to cultivate potential spies, using wigs and other simple disguises so
they—or their assets—can avoid detection. “It only seems amateurish if and when
we get caught,” says one former Moscow station chief.
However, another former CIA officer, Robert Baer, says that
if the allegations are correct, US spy tradecraft in Russia has suffered since
the days when the CIA required that everyone use “Moscow Rules”—code for the
most stringent counter-intelligence measures imaginable. “But you really need
to wait until we hear a definitive account of this. This is only the FSB
version,” Baer said.
Spies are always arrested as soon as they’re identified
Rarely. The US and Russia—and most other
governments—routinely tolerate large numbers of foreign spies in their midst so
they can keep their own operatives overseas. These spooks spend an inordinate
amount of time just keeping an eye on each other. The decision to arrest one
depends on any number of external factors, including politics. If Fogle did
indeed work for them, the graybeards at Langley will now be trying to figure
out just what might have prompted Russian president Vladimir Putin, an old spy
hand himself, to approve handling this case in such a public manner. Russia’s arming
of Syria’s regime, the US’s handling of the Chechens suspected in the Boston
Marathon bombing, or even the dispute over adoption of Russian children by
Americans might have caused the diplomatic chill. Fogle was apprehended just as
Michael McFaul, the US ambassador to Moscow who has been a thorn in the
authorities’ side, was starting a public Q&A on Twitter.
Such cases seriously strain international relations
No. Usually arrests are a bump in the geopolitical road, and
more of a symptom of larger bilateral problems than the cause of them. “When
relations are good, we both just quietly send them home and don’t make a big
deal of it,” said Baer, a 21-year CIA veteran who wrote a book about his
experiences. Fogle, in fact, was quickly released back into US custody. Often,
the arrest is a good excuse to trade some of their people for some of yours.
When federal agents rolled up Anna Chapman and other members of a Russian spy
network in the US in 2010, Washington got to bring home some of its own spies
in exchange.
This is a big setback to US espionage efforts
Probably not. Fogle’s recruitment attempt—if real—looks like
the kind of initial fishing expedition that was probably not tied to any
particular large and ongoing spying effort. Most likely, the CIA runs many such
operations in Moscow and throughout Russia. But those are usually highly
compartmentalized, and Fogle’s arrest is unlikely to jeopardize any of them.
If the claims are true, Fogle was a spy for the United
States
Definitely not. This is one of the most common
misconceptions. US undercover personnel overseas are called “case officers.”
It’s the people they cultivate to work against their own government who are
called agents, “assets,” or in plain English, spies. “Why everyone started
calling us the agents and not our sources, I don’t know,” Baer says. “But I
know it just drives everyone at the CIA crazy.”
Ну и напоследок:
May 15, 2013
By LYNN BERRY 05/14/13 10:15 PM ET EDT
A U.S. diplomat was ordered Tuesday to leave the country after the Kremlin's security services said he tried to recruit a Russian agent, and they displayed tradecraft tools that seemed straight from a cheap spy thriller: wigs, packets of cash, a knife, map and compass, and a letter promising millions for "long-term cooperation." The FSB, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, identified the diplomat as Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, detaining him briefly overnight. It alleged that Fogle was a CIA officer trying to recruit a Russian counterterrorism officer who specializes in the volatile Caucasus region in southern Russia, where the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects had their ethnic roots. Fogle was handed over to U.S. Embassy officials, declared persona non grata and ordered to leave Russia immediately. He has diplomatic immunity, which protects him from arrest. The State Department would only confirm that Fogle worked as an embassy employee, but wouldn't give any details about his employment record or responsibilities in Russia. Some officials also referred inquiries to the CIA, which declined comment. Fogle was the first American diplomat to be publicly accused of spying in Russia in about a decade. While relations between the two countries have been strained, officials in both Washington and Moscow sought to play down the incident.
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to appear Wednesday in connection with the case. McFaul said he would not comment on the spying allegation. Russian officials expressed indignation the U.S. would carry out an espionage operation at a time when the two countries have been working to improve counterterrorism cooperation. "Such provocative actions in the spirit of the Cold War do nothing to strengthen mutual trust," the Foreign Ministry said. Russia's Caucasus region includes the provinces of Chechnya and Dagestan. The suspects in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his elder brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in a manhunt – are ethnic Chechens. Tamerlan spent six months last year in Dagestan, now the center of an Islamic insurgency. U.S. investigators have been working with the Russians to try to determine whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev had established any contacts with militants in Dagestan.
Despite the end of the Cold War, Russia and the United States still maintain active espionage operations against each other. Last year, several Russians were convicted in separate cases of spying for the U.S. and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences. But Tuesday's case had espionage elements that seemed more like "Spy vs. Spy" than Ludlum and le Carre. Russian state TV showed pictures of a man said to be Fogle, wearing a baseball cap and a blond wig, lying face down on the ground. The man, without the wig, was also shown sitting at a desk in the offices of the FSB, the Federal Security Service. Two wigs, a compass, a map of Moscow, a pocket knife, three pairs of sunglasses and envelopes of 500 euro notes (each bill worth $649) were among the items the FSB displayed on a table.
The FSB also produced a typewritten letter that it described as instructions to the Russian agent who was the target of Fogle's alleged recruitment effort. The letter, in Russian and addressed "Dear friend," offers $100,000 to "discuss your experience, expertise and cooperation" and up to $1 million a year for long-term cooperation. The letter also includes instructions for opening a Gmail account to be used for communication and an address to write. It is signed "Your friends." "If this is genuine, then it'll be seen to be appallingly bad tradecraft – being caught with a `How-to-be-a-Spy 101' guide and a wig. He would have had to have been pretty stupid," said Mark Galeotti, a professor at New York University who studies the Russian security services. Samuel Greene, director of the Russia Institute at King's College London, called the evidence bizarre. "I wouldn't have thought that spies gave each other written instructions," he said in a telephone interview. Greene also noted that the FSB had displayed Fogle's official diplomatic ID, suggesting he was carrying it along with the spy paraphernalia when he was detained. "Maybe this is what the CIA has come to, maybe the propaganda folks in the Kremlin think we are this stupid, or maybe both," he said. A five-minute video produced by the FSB and shown on state TV showed a Russian official speaking to what appear to be three U.S. diplomats who had come to pick up Fogle in the FSB office. The official, whose face is blurred, alleged that Fogle called an unidentified FSB counterintelligence officer who specializes in the Caucasus at 11:30 p.m. Monday. He then said that after the officer refused to meet, Fogle called him a second time and offered 100,000 euros if he would provide information to the U.S.
The Russian official said the FSB was flabbergasted. He pointed to high-level efforts to improve counterterrorism cooperation, specifically FBI director Robert Mueller's visit to Moscow last week and phone calls between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "At a time when the presidents of the two countries are striving to improve the climate of relations between the two countries, this citizen, in the name of the U.S. government, commits a most serious crime here in Moscow," the official said. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed that an officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was briefly detained and released. "We have seen the Russian Foreign Ministry announcement and have no further comment at this time," said Psaki, who was in Sweden with Secretary of State John Kerry. Little was immediately known about Fogle. A third secretary is an entry level position at the State Department, the lowest diplomatic rank in the foreign service. Putin has stoked anti-American sentiments among Russians in recent years in what is seen as an effort to build support at home. He also appears to have a genuine distrust of Russian nongovernmental organizations that receive American funding, which he has accused of being fronts that allow the U.S. government to meddle in Russia's political affairs. Hundreds of NGOs have been searched this year as part of an ongoing crackdown by the Russian government.
Galeotti said the public exposure of Fogle suggests a political purpose behind the detention. He said these kinds of spying incidents happen with some frequency, but making such a big deal of them is rare. "More often, the etiquette is that these things get dealt with quite quietly – unless they want to get a message out," Galeotti said. "If you identify an embassy staffer who is a spy for the other side, your natural impulse is to leave them be, because once you identify, you can keep tabs on them, see who they talk to and everything else." "There's no reason to make a song and dance, detain them, eject them," he said. Greene said Fogle's detention should be seen as part of Putin's confrontation with the opposition and not as something likely to have a major impact on U.S.-Russia relations. "I think this is mostly for domestic consumption in Russia so that people say, `look at these naughty Americans trying to meddle in our internal affairs and spy on us,'" Greene said. "But everybody's got spies everywhere so I don't see this as a major issue." In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell also said the incident was unlikely to hamper U.S.-Russia relations. "I'm not sure I'd read too much into one incident one way or another," he told reporters, and pointed to Kerry's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Sweden on Tuesday evening. "We have a very broad and deep relationship with the Russians across a whole host of issues, and we'll continue to work on our diplomacy with them directly."
Alexei Pushkov, who heads the international affairs committee in Russia's parliament, wrote in a Twitter post that the spy scandal would be short-lived and would not interfere in Kerry and Lavrov's discussions aimed at bridging deep differences over the civil war in Syria. "But the atmosphere is not improving," Pushkov commented.
Associated Press writers Max Seddon in Moscow, Bradley Klapper in Washington and Lara Jakes in Kiruna, Sweden, contributed to this report.