There have been some very interesting developments in the story of Sergei Tretyakov, the former deputy resident at the New York office of the SVR, which is the latest incarnation of the Russian KGB. What’s especially strange, however, is how the US press have been stumbling over one another ignoring the story that the number two man at the State Department was a spy for the SVR.
A short time ago I reviewed the book Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War by Pete Earley. The following commentary concerns some later developments on what was in the book and in my review. You might want to read the review first, then pick up your reading here.
To thumbnail it for you, Nelson Strobridge "Strobe" Talbott III, former Deputy Secretary of State from 1994 to 2001,was identified by the SVR as a "special unofficial contact," a dedicated term that the SVR uses to identify its key intelligence sources, people who knowingly feed information, sometimes classified, sometimes not, to their SVR handler. There are other specific terms used to identify sources who unwittingly or unknowingly feed information, and another specific term for those who commit outright espionage by stealing documents or equipment to pass on to their handler. "Special unofficial contact" is a person who knowingly and willfully passes on inside and/or classified information with the full awareness that it's being passed to the handler's foreign security services. I quote: "Inside the SVR, that term was used only to identify a top-level intelligence source who had high social and/or political status and whose identity needed to be carefully guarded. For example, Fidel Castro's brother Raul Modesto Castro Ruz had been recruited by the KGB during the Krushchev era as a SPECIAL UNOFFICIAL CONTACT and worked secretly for the Russians ..." Talbott was apparently quite vain, and easily stroked into giving up information. Further, the SVR used the term "'11-2' source," which is the "... same designation used by the SVR to identify sources in its network who were 'trusted contacts' (spies)."
Article comments
1 - Franco
If it's mostly all true, and it can't make it to the MSM, what does that tell us about the state of affairs in the US?
2 - bliffle
Strobe Talbott????
You're not kidding, are you? This is the first I've heard of it. I'm amazed, and then I'm double-amazed that this hasn't been widely discussed.
I look forward to reading more.
3 - Cannonshop
Hmmm... could it be that the MSM's giving him the benefit of the doubt due to his political affiliations, or is it that they simply see this as "Dog bites man", aka something so expected and expect-able (I know it ain't a word) that it's simply not newsworthy?
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
If a fellow with a name like Strobe Talbott III was a for real spy for the Russians, someone might say "isn't it about time to release Jonathan Pollard and go after the real enemies of the country?"
Can't have that, now, can we? That would be justice.
5 - Lou Novacheck
The only problem with Pollard is that they didn't hang the bastard.
6 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Lou, the only problem with your logic is that Pollard was never convicted of anything close to treason. He accepted a plea bargain which the government reneged on at the last minute.
If you want Pollard hung, get him convicted. If you go on such a campaign, you'll find yourself in the filthiest of company.
In the meantime, he is a hero here in Israel. Lots of us understand who our real enemies are, and they understand that our real enemies infest the White House and State Department like so many cockroaches. If you don't believe me, start from this story, and then go to my analyses of events in the Middle East, about ninety-five articles worth. The real reasons that Pollard rots in jail are that Jew-haters in the American government want vengeance, and people who benefit from his imprisonment, like Shimon Peres, want him there.
In the meantime, I'd stick with going after fish that really stink - like this Talbot character.
7 - Lou Novacheck
Pollard was caught being a traitor to the US. Period. He confessed to being a traitor to the US. Period. Plea bargain doesn't equal innocence. He's a traitor to this country. I don't care what you think of him outside this country, but the fact that you consider him a hero says a lot about where your loyalties lie. You're Israeli, I would expect you to be loyal to Israel. Yet you expect me not to be loyal to my country. Pretty hypocritical, aren't you, Ruvy?
8 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
No, Lou, I don't expect you to be loyal to your country. But being loyal to your country means, in part, respecting the principles of due process that are inherent in its governance. Had Pollard been convicted of treason, he ought to have been hung, or given the sentence that the law provides for.
But he wasn't. And he served the time he was supposed to serve for what he did confess to. Unlike other spies who confessed to similar crimes, he yet rots in jail. What I think of him is irrelevant to the fact that Pollard rotting in jail is not a triumph for your justice system.
9 - Lou Novacheck
You're obviously refusing to deal with reality, Ruvy. The guy was caught. He confessed. What part of that don't you understand?
You say the US didn't stick to their side of a bargain. Well, neither did he. He took an oath when he took his job. He crapped on his oath.
And a famous Chief Justice of our Supreme Court said something like, "The law is what you get in the courtroom. Justice is what you get in the alley."
10 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I never said that Pollard was a wunderkind or an angel. He crapped on his oath, like you said. For that, he deserved jail time.
It is not even clear that what he did was done out of belief. Unless, I am wrong, he was on some kind of drug, and his Israeli handlers were happy to "pay" him. His initial impulse might have been patriotic, but evidently there was more than mere patriotic motives behind his behavior.
As I said, Pollard was no angel.
He cleaned up his act in jail, but that is not the point. The sentence he was given was not proportionate to the crime he was convicted of AND OTHER SPIES CONVICTED OF SIMILAR CRIMES, HAVING PLED DOWN FROM TREASON AND HAVING DONE WORSE DAMAGE TO AMERICAN SECURITY, are now walking free.
That is reality, Lou, whether you like it or not. And this reality is a perversion of justice - a perversion of American justice. Or, if you consider justice what is meted out in the back alley, his continuing to rot in jail is a perversion of the American legal system.
11 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I don't expect you to be loyal to your country. That shoulda read "I don't expect you to be DISloyal to your country."
12 - Lou Novacheck
This discussion is pointless. Have a nice life.
13 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
You started an argument, and walked away in a huff because you couldn't argue me down.
You made my day, Lou. Thanks!!
Have a nice life.
14 - Christopher Rose
Nobody can argue you down, Ruvy...
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Nobody can argue you down, Ruvy...
From you, Chris, that is a compliment - even if you didn't mean it to be...
Thanks!
16 - Christopher Rose
No, Ruvy, it's not.
17 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I'll let you "win" that "argument", Chris....
Heh.
And now back to the evil spies for the Russkies.
Laters!
18 - Dr Dreadful
Ruvy, I'm wondering if Lou's unwillingness to continue your argument is because it would involve him saying things he cannot say.
19 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
DD,
A lot of things stink about the Pollard imprisonment, especially the fact that other spies who did far more damage than he did are now walking around free.
Pollard did wrong, and should have been imprisoned. But in the end, it was Caspar Weinberger, a Jew-hater as well as a bad policy maker, who insisted on the government breaking its deal to imprison him for however many years the plea bargain called for. He and a clique around him in the government insisted that Pollard rot in jail.
Israeli leaders themselves are not sainted heroes in this mess either. Peres, now state president, was the prime minister of the unnamed country in the Iran-contra scandal of the eighties and he made money off information that Pollard sent him.
So, guess who else wants Pollard to rot in jail?
But none of this is relevant to Lou's present article - except that double loyalties are now quietly imputed to American Jews, partly over the Pollard affair, and partly over the "sting operation" by which Dr. Lawrence Franklin was supposed to incriminate two AIPAC employees by feeding them information at the behest of the Feds. For whatever reason, Franklin dropped out of the deal and had to take the fall - now he is in jail.
But it appears that the Russian spy is a good ol' WASP - just liked a couple of others who really damaged American intelligence when they were uncovered.
There is indeed more here than meets the eye.