Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Why Now?

In reading some of the coverage about the arrest this week of 11 Russian spies operating under deep cover, one question seems to be unanswered:

Why now? The FBI was on to them for a decade or so. They were carrying out covert searches of safe deposit boxes in 2001. There is no allegation that the spies were any threat or passing any classified information.

So why roll up the network now?

3 comments:

  1. Probably to compete with the TV coverage of the coming mayhem in Iran?

    Noooo. I don't believe it either. Right. Not from this crowd certainly.

    However, what are all those US warships doing gathered together over there for some type of "game?"

    Thanks for asking the obvious question that I'm sure most of us thought of immediately yesterday when we heard the "old spy" news.

    S

    ReplyDelete
  2. This tells me these roundups aren't purely for political brownie points, because I don't see the Chimperor giving up that opportunity.

    Perhaps the FBI surveiled enough to come to the conclusion that they just wouldn't learn anything new from watching these people.

    I'd have been much more amused if the story had been about "spies and saboteurs from some unknown country" and Russia had loudly replied, "they aren't spies, and they never had orders to sabotage!"

    But it's still a little funny how loudly they protest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My alternate theory: The Russian Mafiya.

    Look, organized crime and government basically merge in modern Russia. Most politicians are mobbed up big-time, and use the Mafiya as their enforcers and in exchange give the Mafiya protection. Industrial espionage is a common occurrence, Mafiya agents infiltrate companies and steal corporate secrets to sell to the Chinese or otherwise profit themselves.

    My guess? These guys infiltrated a company owned by a major Democratic Party fundraiser, and were on the verge of shoveling some corporate secrets over the transom that would result in unacceptable damage to that corporate entity. Remember, in today's government the bidness of guvment is bidness...


    - Badtux the Crime Penguin

    ReplyDelete

House Rules #1, #2 and #6 apply to all comments. Rule #3 also applies to political comments.

In short, don't be a jackass. THIS MEANS YOU!
If you never see your comments posted, see Rule #7.

All comments must be on point and address either the points raised in the blog post or points raised by commenters in response.
Any comments that drift off onto other topics are subject to deletion.

(Please don't feed the trolls.)

中國詞不評論,冒抹除的風險。僅英語。

COMMENT MODERATION IS IN EFFECT UFN. This means that if you are an insulting dick, nobody will ever see it.