The FBI has released videos and documents relating to the Russian spies who used Irish passports to conceal their identities.
After a decade-long probe that resulted in the biggest spy swap since the Cold War, the Russian spy ring was shut down in June 2010.
The FBI released the material to the Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents show the investigation was code-named “Ghost Stories”.
The name of the operation stems from a spy technique known as "dead doubles", where they use the identities of people who have died. Tracey Lee Ann Foley, Michael Zottoli, Donald Heathfield, and Patricia Mills all used the technique.
An FBI counterintelligence official told the AP that the spies were slowly making progress in gathering intelligence.
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They "were getting very close to penetrating U.S. policymaking circles" through a friend of a U.S. Cabinet official, said C. Frank Figliuzzi, FBI assistant director for counterintelligence.
The footage shows Russian spy Anna Chapman, now a TV personality back in Russia, shopping and trying on hats at a Macey’s department store, sightseeing, chilling in coffee shops, and strolling around New York city.
One photo shows Donald Heathfield of Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduating from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2000. The school revoked his degree after the spy ring was exposed.
The spies settled into suburbian life in middle-class neighborhoods and attempted to network their way into the world of finance, technology, and government.
After they were freed and returned to Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev awarded the 10 freed spies Russia's highest honors at a Kremlin ceremony.
4 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Scrivner | Nov 01, 2011, 05:51 PM EDT
Seagreen, you say, "We are perfectly capable of destroying ourselves without any help from someone else?" Just goes to show that we are NUMBER 1...in something.
seagreen | Nov 01, 2011, 10:56 AM EDT
I'm waiting for Obama to be blamed for the torpedoing of the Lusitania and the burning of the Hindenburg
seagreen | Nov 01, 2011, 10:42 AM EDT
There are over 50,000 American companies manufacturing in China, 50 percent of Americans are financially screwed. The US is on the verge of total Facism. Unemployed people using canes and wheel chairs vote against health care and watch Fox News. We are bleeding the country of what is left with the depletion of our youth, over 150 foreign military bases. In dicriminately spreading cash to every government in the world that will see things our way ! Why does anybody need spies ? We are perfectly capable of destroying ourselves without any help from someone else ? Oh, and Wall St. just donated $5,000,000 to the New York Police Dept. (wonder why) ?
PhlutiePhan | Nov 01, 2011, 10:26 AM EDT
The purpose of "deep cover" Russian agents is not necessarily penetration. If you read Oleg Kalugin, you will see that they also have secondary missions of sabotage if any type of conflict breaks out. Anna Chapman was known by Scotland Yard to have been stalking Prince William at various parties. There is more to this saga than meets the eye. They should have been interrogated before being turned over by the Obama Administration.