Spooky Timing
I assume this is a coinkydink. But oh what a coinkydink it is.
Sergei Tretyakov, a high-ranking Russian spy whose defection to the United States in 2000 was regarded as one of the most significant coups against the Russian government since the collapse of the Soviet Union, died June 13 at his home in Osprey, Fla.
Mr. Tretyakov’s wife said he died after suffering a heart attack, according to Pete Earley, the author of a book about Mr. Tretyakov. The former Russian spy was 53 and news of his death was withheld at the request of his family pending an investigation into the cause, Earley said.
[snip]
At the time of his defection on Oct. 11, 2000, Mr. Tretyakov allegedly had been working as a double agent for the United States for three years while he was the SVR’s second-in-command in New York. From 1995 to 2000, he oversaw all Russian covert operations in the city and had more than 60 intelligence officers under his command, according to [a book by Pete Earley on Tretyakov].
The intelligence Mr. Tretyakov handed over during his time as a double agent amounted to more than 5,000 top-secret SVR cables and scores of classified Russian intelligence reports. He wrote an estimated 400 papers for the CIA, the FBI, the State Department and the White House.
The WaPo doesn’t say it explicitly, but Tretyakov was, at the time of his defection, the First Secretary at the Russian Mission to the UN in NYC. The Russian handlers of the illegal spy ring just swapped back to Russia served in the same kind of role (Russian Official #2, who is described in most detail in the complaints on the spies, is or was the Second Secretary to the Russian Mission). And the FBI has had the network of illegals under surveillance since at least 2000, suggesting that Tretyakov likely alerted the US of the extent of the ring when he defected (the FBI started surveillance before he defected, but if he was a double agent as has been reported, he may have tipped the US off to the ring).
And look at how it lines up with the discussions of and timing of the bust:
June 5: Mikhail Semenko’s laptop chats with Russian Official #2 surveilled
June 9: Chapman’s laptop chats with Russian Official #1 surveilled
June 11: Obama briefed about Russian spy swap
June 13: Tretyakov dies
June 16: Chapman’s laptop chats with Russian Official #1 surveilled
June 18: Obama chairs NSC meeting on Russian spy swap
June 24: Obama and Dmitri Medvedev go to Ray’s Hell Burger
June 25: Complaint against 9 spies dated
June 26: FBI collects evidence against last two remaining spies; FBI agent says to Chapman, “I know you are going back to Moscow in two weeks.”
June 27: Spies arrested
June 29: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov complains about timing of arrest; Obama reported to be miffed about timing of arrest; DOJ attributes timing to pending travel–presumably Chapman’s
Week of July 5: White House almost cancels spy swap because names of proposed spies in Russia leaked
July 8: Spy swap completed
July 10: Two weeks after FBI Agent said Chapman would be traveling to Russian in two weeks; Tretyakov’s death reported
The family may have withheld news of Tretyakov’s death by the heart problem he had had his entire life, but the delay also happened to have delayed news of his death until the spying activity he was originally part of was–at a minimum–exposed as part of this spy sting. And note the meetings involving President Obama on arresting the illegals and conducting the spy swap happened within a week before and after his Tretyakov’s death.
So maybe it’s not such a coinkydink after all…
Жаль
Interesting. I was just reading the possibility he trained Chapman.
Tretyakov?
He’s probably immediately connected with Christopher Metsos, the guy who reportedly jumped bail in Cyprus and probably the most interesting of the illegals.
So yeah, I’d say this is one more piece of evidence that the spy ring is all about wrapping up Tretyakov’s life’s work at Russian Mission, and little to do with some suburban folks on the SVR dole.
Yes, but why the need to wrap up Mr. T’s life? What was gained by it? Why did it have enough importance to activate the arrests?
You would think that if the Russians knew of Mr. T’s defection, and I’m sure they did, they must have assumed he disclosed the spy ring. If they assumed that, why did they keep it operating anyway?
I’m not saying anything nefarious w/Mr. T. I’m saying the reverse, that Mr. T’s imminent death made the Admin decide to close it down.
The govt is clear that Mr. T didn’t know people like Anna Chapman. But they have not said he didn’t know RO #1, #2, #3. At least one, possibly all, appear to have been out of the country in 2000, so I’m suggesting that Mr. T was simply helping CIA understand them.
The “Government is clear” could be that only they were told that Mr. T had nothing to do with the Chapman group ad others…by Mr. T himself. And they could find no evidence BEFORE THE ARRESTS that Mr. T had specific knowledge from their surveillance.
But what about afterwards? AFTER the agents were interrogated? Could it be that one or more of the agents revealed links to Tretnyakov under interrogation…and this suggested that he was not fully forthcoming about all he knew? So perhaps Tretnyakov gave up SOME intelligence, while holding back that about deeper embedded agents.
Once the roll-up started Tretnyakov would have realized that the gig was up…that he would be exposed as an implanted “double agent”.
But given the minor sorts of things that these agents seemed to be involved in, why would the KGB give up the real successful sharks to allow minnows to swim?
Another possibility is that the KGB planted one of the agents with fabricated compromising evidence against Tretnyakov…this cover story could be offered up to “get” Tretnyakov for his defection. After disclosing this information under interrogation this would result in renewed questioning of Tretnyakov by the FBI…and he may have been under stress from that…perhaps enough to stop taking his heart medicine or commit suicide.
So suicide? A last act?
Stuff just doesn’t add up.
How could it be that the Russian SVR wouldn’t know their US network of illegals had all been compromised by Tretyakov’s defection to the US in October 2000?
And that Tretyakov’s SVR co-workers at the Russian UN mission somehow remained “uncompromised” after Tretyakov’s defection as well?
To believe the Administration’s and MSM’s spin of this story, one would have to believe that the Russian SVR was lead by cartoonish idiots like Boris and Natasha of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame.
As I said at the start, stuff just doesn’t add up.
Right. That’s what Jeff Stein wrote today.
But keep in mind, I don’t think we have reason to believe that Russian Officials #1, 2, 3 or Metsos were in the US in 2000. So it may be that the Russians stupidly kept up the network with the illegals (we’ve got surveillance on Peleaz and Lazaro going back to 2000, but in a foreign country–probably Peru) and by tracking the illegals we were able to catch the outlines of the people who replaced Tretyakov et al.
I hadn’t yet seen Jeff Stein’s piece today (still catching up from my fishing trip return – yes, even retirees go on vacation), so ta for that.
And I’ll grant you the likelihood that the current crop of Russians with diplomatic cover were not the same ones in place in 2000 (as well as Metsos), and while I may not find some of Jeff’s source, former Mossad operative Ostrovsky’s “speculations” too credible, I do agree with Jeff’s other source, an “American counterintelligence veteran”, when he says “a lot of this does not pass the smell test.”
Later edit:
I’m not sure what parts of these stories to believe after reading Jeff Stein’s earlier piece from Friday that claims Tretyakov had no prior connection, and no prior knowledge, of the ten illegals arrested.
And that was based on info from Tretyakov’s biographer, former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley who wrote this disclaimer yesterday:
Sergei’s Death. Mistakes. Nonsense and a Chuckle
Yeah, I take the denials as bunk. Not least, because Earley is just denying that Tretnyakov knew the illegals arrested.
This is perfectly consistent with “Tretnyakov knew the Russian handlers who would go on to run the illegals program, the CIA consulted with him in ongoing fashion about the program as it tracked them, and when they realized they would no longer have him around to consult, they decided to roll it up.”
This “smells” better than the chum the Administration and MSM previously were spreading.
Heh,heh, pretty good analogy for someone who just came back from a fishing trip,as per #10.
IMHO, when it comes to bottom feeding MSM’ers ,the smellier the better.
Now if I can only analogize something about mosquitoes the size of B-52s. *g*
Mebbe they were really some of those hummingbird size drones.s/
Which is another way of saying they’ve been tracking the handlers almost as long as the illegals (and at least two of them, they’ve been tracking in other countries). So the real question, is why did they choose now to make the handlers toxic in the US?
Toxic, but not PNG (persona non grata), or at least as far as I’ve seen, the US has not formally requested that Russian Officials #1, 2, 3 “hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more.”
I suppose the US and Russia understand that such an exit is implied and need not be explicit, but no exit has been reported as of yet to my knowledge.
The “reset button” has a “clean slate” spying implication? *g*
ahh, this is really interesting,
my superficial reaction was he ran out of usefulness and mebbe we did a favor to Russia, heart attack is easy to cause and who knows if the heart defect story is myth. Or Russia managed to off him. But Occam’s Razor rules. That his death accelerated the roll up would explain why it happened so unseemly soon after Obama’s meeting with Medvedev.
See, I actually think we may have been doing the Russians a favor, or that we gave them a heads up on the 3 UN Mission representatives–asking them to be withdrawn–and then we rolled up the illegals for Russia as a favor so it didn’t have these dependents in the US doing nothing. The whole point of my kabuki comment is that the claim that O didn’t tell Medvedev about the bust appears to be designed to give Medvedev the appearance of not having sold out these spies.
And in exchange, we get a window on arms control, which is O’s hot button issue.
It must be REALLY hot, to give up a spy sting with a reasonable shot of rolling up most of the Russian agents in the states. Speculation by former spys in various books leaves me with the impression that about 2/3 to 3/4 of the Russian spies are run from the UN, with most of the rest run from San Fran.
Obama has not impressed me as a good horse trader, but what did he get in exchange that he thought was worth 2/3 of the Russian spies?
I still think it was AA to Iran. Israel will hit Iran if the Russians complete that sale, don’t doubt it for a minute. Obama really doesn’t want Israel to hit Iran.
Boxturtle (Speculation is fun!)
But you’re assuming this didn’t ALSO include rolling up those spies. Honest, is there any chance that the Russians haven’t withdrawn ROs #1,2,3? So it’s possible Metsos got away. But the rest of them are now useless.
You have no idea how many Russians, Ukrainians … etc. (former Iron Curtain) live out here. Where I live you virtually can’t turn around, without hearing someone speaking Russian, or some Eastern Euro language
I’ve been saying for years that the US spy agencies need to keep their eye on these people instead of focusing the vast majority of their resources on the “brown” people
They have the perfect cover. Most of them came here because of religious persecution (ultra-ultra-ultra right wing christian fundies; think of rapturites times 100, and Prop 8 fanatics) which the Republicans love because they get their own special immigrant group. And they’ve settled near high tech, and current, and former military installations (think vendors and suppliers)
They’re harder to pick out. They’re not brown. And they go to “normal” churches (i.e. not mosques)
Yes, it is possible that the Bush had them imported in to support the Prop 8 drive. He figured that Dem’s had their group of illegal supporters, why not the GOP?
He likely figured it was the only way to stop illegal immigration because we all know Dem’s only principle is “What gets us elected,” and if illegal immigration began to favor the GOP, the Dem’s would immediately switch positions and begin to push to secure the border and arrest illegals.
I hope your comment is tongue-in-cheek
Because, if not, you missed the point (prolly my fault for being imprecise)
My few words in one sentence about the Eastern Euro immigrants was meant to be ancillary to the larger point of the potential probability of the continuation of international spying
Wouldn’t it be in their best interest to continue it?
Especially with our gov distracted by everyone and anyone who looks “different,” and spending billions of dollars and almost limitless energy keeping those people locked up?
YMMV
Yes, meant tongue in cheek.
You have a good point. I am sure they have some similar network still here. And, we likely there.
such a delicate dance
Man, Anna never hooked up with Jack Abramoff?
http://www.peteearley.com/blog/2010/07/09/sergei-tretyakov-comrade-j-has-died/
Sergei Tretyakov, Russian Spy ‘Comrade J,’ Dead at 53
Published by Pete on July 9, 2010 in Books and Personal.
I am sorry to announce that my good friend, Sergei Tretyakov, the subject of my book, Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War, died unexpectedly on June 13th in his home with his wife, Helen.
Review of Comrade J
http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/the-kgbs-state-department-spy/
I’m surprised it wasn’t the infamous cerebral haemorrhage or an irradiated cup of tea. Perhaps it was just a case of taking advantage of an opportune moment.
You are referenced here: http://www.facebook.com/sharedsacrifice
Interesting indeed. There is also the matter of the US spies who came back in the exchange. Hopefully they were better than the Russian Murphys.
What leftover business from the W era might be closed out by this swap? It sure looks like Obama and Medvedev wanted to remove an impediment to the START agreement after the death of Tretyakov. Or to something else in the US-Russian relationship.
I’m sure EW will mine Walter Pincus’ latest at the WaPo for even more dot connections:
A dot connection that might cross EW’s mind:
(My Bold)
Chapman buys a “burn phone” to call home, but “somehow” the US is able to monitor it.
I wonder how the US government can monitor a newly purchased, totally clean, and totally anonymous cellphone, and do so in a matter of minutes?
Think about that!
TSP redux anyone?
And no warrant is required since under the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (thanks so much Barak Obama and Jello Jay Rockefeller!) warrantless wiretapping is allowed for any communications that entail:
a. One end of the call being domestic, but the other is to a foreign location.
b. And for foreign intelligence purposes.
But I’d still like to know how they managed to do it so quickly, and for a totally new anonymous cellphone.
The easiet surmise is that all calls to Moscow are monitored, but that doesn’t explain the rapidity of the FBI in deciding to arrest Chapman.
They’re still blowing smoke about why they were going to arrest her. They would have done so in any case when it became so clear she suspected.
And while I am a bit intrigued they got that call, I’m not surprised. They can suck up anything on earth and you don’t think they can go to Verizon and ask them for a call? It’s a digital call, remember, so it’s not like you need to “record” it simultaneously.
EVerything in there, except the news that Murphy was also traveling to RUssia (on June 28) is stuff I’v ehit on.
Went through and looked to see if there were any obits published in the last month in greater Sarasota area for Tretyakov — nothing came up — definitely kept quiet.
I see the AP’s story has a few different, additional details; Earley also appears to have some issues with AP on timing of the report, given the comment left by an AP reporter at Earley’s blog.
What now seems more odd than it did at the time was the hamburger summit and the strolling that Obama and Medvedev did while the Russian was here. We’d only heard recently that a lot of meetings have been taking place outside of the White House between officials and interested parties, but now Obama goes out for a burger with Medvedev and nobody notices yet another meeting (actually several) which occur outside of the White House, this time with a major foreign leader.
During Medvedev’s visit, he and Obama went for a walk outside of the White House via Lafayette Park under the watch of sharpshooters as they went to what was characterized as a US Chamber of Commerce function. I’m sure the Secret Service must have cleared out the park, leaving these two quite alone and out of earshot…
How convenient. Might make one wonder what concerns the White House might have about being overheard and by whom.