Regarding the “spy swap of Summer 2010”, an interesting few points raised themselves to me.
Finally a few former cold war spies poked their heads above the parapet, mostly those tied back to the Spy museum in Washington DC. All current spies and think tanks remained quiet, except for a few casual opinions floated by the council on foreign relations. Think tanks deal with official policy rather than unofficial channels of information perhaps. I was regaled by a former KGB director as he let the current FSB officials have a full broadside of his disdain. One could tell that he styles himself one of the “true Cheka” and that he thinks the pretenders in Moskow are unprofessional buffoons. As they rightly would be; the KGB had godlike powers in the Soviet Union. Prime Minister Putin, a former KGB chief, has wisely crippled the agency so that he and his successor can sleep relatively peacefully at nights. The KGB was the breeding ground for Soviet Leaders who came to power with a wealth of dirty secrets and shadowy backers from the military and industry.
Nina L. Khrushcheva the great granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was also contacted by one of the Russian spies. Hardly following in her sires footsteps she is a teacher/advisor on Media and Culture in the United States. She was approached by a “heavily accented” “Richard Murphy” who never once spoke or admitted that he was Russian despite Nina’s insistence that he give up the charade! She too seems to think that the FSB has produced some very poor graduates.
The swap itself happened very quickly arranged by Leon Panetta and the head of the Russian FSB. A plane full of Russian Agents left the states and landed in “spy city” Vienna. Another plane containing 4 Russian turncoats (KGB men and scientists who had spied for MI6 and the CIA) landed and the swap occurred, old spies swapped for new spies.
An Iranian spy story also emerged to less fanfare. Months ago an Iranian Nuclear scientist was reported to be kidnapped when visiting Saudi Arabia. He then turned up in the USA with conflicting stories; half the time saying he was kidnapped the otherhalf of the time saying he was seeking asylum. While the Russian spy scandal was going on he turned up at a Pakistani embassy asking to be taken back to Iran. Lots of beating for you when you get home Shahram! The American “backpackers” who are going on leisurely strolls between a country at war and a country that America has no official ties with were probably lumped in on the deal, even though everyone denies this so far.
Castro emerged from his hospital quarters showing final sparks of communist fervour. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez locked up a few of his critics.
MI6 computer nerd Daniel Houghton who was trying to sell secrets to the (Israelis/Russians) is claiming he was acting under orders from schizophrenia induced “voices” probably wont be getting very far. Unlike the more exotic flavours of the cold war mentioned today, Daniel is just some dumb bastard trying to fuck his former employee for something that the Russians/Israelis probably already know or don’t care about.
It used to be a sexy world, but we all have seen what Daniel Craig does now. James Bond and Jason Bourne don’t use gadgets or have surreptitious, exchanges they have superhuman punch-ups. The spies of old probably do belong in the spy museum.
