The Modern Day Spy: More Celebrity than Covert

Jul 8, 2010 by James

If you’ve been watching the news recently then you probably have heard about the Russian spy ring in America. What is interesting though is that it is all being done publicly. What’s the point of being a spy or even admitting your country has spies when they are supposed to be beyond top secret? The spies are now even going to be swapped in Vienna; all 10 of them, for 4 U.S. Agents. It’s shocking that with all the threats of terrorism abroad that we are announcing a swap of people Al Qaeda would love to get their hands on.

Russian agents wouldn’t carry the same weight as American’s as we seem to be the target of their aggression, but Al Qaeda remembers the 10 years that the Soviets were killing their people too.

All 10 of the agents here in the U.S. have pleaded guilty, yet they are being deported and not strung up for the world to see. Allegedly this is to cool tensions between Washington and Moscow that have been increasing lately over suspicion, of what we don’t know.

This is quite the throw back to the cold war, except during the cold war all the spy swaps that took place were never heard of. Frankly this is all just political bullshit in my opinion, spy’s who committed real acts against the state would have been killed long ago, not deported. This comes at a particularly key time it seems for the White House and the Kremlin. The real spy business is happening behind closed doors, as we don’t know why the tensions are strained, and we don’t know what they are secretly going to gain from all this. One thing to remember in politics is that somebody is always doing something under the table.

Out of all the public spy swaps in history, they all either came with a price or we gained something in return. We don’t just hand over people accused of spying or espionage because we’re nice people. Russia certainly does not want to give the U.S. anything without something in return, as they need all the help they can get. So while the U.S. and Russia continue to push this around as a friendly spy swap between two friends, just keep it in the back of your mind that not all is what it seems, just as it is in the world of espionage.

Video has now been released by the BBC of the spy swap in Vienna, the Russians are now in Moscow and 2 of the spies traded to the Americans have been dropped off in England. The other 2 have landed in Washington for their debriefing. Video can be seen here along with further coverage: BBC News