'SHE COULDN'T HAVE BEEN A SPY - LOOK WHAT SHE DID WITH THE HYDRANGEAS'
They wanted to infiltrate the inner core of American society, so naturally they chose the place that would arose the least suspicion - the suburbs.
The 11 men and women accused of spying for Russia lived apparently ordinary, mundane and even boring lives, neighbours have revealed.
Rather than engage in overt espionage, they spent most of their time tending the garden and making sure their children got to football practice on time.
It all helped create a veneer of respectability that would enable them to become highly 'Americanised', and carry out their secret mission without attracting suspicion.
Their technique was summed up succinctly by one teenager who lived next to 'New Jersey conspirators' Richard and Cynthia Murphy: 'They couldn't have been spies. Look what she did with the hydrangeas.'
Others were stunned when FBI agents turned up on Sunday night and led them away from their Montclair home in handcuffs.
One called them 'suburbia personified,' saying that they had asked people for advice about the local schools.
In the Yonkers area of New York, neighbours were just as shocked when Juan Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez were carted off by police.
'It's so hard to believe - they looked like regular folks,' said neighbour Jonathan Kroll, 39, a school administrator.
The situation was the same in Cambridge, Massachusetts where forty-something couple 'Donald Howard Heathfield' and 'Tracey Lee Ann Foley' were arrested, to the surprise of those who knew them.
'All I knew about them was when I saw them pull in and out of their driveway,' said Vicky Steinitz, 71.
Another added: 'She was a friendly neighbour. She was gorgeous. She was nice. They were European but I didn’t know what kind.'
'You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc - all these serve one goal: fulfil your main mission, ie to search and develop ties in policy-making circles in US and send intels (intelligence reports) to C (Moscow Center).'
- The accused spies 'mission statement', as outlined in a message to 'Richard and Cynthia Murphy' from Moscow Center, intercepted and decoded by the FBI
FROM INVISIBLE INK TO COVERT WI-FI COMMUNICATION: WHAT THE RUSSIAN 'SPIES' ARE ACCUSED OF
According to the complaint, filed by Maria Ricci, a special agent with the Counterintelligence arm of the FBI, the spies:
* used advanced steganography software to send encrypted messages to each other by hiding them on publicly available websites.
* used short wave radios and codes to send messages to each other
* used wi-fi in cafes and bookshops to covertly communicate with Russian agents parked in a van close by
* used and perfected the 'brush pass', a clandestine way of handing over items as one person passes another, which is known as a 'flash meeting'
* hoarded up to £50,000 in cash in their homes
* wrote messages in invisible ink that they sent to Russian agents in South America
* met an employee of the U.S. government with regards to nuclear weapons research and other high-ranking officials
* tried to get jobs in firms which gave them access to those who knew state secrets
* buried information in the ground which could later be picked up by other agents
* received money from an official associated with the Manhattan-based Permanent Mission to the United States
* used false documents to travel into and out of the United States and
* took the identities of dead Americans to help them carry out their mission.
The agents are also said to have been schooled in Morse Code and how to cover their tracks so they left no evidence.
Each of the ten was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Nine of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum 20 years in prison.
Two criminal complaints outlining the charges were filed in U.S. District Court for the southern district of New York.
0 comments:
Post a Comment