S. Korea spies break into Indonesians’ hotel room: ReportS. Korea spies break into Indonesians’ hotel room: Report

Three agents for South Korea’s spy agency broke into a downtown Seoul hotel room occupied by a delegation of Indonesian presidential envoys last week, apparently seeking secrets about bids for a defence contract, a newspaper said today.

The three left after being confronted by a member of the Indonesian delegation, led by a senior Cabinet minister. They had been discovered looking at files on a laptop computer, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.

“National Intelligence Service employees were looking to identify the Indonesian delegation’s negotiating strategy with a view on our national interest,” a senior South Korean official was quoted as saying by the Chosun Ilbo.

The National Intelligence Service denied the report.




South Korea has been bidding for a contract to supply trainer fighter jets to Indonesia, the newspaper said. South Korean firms have also been increasingly eyeing Indonesia’s growing consumer market and natural resources.

Indonesia’s investment chief said last year he expected South Korea to invest up to US$10 billion in the next three to four years, with LG Electronics and Hyundai Motor considering taking part.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that there had been a break-in, leading to a laptop being stolen, but said it was returned 20 minutes later and played down the incident.

“The laptop belonged to a staff member, not a high-ranking official,” spokesman Michael Tene said in Jakarta.

The staff member worked in the trade ministry, a government source told Reuters.

“This has caused uneasiness in the relations of the two countries,” Teguh Juwarno, a member of the Indonesian parliament’s defence and foreign affairs commission, said.

Putin Criticizes U.S. for Arrests of Espionage Suspects

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin criticized American law enforcement agencies on Tuesday for breaking up an what they described as a Russian espionage ring in the United States, as other Russian officials questioned whether the arrests were intended to damage relations between the countries.

Mr. Putin, at a meeting with former President Bill Clinton, brought up the subject.

“You have come to Moscow at the exact right time,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Clinton. “Your police have gotten carried away, putting people in jail.”



Mr. Putin offered no comment on the specific accusations against the 11 suspects, who were described by prosecutors as living under false identities in an effort to penetrate American society. Russia has acknowledged that they are Russian citizens.

“I really expect that the positive achievements that have been made in our intergovernmental relations lately will not be damaged by the latest events,” he said. “We really hope that the people who value Russian-American relations understand this.”

Other Russian officials went further on Tuesday, suggesting that the timing of the case was politically motivated. The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said the Russian government was awaiting more information from the United States about the accusations.

“They have not explained what the issue is,” Mr. Lavrov told reporters in Jerusalem, where he was on an official visit. “I hope that they will explain. The moment when this was done was chosen with a certain elegance.”

After Mr. Lavrov spoke, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the arrests “baseless” and “unseemly.” It accused American prosecutors of acting “in the spirit of the spy passions of the cold war period.”

“We would like to note only that this type of release of information has happened more than once in the past, when our relations were on the rise,” the statement said. “In any case, it is deeply regrettable that all this is taking place on the background of the ‘reset’ in Russian-American relations declared by the United States administration itself.”

On Tuesday night, the Foreign Ministry issued another statement acknowledging that the suspects were Russian citizens.

“They have not conducted any activities directed against the interests of the United States,” the statement said.

The ministry said it hoped that prosecutors would allow the suspects access to lawyers and Russian consular officials.

The arrests on Monday came after a period of warming in relations between the United States and Russia, with President Dmitri A. Medvedev making a visit to the United States this month, including to Silicon Valley in California, that was hailed here as a success. Mr. Medvedev met with President Obama, and the two seemed to have developed a personal bond.

Some Russian politicians declared that the announcement of the arrests indicated that hostile elements in the United States government were bent on preventing relations from flourishing.

Vladimir Kolesnikov, a prominent member of Parliament from Mr. Putin’s ruling party, said the timing “was not a coincidence.”

“Unfortunately, in America there are people who live with the old baggage, the baggage of the cold war, double standards,” Mr. Kolesnikov said.

On Tuesday, the arrests were widely covered on the state-controlled national television networks in Russia.

One of the people accused of involvement in the espionage ring made no secret of his ties to Russia, openly taking part in Russian social media in order to keep up with friends from high school and university.

The suspect, Mikhail Semenko, a Russian immigrant, maintained a page on Odnoklassniki, one of the most popular Russian Web sites, where he joined alumni groups from his high school and university in Russia’s Far East. He lived in Blagoveshchensk, 3,600 miles from Moscow, and attended Amur State University, earning a degree in international relations.

Cells of undercover operatives, masked as ordinary citizens, are known in Russian as “illegals,” and they occupy a storied position in Soviet culture.

One of Russia’s beloved fictional characters is an undercover agent, SS-Standartenführer Max Otto von Stirlitz, whose penetration of Hitler’s inner circle was at the center of popular television series.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who served as a K.G.B. officer in East Germany in the 1980s, has said Stirlitz’s character helped shape an entire generation of Soviet youth.

Illegals, unlike most spies, live in foreign countries without the benefit of a diplomatic cover, which would have offered them immunity from prosecution if they were caught. Soviet intelligence services began training a corps of these agents shortly after the October Revolution in 1917, when few countries had diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and it came to be seen as a particular Soviet specialty.

It is both risky and very expensive work, since agents often spend years just developing a fake life story, known in Russian as a “legend,” and because the K.G.B. would often keep an agent in place abroad for years or even decades before he or she was able to gather useful information.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many career spymasters began to speak publicly about the adventures of the illegals, but several recent arrests have come as reminders that the tactic is still in use.

In 2008, Estonia found that one of its top intelligence officials was reporting to a Russian agent who was living under a Portuguese identity as Antonio de Jesus Amorett Graf. In 2006 Canadian officials arrested a Russian spy who had been living under an assumed Canadian identity as Paul William Hampel.

OLD HABITS DIE HARD: HOW AMERICA NEVER BELIEVED RUSSIA HAD STOPPED SPYING

Under Putin, spies activity increased.


Robert Hanssen,double agent to Russian,allow $500 million falls to Russia hands through Oil for Food Irag program under U.N

The astonishing plot and arrests could rival the FBI's famous capture of Soviet Col. Rudolf Abel in 1957 in New York.

Also a deep cover agent, Abel was ultimately swapped to the Soviet Union for downed U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers in 1962.



That was during the Cold War - and since then relations have improved.

Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama shared a cordial visit just last week - even stopping off for a hamburger during an unannounced visit to a diner.

Yet neither side has dropped its guard completely.

According to Washington officials, Russia's covert foreign intelligence operations against America have reached Cold War levels under the watch of Mr Putin, below.
White House advisers believe that there is no other nation on Earth that is so determined to get intelligence on the U.S., with the possible exception of China.

Defence officials are particularly concerned by the SVR, the latest incarnation of the KGB's intelligence arm, which has a network of undercover agents in America.

Targets include research projects and military equipment in development .

The activities of the SVR are rarely put in the spotlight, but in 2007 a Russian man who posing as a Canadian citizen was caught and deported.

The alleged SVR agent had been living under the name Paul William Hampel and claimed to be a lifeguard and travel consultant, but was thought to be attempting to get information on the aerospace industry in Montreal.

He was held carrying a fake birth certificate, £3,000 in five currencies and several encrypted pre-paid mobile phone cards.
The two most prominent cases involving the SVR in the past decade may have been those of Robert Hanssen, right, the FBI counter-intelligence agent who was convicted of passing along secrets to the agency, and Sergei Tretyakov, deputy head of intelligence at Russia's U.N. mission in 1995-2000.

Tretyakov, who defected in 2000, claimed in a 2008 book that his agents helped the Russian government steal nearly $500 million from the U.N.'s oil-for-food program in Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein.

He said he oversaw an operation that helped Saddam's regime manipulate the price of Iraqi oil sold under the program and allowed Russia to skim profits.

One of the Cold War's most famous defectors says Russia may have as many as 50 deep-cover couples spying inside the United States.

Oleg Gordievsky, an ex-deputy head of the KGB in London who defected in 1985, said Mr Medvedev would be aware of the precise numbers of so-called illegal operatives in each target country.

The 71-year-old ex-double agent said Medvedev would know numbers but not necessarily their names. He also claimed the undercover operatives were often too timid to recruit high-ranking agents.

The List of Russian SuperSpies caught and charged by FBI -The femme fatale, the stay-at-home dad, the top newspaper columnist

Anna Chapman


Graves at Arlington National Cemetery, where America honours its war dead, near where Zottoli and Mills lived

Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near where Foley and Heathfield lived

Anna Chapman, 28:

Believed to be using her real name. A beautiful divorcee with a masters' in economics and an online real estate firm who attended high society New York parties, according to reports.

She lived in an apartment in a wealthy area of Manhattan.

She met regularly with Russian officials. FBI agents tried to use that to their advantage by setting up a sting with an agent posing as a Russian handler.


Suburban life: The Montclair, New Jersey house where'Richard Murphy' and 'Cynthia Murphy' were arrested by the FBI on Sunday

The Hala Sultan Tekke Mosque in Larnaca, Cyprus. Metsos was staying in a hotel in Larnaca

Chapman met with the handler on Saturday - but never followed through on the task given to her. She was arrested in Manhattan.

Mikhail Semenko

Believed to be his real name. Like Chapman, fooled into meeting FBI agents posing as Russian handlers. Unlike Chapman, he actually carried the 'mission' given to him by the FBI agents out.

He was described by friends as being a Mercedes driver in his late-20s who was often heard speaking in Russian to his girlfriend.

He was arrested in Arlington.

Christopher R Metsos, 55:

Arrested in Cyprus this morning attempting to board a flight to Budapest.

Bizarrely, he was then bailed pending an extradition hearing in 30 days. It is highly unusual for Cyprus courts to issue bail for foreign nationals pending extradition.

Not believed to be using his real name. FBI court documents said said Metsos was posing as a Canadian citizen - allowing him to travel freely to New York to meet at least one of the other defendants on numerous occasions.

Metsos has been accused of receiving and making payments to the other members of the group, including getting payments during a brush-pass with a Russian government official who was affiliated with the Russian mission to the United Nations in New York.

The U.S. embassy in Nicosia said it was not aware of the arrest.

Documents Cypriot authorities submitted to court said the Interpol red alert for Metsos was issued on June 26. It said he was thought to have laundered some $40,000.

'He has to appear at a police station once a day and has handed in his travel documents to police,' a police statement said.

Metsos had arrived in Cyprus on June 17 and had been staying alone at a hotel in Larnaca, on the east Mediterranean island's southern coast. His extradition hearing will start on July 29.

The New Jersey Conspirators': Richard and Cynthia Murphy

The pair - believed to have married as part of their cover - have lived in the U.S. since the mid-1990s.

Richard Murphy is posing as a U.S. citizen born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is believed to have travelled on a forged Irish passport.

His wife Cynthia is also posing as an American born as Cynthia Hopkins in New York City.

The couple lived in Hoboken, New Jersey. Since 2008 they have lived in a house in Montclair, New Jersey.

They are believed to have children. A neighbour, Louise Shallcross, 44, said she often saw Richard Murphy at the school bus stop.

'We were all very excited to have a stay-at-home dad move in,' she said.

Another neighbour told the New York Times: 'They couldn’t have been spies. Look what she did with the hydrangeas.'

The Boston Conspirators': Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley

Donald Heathfield, posing as a Canadian citizen, is married to Tracey Lee Ann Foley, posing as a naturalised U.S. citizen born in Canada.

Tracy Lee Ann Foley is believed to have used a British passport for trips back and forth from Moscow.

The pair, believed to be in their 40s and with two teenage sons, have lived in the U.S. since 1999. Court documents said that until this month they had lived long-term in a Boston townhouse. Now they live near Boston, in the town of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

'The Yonkers Conspirators': Juan Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez

Vicky Pelaez - believed to be her real name - is a United States citizen born in Peru. She is a reporter and editor.

She worked for several years for El Diario/La Prensa, one of the country's best-known Spanish-language newspapers.

She is best known for her opinion columns, which often criticize the U.S. government.

She has a son, Waldo Mariscal.

She is married to Juan Lazaro, posing as a citizen of Peru born in Uruguay.

The couple have each lived in the U.S. for over 20 years.

The Seattle Conspirators': Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills

Michael Zottoli is posing as a U.S. citizen born in Yonkers, New York.

He is married to Patricia Mills, who was posing as a Canadian citizen.

The couple have lived together over the years in a number of locations, including an apartment in Seattle, Washington.

In October, 2009, they moved to Arlington, Virginia.

Zottoli has lived in the U.S. since 2001, and Mills since 2003.

In Arlington, where Zottoli and Mills lived in a ninth-floor apartment, next-door neighbor Celest Allred said her guess had been that 'they were Russian, because they had Russian accents'.

They were arrested at home.

Russia SuperSpies were Americalized to commit missions used new spy methods of personal Wi fi Network to pass encrypted messages.

'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.

Russian agent posing as suburban mother used British passport to spy on U.S., claims FBI

'Highly trained agent': Chapman has also posted some less racy images of herself on her Facebook page.The flame-haired femme fatale: Anna Chapman, dressed in in brilliant red, at a party in New York in March. She is accused of being a Russian spy

The 'practised deceiver': Above left, Chapman in a photo from her Facebook page wearing her signature red dress. Above right, the accused spy in a racy pose also taken from her Facebook page

Accused: L-R, Anna Chapman, Vicky Pelaez, the defendant known as 'Richard Murphy', the defendant known as 'Cynthia Murphy', and the defendant known as 'Juan Lazaro' are seen in Manhattan federal court in New York last night

* Foreign Office investigating British passport claims
* Obama refuses to answer questions on arrests
* Putin says he hopes case will not damage U.S.-Russia relationship
* Man believed to be 11th spy nabbed today in Cyprus - then released on bail
* Accused allegedly used invisible ink and steganography
* Eight of the suspects were married couples, some with children
* Plot 'has been in place since the 1990s'
One of the women accused of being a Russian spy in the U.S. travelled on a British passport, according to the FBI.

Tracey Lee Ann Foley, who was posing as a naturalised U.S. citizen born in Canada, is believed to have been given forged British documents by her Russian handlers.

She used them to travel to and from Moscow with greater ease, the FBI has claimed.

The Foreign Office said today it was investigating the claim.

If true, itwill undo some of the work that Prime Minister David Cameron did during the recent G8 and G20 summits to improve relations with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.


So much for the friendly chats over burgers: Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama in a cordial photo op at Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia, last week - before news of the arrests broke

Suburban life: The Montclair, New Jersey house where'Richard Murphy' and 'Cynthia Murphy' were arrested by the FBI on Sunday

Suburban spies? Neighbours point outside the residence of Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after their arrest

The arrests are already likely to cause huge diplomatic embarrassment and chill relations between Mr Medvedv and U.S. President Barack Obama at a time when they had been thawing.

Today Mr Obama refused to answer questions over the arrests.

Meanwhile Russian premier Vladimir Putin - himself a former KGB hardman - said he hoped the case would not damage recent gains made in U.S.-Russia relations.

Foley is believed to be in her 40s and the mother of two teenage sons.

Her husband Donald Heathfield is also accused of being a Russian agent.

He was posing as a Canadian citizen, living with Foley in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard University is located.

The pair have lived in the U.S. since 1999.

Foley, Heathfield, and their nine co-accused allegedly used invisible ink, short-wave radios, steganography and wi-fi in cafés to pass coded messages back to Russia - including information on nuclear weapons.

Some of them are believed to have been operating for more than a decade.

One is a red-headed femme fatale named Anna Chapman.

Believed to be a 28-year-old divorcee with a masters' degree in economics and her own online real-estate business, she is being held without bail after prosecutors called her a 'highly trained agent' and a 'practised deceiver'.
Chapman is believed to have used her high-profile connections to pass American secrets on to a Russian government official every Wednesday since January.

On Saturday, an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian agent met with Chapman at a restaurant in New York.
The agent was pretending to send the alleged spy on a mission to deliver a fake passport to another female agent, according to court documents.

'Are you ready for this step?' he asked.

'S*** yes,' was her emphatic reply.

She was told that her fellow spy would greet her by asking: 'Haven't we met in California last summer?'

Chapman - who agents believe was operating under her real name - was supposed to reply: 'No, I think it was in the Hamptons.'
Once she had handed over the passport, she was to plant a stamp on a wall map to let her handlers know she had succeeded.

But the exchange never took place. The FBI court documents do not explain why.

One of her co-accused, Mikhail Semenko, was similarly set up in Washington by the FBI on the same day.

Unlike Chapman, he did follow through with his delivery.

The FBI also watched Chapman as she sat in a coffee shop in New York and used her lap top to, they claim, communicated with a Russian agent hiding in a mini-van nearby.

And she was once observed going into a Verizon mobile phone shop in Brooklyn to buy a phone using the name 'Irine Kutsov' - giving her address as '99 Fake Street'.

She intended to use the phone for her spying activities, the FBI claimed.

Chapman's lawyer Robert Baum argued that the allegations were exaggerated.

'This is not a case that raises issues of security of the United States,' he said.

The alleged spies have been charged with acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government and with money laundering.

Ten were arrested in the U.S. yesterday and charged in American courts. An 11th man had been on the run - but was arrested by police in Cyprus this morning.

However he was released on bail. Police have not yet explained why.

Among the accused were four couples, including Foley and Heathfield, living quietly in the suburbs of New York and Washington and Boston.

They are believed to have married as part of their cover.

One of the married women, believed to be working under her real name, is Vicky Pelaez, a Peruvian born reporter and editor.

She worked for several years for El Diario/La Prensa, one of the country's best-known Spanish-language newspapers.

She is best known for her opinion columns, which often criticize the U.S. government.
Her son, Waldo Mariscal, told the court that his mother was innocent.

'This is a farce,' he said. 'We don't know the other people.'

In January 2000, Pelaez was videotaped meeting with a Russian government official at a public park in Peru, where she received a bag from the official, according to one complaint.

Pelaez and her husband Juan Lazaro discussed plans to pass covert messages with invisible ink to Russian officials during another trip Pelaez took to South America, the court documents also claim.

The FBI said it intercepted a message from Moscow Center, headquarters of Russia's intelligence service, the SVR, to some of the defendants describing their main mission as 'to search and develop ties in policy-making circles in U.S.'

Intercepted messages showed they were asked to learn about a wide range of topics, including nuclear weapons, U.S. arms control positions, Iran, White House rumours, CIA leadership turnover, the last presidential election, Congress and the political parties.
Court papers also described a new high-tech spy-to-spy communications system used by the defendants: short-range wireless communications between laptop computers.

Working on laptops from free public wi-fi, the spies carried out the modern supplement for the old-style dead drop in a remote area, or high-speed burst radio transmission or the hollowed-out nickels used by Cold War-era Russian spies to conceal and deliver microfilm.

But, despite the new technology, there was no lack of Cold War spycraft.

According to the court papers, the alleged agents used invisible ink, stayed in touch with Moscow Center through coded bursts of data sent by a radio transmitter, used innocent-looking 'brush' encounters to pass messages in public, hid encrypted data in public images and relied on fake identities and false travel documents.

The arrests are already likely to cause huge diplomatic embarrassment and chill relations between Mr Medvedv and U.S. President Barack Obama at a time when they had been thawing.

The two leaders met last week at the White House, and also both attended the G8 and G20 meetings over the weekend in Canada.

Russia's embassy said it was unaware of the arrests and is seeking more information. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said he will seek an explanation from the U.S. on the allegations.

'They haven't explained to us what this is about,' Lavrov said at a news conference during a visit to Jerusalem today.

'I hope they will.

'The only thing I can say today is that the moment for doing that has been chosen with special elegance.'

Many Americans have refused to believe that Russia has changed from the lawless days when the country was run by Russia's spying agency, the KGB.

Their fears have been compounded because former President and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former First Chief Directorate of the KGB, still effectively controls the country, despite stepping down from power in 2008.

Intelligence on Mr Obama's foreign policy, particularly toward Russia, appears to have been a top priority by the alleged spy ring.

The plot appears to have been going on since some point in the 1990s.

Most of those arrested had been living under assumed names, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The defendants appeared in court last night.

Should they be convicted of being an agent of a foreign government, they face up to five years in jail, and up to 20 for the money laundering.
The spies' mission was spelled out in one communication sent to two of the defendants: 'Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc. - all these serve one goal: fullfil your main mission, i.e to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US and send intels' to the Moscow Centre', the Kremlin's spy HQ.

Anna Chapman was of particular interest - and not just for her reputation as a beauty.
She is believed to have entered the Russian Mission to the United Nations on ten occasions and sent messages to agents via a private wi-fi network.

On other occasions she would sit outside a coffee shop or go inside a book store whilst a van with a Russian agent in it parked up nearby, allowing them to share the same wi-fi.

In a series of 'info tasks', Russia is said to have given the spies assignments.

In one for May and June, they had to 'gather information with regard to the use of the Internet by terrorists, United States policies in Central Asia and Western estimation of Russian foreign policy'.

In spring 2009, the documents say, alleged conspirators, Richard and Cynthia Murphy, who lived in New Jersey, were asked for information about Mr Obama's impending trip to Russia that summer.

They were also asked for the U.S. negotiating position on the START nuclear arms reduction treaty as well as Afghanistan and the approach Washington would take in dealing with Iran's suspect nuclear program.

They were also asked to send background on U.S. officials travelling with Mr Obama or involved in foreign policy.

'Try to outline their views and most important Obama's goals (sic) which he expects to achieve during summit in July and how does his team plan to do it (arguments, provisions, means of persuasion to 'lure' (Russia) into cooperation in U.S. interests,' Moscow asked.

Moscow wanted reports 'which should reflect approaches and ideas of' four sub-Cabinet U.S. foreign policy officials.

One intercepted message said Cynthia Murphy, 'had several work-related personal meetings with' a man the court papers describe as a prominent New York-based financier active in politics.

In response, Moscow Center described the man as a very interesting target and urged the defendants to 'try to build up little by little relations. ...

'Maybe he can provide' Murphy 'with remarks re US foreign policy, 'roumors' about White house internal 'kitchen,' invite her to venues (to major political party HQ in NYC, for instance. ... In short, consider carefully all options in regard' to the financier.

The papers allege the defendants' spying has been going on for years.

One defendant in Massachusetts made contact in 2004 with an unidentified man who worked at a U.S. government research facility.

'He works on issues of strategic planning related to nuclear weapon development,' the defendant's intelligence report said.

The defendant 'had conversations with him about research programs on small yield high penetration nuclear warheads recently authorized by U.S. Congress (nuclear 'bunker-buster' warheads),' according to the report.

One message back to Moscow from the defendants focused on turnover at the top level of the CIA and the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

The information was described as having been received in private conversation with, among others, a former legislative counsel for Congress.

The court papers deleted the name of the counsel.

In the papers, FBI agents said the defendants communicated with alleged Russian agents using mobile wireless transmissions between laptop computers - a new spying method.

They established a short-range wireless network between laptop computers of the agents and sent encrypted messages between the computers while they were close to each other.






Real Proven Paid Pay Per click.Earn while surfing.No joke.













       

Russian spies 'vestiges' of old intelligence: US - 11 Russian Agents charged.

Sketch shows five of the 10 spy suspects in a New York courtroom

WASHINGTON — The United States said Tuesday that 11 alleged Russian agents arrested this week were "vestiges" of "old attempts to use intelligence," but the relationship between the two Cold War foes was still improving.

"We're moving towards a more trusting relationship. We're beyond the Cold War; our relations absolutely demonstrate that," said Phil Gordon, the assistant secretary of state for European Affairs.



"But I don't think anyone was hugely shocked to know that some vestiges of old attempts to use intelligence are still there."

Washington wants to "get to the point where there is just so much trust and cooperation between the United States and Russia that nobody would think of turning to intelligence means to find out things that they cannot find out (through) other channels," Gordon said.

"We're apparently not there yet," he noted.

Gordon stressed that while there are still disagreements between the United States and Russia, the two had made "significant progress" in last 18 months of pursuing a "different relationship."

North Korean spies arrested on kill mission-Failed assasination on North Korea most prominent defector in South Korea.

Hwang Jang Yop, who defected 13 years ago, is defiant in the face of threats

North Korean spies disguised as refugees entered South Korea on a mission to assassinate their government’s most prominent defector, prosecutors in Seoul have said.

The two military officers were allegedly ordered to murder Hwang Jang Yop, 87, a former senior member of the North Korean Workers’ Party who has become a hate figure since he defected to Seoul 13 years ago.

Their presence in the South raises questions about other North Korean spies who could be operating undetected on the wrong side of the demilitarised zone.

Kim Myong Ho and Dong Myong Kwan, both 36-year old majors in the Korean People’s Army (KPA), face death sentences after being charged with conspiracy to commit murder and violation of South Korea’s national security law.



They were detected after investigators noticed inconsistencies in their stories during routine questioning following their “defection” via China and Thailand.

According to the prosecution indictment, they confessed to being specially trained members of the KPA’s Reconnaissance Bureau, ordered to track down Mr Hwang, who has been living under 24-hour guard in a secret location since he defected in Beijing in 1997.

They were ordered to report on Mr Hwang’s activities in South Korea and be ready to “slit the betrayer’s throat”.

Mr Hwang was formerly North Korea’s chief ideologue, a close aide to the founding president, the late Kim Il Sung, and the formulator of the country’s national “philosophy” of juche, or self-reliance.

His defection was a profound humiliation to the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, and came at a moment of intense crisis when hundreds of thousands, and perhaps, millions of North Koreans were dying of famine.

At the time, many observers of Kim Jong Il’s government predicted its imminent collapse, and Mr Hwang was spoken of as a potential leader of a liberated North Korea in the same way that Ahmad Chalabi, of the Iraqi National Congress, was regarded as a replacement for a deposed Saddam Hussein.

But the regime has held on stubbornly, and Mr Hwang has filled the time by writing books and delivering lectures denouncing his former comrades.

At the time of his defection, Mr Kim was reported to have said: “Hwang turned against the party and its leader… How can we call him a human? He is worse than a dog.” He has been the object of threats from North Korea ever since.

In the latest tirade, a propaganda site named Uriminzokkiri described him this month as “an ugly traitor” who will never be safe.

Only 85 North Koreans defected in the same year as Mr Hwang, but in 2008 there were 2,800.

After several weeks of interrogation by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, they spend three months in a halfway house called Hanawon, where they are taught skills for adapting from one of the world’s poorest and most isolated societies to one of its richest and most cosmopolitan.

With such large numbers arriving, there is a constant fear of infiltration by spies which this new case will only increase. In the past, North Korea has been accused sending death squads to kill a number of defectors, although such claims are often difficult to prove.

In 1996, the South Korean consul in the Russian city of Vladivostok was beaten to death by an unknown assailant outside his home, an attack that was blamed on the North.

A few days after Mr Hwang’s defection, Ri Han Yong, a nephew of Kim Jong Il's late wife, was shot dead in broad daylight, 15 years after defecting to Seoul.

Freed journalists home in US after NKorea pardon

The jet carrying Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV, and Clinton arrived at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport at dawn. Clinton met with communist leader Kim Jong Il on Tuesday to secure the women's release.

Lee emerged from the jetliner first and was greeted by husband Michael Saldate and 4-year-old daughter Hana. She hugged the girl and picked her up before all three embraced in a crushing hug as TV networks beamed the poignant moment live.

Ling embraced her husband, Iain Clayton, as teary family members crowded around.

"The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching days of our lives," Ling said, her voice cracking.

Thirty hours ago, Ling said, "We feared that any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp."

Then, she said, they were taken to another location.

"When we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton," she said to applause. "We were shocked but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end, and now we stand here, home and free."

Mr. Clinton came down the stairs to applause. He hugged former Vice President Al Gore at the foot of the stairs, then chatted with family members. Mr. Gore described the families of the two women as "unbelievable, passionate, involved, committed, innovative."


Mr. Clinton won their release in a diplomatic stroke fraught with promise and potential pitfalls for the Obama administration's drive to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The announcement followed a face-to-face meeting between Mr. Clinton and North Korea's often irascible dictator Kim Jong Il -- the first such high-profile U.S. mission to the so-called "hermit kingdom" since Mr. Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, visited the country in 2000. The former president and a small entourage arrived in Pyongyang unexpectedly on Tuesday morning local time.

The mission took root in early July after one of the reporters told relatives in a phone call that North Korea would grant them amnesty in exchange for a visit from Mr. Clinton, according to a senior Obama administration official. A North Korean court convicted the pair in June of illegally entering the country when they filmed a report on the border region with China on March 17.

The trip and its diplomatic theatrics represent a sudden moment of goodwill and compromise between two countries with nearly 60 years of fractious relations that grew even more antagonistic over the past year.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he was "extraordinarily relieved" that the journalists returned home safely.

Mr. Clinton's discussions in North Korea could place the Obama administration in a difficult position as it seeks to keep humanitarian and strategic issues separate. Former U.S. officials note that no matter what parameters the White House sought to set for Mr. Clinton's mission, the discussions appeared to have moved beyond the issue of the journalists.

"We are very pleased with the outcome, and I'm hopeful that the families are going to be able to get some good time together in the next few days," Mr. Obama said.

At the same time, the White House spokesman maintained that Clinton had not carried any message from Obama to Kim. "If there wasn't a message, there certainly couldn't have been an apology," Gibbs told reporters.

The White House, noting that Clinton's trip was "a private mission" using a private aircraft "not paid for by the government," also made it clear that the negotiations over the journalists held by North Korea are distinct from the ongoing dispute that the U.S. has with Pyonyang.

Clinton, in a statement released by his office, said, "I am very happy that after this long ordeal, Laura Ling and Euna Lee are now home and reunited with their loved ones.
Ms. Lee came out of the jetliner first and was greeted by husband, Michael Saldage, and 4-year-old daughter, Hanna, according to the Associated Press. She hugged the girl and picked her up before all three embraced in a crushing hug. Ms. Ling embraced her husband, Iain Clayton, as teary family members crowded around, AP reported.


"When their families, Vice President Gore and the White House asked that I undertake this humanitarian mission, I agreed," Clinton said. "I share a deep sense of relief with Laura and Euna and their families that they are safely home."

"It speaks well of our country that, when two unarmed citizens are in harm's way," so many people will work for their release, Gore said by their side. "We say a word of thanks, deep thanks, as well."

In a statement, North Korea's Korean Central News Agency said the meeting "featured candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere."

"It's already clear they're discussing broader issues," said Selig Harrison, a Washington-based academic who's made numerous trips to North Korea to discuss the nuclear issue, including one this January.

"The best way to change our relationship with North Korea would be for the North Koreans to decide that it's time to live up to the responsibilities and the agreements that they themselves entered into," Gibbs added. "Our goal is a denuclearized the Korean Peninsula. And the North Koreans can and should live up to those agreements."

--After more than four months in captivity, a high-level visit from former US President Bill Clinton secured their release.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling are journalists with San Francisco-based Current TV, a media venture co-founded by former US Vice-President Al Gore.

Ms Ling, a 32-year-old California native, has experience covering the conflict in Sri Lanka, Brazilian slave labour and Iran's underground youth culture.

Ms Lee, a 36-year-old South Korean-born US citizen, is an editor with Current TV.

From the time they were captured, the two women's families urged the authorities in Pyongyang to release them, saying they were worried about the "mental state and wellbeing" of the pair.

In a joint statement, the families said Ms Ling suffered from an ulcer and that Ms Lee had a four-year-old daughter who was "displaying signs of anguish".

"We believe that the three months they have already spent under arrest with little communication with their families is long enough," the statement said.

Ms Ling's husband, Iain Clayton, appeared on US TV networks and read out a letter she had written from captivity: "While I am trying to remain hopeful, each day becomes harder and harder to bear. I am so lonely and scared."

Their hopes appeared dashed in early June when a quick trial saw them convicted and sentenced to 12 years of "reform through labour".

It seems, however, that the two were well-treated and kept in a Pyongyang guest house, with access to consular services provided by Sweden's embassy in North Korea and allowed to make several phone calls to their families in the US.

It was during these phone calls that the pair said Pyongyang had suggested that a visit by Mr Clinton could secure their freedom, US officials have said.

Analysts say they were probably being kept as bargaining chips to wrest concessions or direct talks with the United States.

But the US has said Mr Clinton did not discuss any other issues other than the women's freedom during his trip to Pyongyang.

The reporters' families, and officials in Washington, had urged that Pyongyang keep this case separate from the nuclear issue bedevilling relations between North Korea and the US.

The North Korean government, which in June sentenced the women to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, announced hours before the jet's departure from North Korea that it had pardoned the women after Mr. Clinton apologized to Mr. Kim for their actions.




Former President Al Gore, the founder of the media company that employs the journalists, hugged Ms. Lee. The two women who were stopped on March 17 by soldiers near North Korea's border with China while researching a report about women and human trafficking. They faced years of imprisonment in the gulag-like confines of a North Korean prison camp.



Ms. Lee embraced her husband, Michael Saldate, and 4-year-old daughter, Hana, as Ms. Ling hugged her husband, Ian Clayton. Administration officials said Mr. Clinton went to North Korea as a private citizen, did not carry a message from Mr. Obama for Mr. Kim and had the authority to negotiate only for the women's release.


Mr. Clinton embraced his former vice president, Mr. Gore. Given Mr. Clinton's stature and his long interest in the North Korean nuclear issue, experts said it was likely that his discussions in North Korea ranged well beyond obtaining the release of Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee.



Ms. Ling was kissed by her mother, Mary. The ordeal ended at a time when the United States' relationship with North Korea had become especially chilled, after North Korea's test of its second nuclear device in May and a series of missile launchings.



"Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea," Ms. Ling said in brief remarks to reporters, blinking back tears. "We feared that at any moment we could be prisoners in a hard labor camp. Then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting. We were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton."



Ms. Ling, left, and Ms. Lee stepped off the plane in jeans and sweaters, rushing down the stairs to be reunited with their families. The families issued a statement saying they were "overjoyed" by news of the pardon and thanked Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.



A private plane carrying former President Bill Clinton and two journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, landed early Wednesday morning in Burbank, just outside Los Angeles. During Mr. Clinton's dramatic 20-hour visit to North Korea, he won the freedom of the American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea's reclusive government and dined with the North's ailing leader, Kim Jong-il.



The negotiations catapulted Mr. Clinton back on to the global stage, on behalf of a president who defeated Mrs. Clinton in a bitter primary campaign last year, and who later asked her to be his secretary of state.





Freed US journalist Euna Lee (C) embraces her husband Michael Saldate and daughter Hannah upon her arrival with fellow journalist Laura Ling, after being released from North Korea, at the airport in Burbank, California on August 5, 2009.



Laura Ling, front right, thanked former President Bill Clinton for his assistance in the release of herself and fellow journalist Euna Lee, back right, while standing with Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore


Two American journalists jubilantly reunited with family and friends early Wednesday upon returning to the United States with former President Bill Clinton, whose diplomatic trip to North Korea secured their release nearly five months after their arrests.

Freed US journalists Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling are greeted by Euna's husband Michael Saldate (2nd-R) and her daughter Hannah and Ling's husband Lain Clayton as they arrive from North Korea at Burbank, California Wednesday. Following talks in Pyongyang with former US president Bill Clinton, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, who were arrested while reporting near North Korea's border with China. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labour for illegal entry and "hostile acts."

Freed US journalist Euna Lee (L) embraces her husband Michael Saldate and daughter Hannah and fellow journalist Laura Ling (R) embraces her husband Lain Clayton after being released from North Korea, at the airport in Burbank, California on August 5, 2009.

Former President Bill Clinton alongside Al Gore talk with journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee at Hangar 25 on August 5, 2009 in Burbank, California after being released by North Korean authorities yesterday. Ling and Lee, of San Francisco based Current TV, were both arrested by North Korea in March for illegally entering the country on the Chinese border. Yesterday they were pardoned by President Kim Jong-Il after a meeting with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Journalist Lisa Ling, left, smiles as she talks with sister and journalist Laura Ling who along with Euna Lee arrived at Hangar 25 on August 5, 2009 in Burbank, California after being released by North Korean authorities yesterday. Ling and Lee, of San Francisco based Current TV, were both arrested by North Korea in March for illegally entering the country on the Chinese border.

Freed US journalists Laura Ling speaks after arriving from North Korea with colleague Euna Lee (R rear) at the airport in Burbank, California on August 5, 2009. Following talks in Pyongyang with former US President Bill Clinton, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned the women who were sentenced to hard labor for entering the country illegally.

Journalists Laura Ling hugs husband Iain Clayton after her arrival with Euna Lee at Hangar 25 Wednesday. Ling and Lee, of San Francisco based Current TV, were both arrested by North Korea in March for illegally entering the country on the Chinese border. Yesterday they were pardoned by President Kim Jong-Il after a meeting with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Ling and Lee had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in June.

Former US President Bill Clinton (L) chats with his former Vice President Al Gore after freed US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee arrive dfrom North Korea at the airport in Burbank, California, on August 5, 2009. Following talks in Pyongyang with Clinton, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned the women were sentenced to hard labor for entering the country illegally.

---



---

-Bill Clinton Arrives in North Korea -

--------------------------------------------

Related Posts

• South Korea and US troops on High alert after North Korea scrap armistice on the peninsula
• North Korea Underground Nuclear Test - The Mechanism of Underground Nuclear Tests
• Iran confirms detention of three Americans