[lg policy] 10 alleged Russian secret agents arrested in US: one was a columnist at a New York Spanish-language newspaper

[Harold Schiffman]

10 alleged Russian secret agents arrested in US

By PETE YOST and TOM HAYS (AP) – 12 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The FBI has arrested 10 people for allegedly serving for
years as secret agents of Russia's intelligence service, the SVR, with
the goal of penetrating U.S. government policymaking circles.

According to court papers unsealed Monday, the FBI intercepted a
message from SVR headquarters, Moscow Center, to two of the defendants
describing their main mission as "to search and develop ties in
policymaking circles in US." Intercepted messages showed they were
asked to learn about a broad swath of topics including nuclear
weapons, U.S. arms control positions, Iran, White House rumors, CIA
leadership turnover, the last presidential election, Congress and the
political parties.

After a secret multiyear investigation, the Justice Department
announced the arrests Monday in a blockbuster spy case that could
rival the capture of Soviet Col. Rudolf Abel in 1957 in New York.

There was no clue in initial court papers how successful the agents
had been, but they were alleged to have been long-term, deep cover
spies, some living as couples. These deep-cover agents are the hardest
spies for the FBI to catch because they take civilian jobs with no
visible connection to a foreign government_ one was a reporter, editor
and columnist at a New York Spanish-language newspaper. They are more
elusive than spies who operate from government jobs inside Russian
embassies and military missions. Abel was just such a deep cover
agent; he was ultimately swapped to the Soviet Union for downed U-2
spy pilot Francis Gary Powers in 1962.

The court papers described a new high-tech spy-to-spy communications
system used by the defendants: short-range wireless communications
between laptop computers — a modern supplement for the old-style dead
drop in a remote area, high-speed burst radio transmission or even the
hollowed-out nickels used by Abel to conceal and deliver microfilm.

But there was no lack of Cold War spycraft. According to the court
papers, the alleged agents used invisible ink, stayed in touch with
Moscow Center through coded bursts of data sent by a radio
transmitter, used innocent-looking "brush" encounters to pass messages
in public, hid encrypted data in public images and relied on fake
identities and false travel documents.

On Saturday, an undercover FBI agent in New York and another in
Washington, both posing as Russian agents, met with two of the
defendants, Anna Chapman at a New York restaurant and Mikhail Semenko
on a Washington street corner blocks from the White House. The FBI
undercover agents gave each an espionage-related delivery to make.
Court papers indicated Semenko made the delivery as instructed, but
apparently Chapman did not.

Eight of 10 were arrested Sunday for allegedly carrying out long-term,
deep-cover assignments in the United States on behalf of Russia. Two
others, who were the targets of the undercover approaches, were
arrested and charged separately for allegedly participating in the
same Russian intelligence program within the United States. An 11th
defendant, who allegedly delivered money to the defendants, is at
large.

The court papers cited numerous communications intercepted by the FBI
that spelled out what information was sought.

The timing of the arrests was notable given the efforts by Presidents
Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev to "reset" U.S.-Russia relations. The
two leaders met last week at the White House after Medvedev visited
high-tech firms in California's Silicon Valley, and both attended the
G-8, G-20 meetings over the weekend in Canada.

Intelligence on Obama's foreign policy, particularly toward Russia,
appears to have been a top priority.

In spring 2009, the documents say, alleged conspirators, Richard and
Cynthia Murphy, who lived in New Jersey, were asked for information
about Obama's impending trip to Russia that summer, the U.S.
negotiating position on the START arms reduction treaty as well as
Afghanistan and the approach Washington would take in dealing with
Iran's suspect nuclear program, the documents said. They were also
asked to send background on U.S. officials traveling with Obama or
involved in foreign policy.

"Try to outline their views and most important Obama's goals (sic)
which he expects to achieve during summit in July and how does his
team plan to do it (arguments, provisions, means of persuasion to
'lure' (Russia) into cooperation in US interests," Moscow asked.

Moscow wanted reports "which should reflect approaches and ideas of"
four sub-Cabinet U.S. foreign policy officials.

One intercepted message said Cynthia Murphy, "had several work-related
personal meetings with" a man the court papers describe as a prominent
New York-based financier active in politics.

In response, Moscow Center described the man as a very interesting
target and urged the defendants to "try to build up little by little
relations. ... Maybe he can provide" Murphy "with remarks re US
foreign policy, 'roumors' about White house internal 'kitchen,' invite
her to venues (to major political party HQ in NYC, for instance. ...
In short, consider carefully all options in regard" to the financier."

Each of the 10 was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a
foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general, which
carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Two criminal
complaints outlining the charges were filed in U.S. District Court for
the southern district of New York.

Nine of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit money
laundering, which carries a maximum 20 years in prison.

The papers allege the defendants' spying has been going on for years.

One defendant in Massachusetts made contact in 2004 with an
unidentified man who worked at a U.S. government research facility.

"He works on issues of strategic planning related to nuclear weapon
development," the defendant's intelligence report said.

The defendant "had conversations with him about research programs on
small yield high penetration nuclear warheads recently authorized by
US Congress (nuclear 'bunker-buster' warheads)," according to the
report.

One message back to Moscow from the defendants focused on turnover at
the top level of the CIA and the 2008 U.S. presidential election. The
information was described as having been received in private
conversation with, among others, a former legislative counsel for
Congress. The court papers deleted the name of the counsel.

In the papers, FBI agents said the defendants communicated with
alleged Russian agents using mobile wireless transmissions between
laptops computers, which has not previously been described in
espionage cases brought here: They established a short-range wireless
network between laptop computers of the agents and sent encrypted
messages between the computers while they were close to each other.

FBI agents arrested the defendants known as Richard Murphy and Cynthia
Murphy at their Montclair, N.J., residence.

A neighbor, Louise Shallcross, 44, said she often saw Richard Murphy
at the school bus stop.

"We were all very excited to have a stay-at-home dad move in," Shallcross said.

Three other defendants also appeared in federal court in Manhattan —
Vicky Pelaez and a defendant known as "Juan Lazaro," who were arrested
at their Yonkers, N.Y., residence and Anna Chapman, arrested in
Manhattan on Sunday.

Richard and Cynthia Murphy, Juan Lazaro, Vicky Pelaez and Anna Chapman
were held without bail. The defendants — most dressed in casual
clothes like blue jeans, shorts and T-shirts — answered "Yes," when
asked if they understood the charges. None entered a plea.

"The evidence is truly, truly overwhelming," said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Michael Farbiarz. Another hearing was set for Thursday.

Pelaez is a Peruvian-born reporter and editor and worked for several
years for El Diario/La Prensa, one of the country's best-known
Spanish-language newspapers. She is best known for her opinion
columns, which often criticize the U.S. government.

A senior editor at the newspaper confirmed the arrest but declined to
comment on the allegations. The editor, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity, was not authorized to speak for the company.

In January 2000, Pelaez was videotaped meeting with a Russian
government official at a public park in the South American nation,
where she received a bag from the official, according to one
complaint.

According to one of the complaints, Lazaro and Pelaez discussed plans
to pass covert messages with invisible ink to Russian officials during
another trip Pelaez took to South America.

An attorney for Chapman, Robert Baum, argued that the allegations were
exaggerated and that his client deserved bail.

"This is not a case that raises issues of security of the United
States," he said.

The prosecutor countered that she was a flight risk, calling her a
highly trained "Russian agent" who is "a practiced deceiver."

Two other defendants, known as Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills,
were arrested at their Arlington, Va., residence. Also arrested at an
Arlington, Va., residence was Mikhail Semenko.

Zottoli, Mills and Semenko appeared before U.S. Magistrate Theresa
Buchanan early Monday afternoon in Alexandria, Va., according to the
U.S. attorney's office. The hearing was closed because the case had
not yet been unsealed in New York. The three did not have attorneys at
the hearing, U.S. attorney spokesman Peter Carr said.

In Arlington, where Zottoli and Mills lived in a ninth-floor
apartment, next-door neighbor Celest Allred said her guess had been
that "they were Russian, because they had Russian accents."

Two defendants known as Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann
Foley were arrested at their Cambridge, Mass., residence Sunday. They
appeared briefly in Boston federal court on Monday afternoon. A
detention hearing was set for Thursday.

In Moscow, calls to the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Intelligence
Service (SVR) were not answered early Tuesday.

The two most prominent cases involving the SVR in the past decade may
have been those of Robert Hanssen, the FBI counterintelligence agent
who was convicted of passing along secrets to the agency, and Sergei
Tretyakov, deputy head of intelligence at Russia's U.N. mission in
1995-2000.

Tretyakov, who defected in 2000, claimed in a 2008 book that his
agents helped the Russian government steal nearly $500 million from
the U.N.'s oil-for-food program in Iraq before the fall of Saddam
Hussein. He said he oversaw an operation that helped Saddam's regime
manipulate the price of Iraqi oil sold under the program and allowed
Russia to skim profits.

>>From the NYTimes

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