Why A Story About Russian Spies Who Use Facebook?
They did dead drops, passed bags of money to each other, and went to parties. And sympathized with Castro, which is so moronic as to be its own punishment.
high value targetsBut they have been charged merely with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent for a foreign government and with conspiracy to commit money laundering. No espionage charges were filed because of the simple fact that they were never observed sending classified information. Their dispatches were the kind of stuff you'd find on the web, such as the outlook for the global gold market and President Obama's goals for a summit in Russia.
Which begs the question, why should Moscow have bothered?
The answer is that Moscow thinks it's 1971. Not to say they're dump or importent, but there's a mixture of denial and wishful thinking akin to a midlife crisis: if we toss the ball around like it's the old days, then we still got it.
They don't.
The past 15 years of Russian history can be summarized with these two charts:
Which means this:
and everything else you can surmise.
While the youth of Russia live by the internet, the government really doesn't get it. At Davos, Michael Dell asked Putin how he/companies can help build IT infrastructure in Russia. Putin's response: "You know, the trick is we're not someone in need of help. We're not invalids."
So while Russians are inventing Chatroulette and banging out the warez, this is what's going on in upper management:
I have absolutely no doubt that every word of that caption is true. Meanwhile, Fox News would drown in its own ejaculate if Obama ever used a phone given by the Russians.
For the most part, the country's security services are run by the very old (Lebedev, Shlyakturov), non-technical (Fradkov, Shlyakturov), ex-KGB, miltary dreamers, and Darths. Without the Force.
II.
As far as I know, Russia has never admitted anyone was a spy for them, let alone 11 people. So why admit it now?
Because they were admitting it to Russians. "See? We still go it."
III.
Where it gets messy is here: why would America admit it? Why is such a non-event all over the news? Why does the American media care so much about this story?
(CNN) The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the arrests are "unfounded and have unseemly goals."
"We do not understand the reasons why the U.S. Department of Justice has made a public statement in the spirit of the Cold War," said the statement, posted on the ministry's website. "Such incidents have occurred in the past, when our relations were on the rise. In any case it is regrettable that all these things are happening on the background of the 'reset' in Russian-U.S. relations announced by the U.S. administration."
The question isn't just why, the question is why now:
The Russian operation was believed to date back to the 1990s... the FBI conducted extensive electronic surveillance of the suspects for years, including secretly recording and videotaping them and surreptitiously entering residences to take photographs and copy documents.
Public choice theory is about private choice practicality, and the inevitable question: who benefits?
Government and media on the same page. "Time to get control of the internet."
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July 2, 2010 10:20 PM | Posted by : | Reply
So... ¿ye olde spying tricks are obsolete? Because I really don't see how these people even resemble real spies.
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
July 2, 2010 11:09 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Why now? One was planning to leave the U.S.
The guy in Cyprus posted bail and disappeared.
The media and the government want control of the Internet?
Yeah, the Interet-using public will allow that to happen, when the US Postal Service delivers all our packages.
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
July 2, 2010 11:34 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Love the face.
Wow, though: outgunning Jason Bourne. That takes some doing.
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
July 3, 2010 12:47 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I can think of a lot of easier ways to exchange data that don't involve wifi or steganography. I wonder if that wifi was even secure. Probably not.
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
July 3, 2010 2:53 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Pretty much dead at the face you drew.
I could totally picture that in me brainz... some re-re sucking that down totally enthralled with the awesomeness of IRL spiez being even more crafty and using the interwebs with one hand tied behind their back. PRIVATE WIFI NETWORK HOL-E-SHIT, just like I use to play first person shooters w. my pals and shit except much more awesome this time with SPIES AND ANGELINA JOLIE?
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
July 3, 2010 4:04 AM | Posted by : | Reply
This whole thing is ridiculous.
A 27 digit number has a keyspace of 62^27 or 10^48. That's fucking nuts. That's around the number of atoms in the solar system. There hasn't been enough time since the big bang to crack that if it used AES. Which makes me think the Russians are still ridiculously paranoid or they think the NSA has partially cracked AES -- which would be equally wild.
From Russia with Love and Zyprexa
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
July 3, 2010 5:32 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I don't think they went public with this to make an opportunity. It's just not scary, not even if you're a full-blown patriot.
Meanwhile, hot russian spies on facebook? I'll have to add them to my friends list.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
July 3, 2010 2:32 PM | Posted by : | Reply
"But they have been charged merely with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent for a foreign government..."
There are registered agents? "Hi, guys. I'm a spy from Russia. Where do I fill out the form to do my spy-stuff in this country? Do I have to check in with the CIA weekly, or can we just do it once a month?"
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
July 3, 2010 9:00 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Jason Bourne would've memorized his 27-character password, not left it on a post-it next to his computer. Just sayin.
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
July 4, 2010 12:47 AM | Posted by : | Reply
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/weekinreview/04markoff.html?_r=1
Curbing web anonymity- July 2
Worth noting that Finland just made Internet access a fundamental right
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
July 5, 2010 9:22 AM | Posted by : | Reply
It may or may not interest you to know, Alone, that I had a dream last night in which you were a heavily muscular English man who presented me, in his kitchen, with an acceptance to a course on psychology. And when I said "But I have no formal education! I'm just a musician!" you said "Don't worry, I'm just a mathematician."
No sex happened.
Score: 5 (7 votes cast)
July 6, 2010 12:11 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Rob, I would never admit to such a thing, ever. Not even on a blog.
How can you write those words and still maintain self respect?
You should have pretended it was a sex dream and made like a 1950's gay man: keep that shit in the closet.
I think a sex dream featuring TLP would be less embarrassing than what you jsut typed, actually.
Score: 0 (4 votes cast)
July 6, 2010 6:53 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
So you wouldn't admit to having a dream but you would admit to predicating your self-respect upon whether or not you violate arbitrary rules about candor on a blog?
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
July 7, 2010 2:18 AM | Posted by : | Reply
You are right. This is the government trying to get control of the internet from private citizens. Why? I have no idea, other than the fact I suspect increasingly they are afraid of the "masses" as the "masses" (atleast those I see every day) are becoming increasingly angry, upset and hostile. In fact, the other day, I saw a mob of people with pitch forks walking down the street towards the federal building. On the history channel. And someone finally got the message that history can repeat itself and generally purges are not kind to the establishment. Even if that purge is just a mass voting out of everyone so obvious that to deny it would in fact result in a real mob with pitch forks (or semi automatic weapons...). Or corporate america buying the airwaves and telling you their is a mob walking towards the local federal building. Either way, the powers that be are getting nervous because as 20% of the population is about to have nothing to do now that Oprah is over soon to be over. A few million of those might actually try to educate themselves and figure out how incredibly full of shit the politicians and technocrats in this country are.
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
July 8, 2010 11:33 AM | Posted by : | Reply
"Fox News would drown in its own ejaculate if Obama ever used a phone given by the Russians"
Makes you wonder why they ignore many of the devices (computers, routers, phones, pads, etc.) used by this and any other administration are made by the Chinese.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
August 20, 2010 2:21 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Ultimate movie…………………………………good to see it and most important thing I like salt means Angelina plays outstanding performance.
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
September 8, 2011 9:50 AM | Posted by : | Reply
If you want to buy a car, you will have to receive the loan. Furthermore, my father all the time utilizes a short term loan, which supposes to be really useful.
Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
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