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All good spy rings have catchy handles, so let’s call this week’s haul of alleged Russian spies the LinkedIn Eleven, since they seemingly used social media to help convey their harmlessness. In comparison with Soviet networks of the past, such as that of Jacob Golos in the 1930s and 1940s, and Rudolph Abel in the 1950s, these “illegals” didn’t appear to accomplish very much for Moscow. Although, as Jeff Stein points out, their most recent arrival and Mata Hari wannabe, Anna Chapman, seems to have been the best positioned for securing secrets and compromising politicos. Despite the best efforts of the Eleven’s likely sponsor, ex-KGB man Vladimir Putin, they remained fairly harmless to the U.S. during their decade in residence, which is undoubtedly why the FBI and CIA decided to let them run as long as possible.
Putin’s initial reaction to their arrest was that Washington had once more come down with Cold War fever. Two days later, the Russian government reassured the U.S. that the incident would not deter the two countries' relations; but I anticipate some Americans or other Westerners residing in Russia being swept up and jailed by Moscow in the near future – just as former U.S. Navy Captain Edmond D. Pope was in 2000, in Putin’s attempt to consolidate power after his election.
It does not look like SVR got its money’s worth from the Eleven, who racked up credit card and tuition bills, and took fancy vacations, but who delivered very little of consequence. Stalin refused to value any information that could be obtained from legit sources and overly trusted stolen information; evidently the same rubric still applies in Russia, as the Eleven’s take could have as easily been obtained by surfing the Internet. I look forward to confessions from some of the Eleven that they gave Moscow just a bit of info, now and then, so that they could continue on partying in America the beautiful.
Although the criminal complaints and court papers provide lots of interesting details, we don’t yet know how the U.S. authorities first learned of the group’s existence, or how those authorities received permission to expend considerable time and resources on keeping tabs on the bunch. Back in 1952, when FBI counterintelligence unit leader Robert J. Lamphere learned of the existence of an illegal in New York City – through messages concealed in a hollowed-out nickel accidentally received by a Brooklyn newsboy – he couldn’t obtain permission from his superiors to pursue the man eventually exposed in 1957 as KGB Colonel Rudolph Abel, a very effective spy. The likely answer is that the Eleven were found through the surveillance of Americans permitted under the 2001 PATRIOT Act, which allows the FBI to do things well beyond J. Edgar Hoover’s wildest dreams; and that in the ultra-suspicious atmosphere of the War on Terror, permissions and funding to pursue the Eleven were easy to obtain.
*-- *Tom Shachtman is the author of more than thirty books, including The Phony War, Terrors and Marvels, The FBI-KGB War with Robert Lamphere and Torpedoed with Ed Pope. He is the father of two sons, Noah and Daniel.
Photo: Facebook via NYDN
