Russian Spies Seek to Undermine U.S.

Well, surprise, surprise. Considering how Russia has been acting, really since KGB man Vladimir Putin has had anything to do with the Russian government, we shouldn't drop our jaws in amazement at the breaking news which greets us this week concerning Russian spies being deeply ensconced in American society. Eleven undercover agents (I wouldn't be surprised if there are many more) have been arrested for their "alleged" spying activities for the Russian intelligence service (SVR). They were living among us, and paid by the Russian government to feed it information gathered surreptitiously about U.S. government activities.

In 2010. Not 1975. Ze cold var is zupposed to be over! Chya! I mean Nyet!

I hope that this will wake up someone in the U.S. government to the duplicitousness of Putin, Medvedev and the Russian government. They can't be trusted as far as they can be thrown. But it's a hopeless wish. (See my article below concerning Russia and Iran.)

What is our government's attitude toward this unfriendly activity? It is a cavalier, practically light-hearted response. This very week the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that this would not affect relations between the two countries. Really? Here is a foreign government acting even more maliciously and underhandedly than usual and it won't affect the relationship?

No. The Obama regime excels at turning a blind eye to things that harm American interests and sovereignty.

What exactly would it take for this administration to have a relationship affected? Instead of President Obama saying that this is a troubling development if true, it was said by Baghdad Bob Gibbs that the president had NO personal opinion on the matter.

Of course not, why should the president of the United States have an opinion on foreign nationals allegedly spying on the country?

Unfortunately (using golfing terminology that Obama will be quite comfortable with), that is par for the course with this president. He is willing to allow foreign nationals free entry to the U.S., free and unlimited use of our services, displace U.S. workers by taking jobs from them, and now he wants to pardon and amnesty them.

I suspect if he had an opinion about the Russian spies, it would be similar to his stand on illegal aliens. Let them come out of the shadows, pardon them, give them healthcare, make them citizens and give them a DNC membership card.

Don't worry. It's more like they were stealing pickles from the pickle jar, than stealing state secrets. Mhmm.

That's not the point at the same time that it is. We need to worry very much about the information they may have gotten past the FBI, but we also need to worry what else Russia is doing to undermine us.

The rest of us need to worry even if the Obama regime doesn't.

With Friends Like Russia

Hey Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev! Does Russia want to be friends with the United States or make things difficult for the U.S. and the rest of the world?  Seems like you want to be difficult to me. Because your consistently cozy actions with Iran are not the actions of a friend. Especially now. (I mean come on, let's have a Super Soaker shootout and leave all the animosity in the past.)

What would you say about us if we were pals with separatists in Chechnya and supplied them with missile systems or nuclear technology?

Iran has stated that it wants to destroy Israel. And you want to continue to give them tools that will make it easier to do so? Iran also trains and supplies insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Insurgents that kill civilians and troops from many countries. Do you want to enable and buttress this kind of activity? Apparently you do. Normal relations with a terrorist state is tantamount to tacit approval of their policies.

Maybe supplying long-range surface-to-air S-300 missiles to Iran, a country that is openly hostile to the U.S. and the west in general is a bad idea. Maybe helping them with their nuclear program when everyone in the world is worried about their intentions is a bad idea. Doing that and some of the other things you do leave us normal, everyday citizens of this country with the impression that you would rather help our enemies than us. It leaves us with the impression that you are indeed on the side of our enemies. Why? What's up with that? Power politics? You can be a powerful nation without propping up terrorist regimes. Why do you want to help the whack-job President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamist Ayatollahs?

Sanctions are going to be ineffectual, of course, if you and China and Turkey and Brazil and Indonesia and others ignore the sanctions or are selective in implementing them. And the fact that you need an exception to the sanctions on Iran with a dangerous new weapons system is exactly the wrong kind of breach of sanctions the sane world would hope for. Weapons that could result in harm to Israel, U.S. and NATO soldiers, Iraqi and Afghan citizens.

How about you start acting more like a friend and less like an old enemy and maybe we'd feel less like we need to protect ourselves from you.

Happy 170th birthday to Peter IIyich Tchaikovsky.