Via never-before-seen footage and in-depth interviews, “The FBI Declassified” takes you contained in the minds of heroic federal brokers and analysts as they reveal how they solved among the greatest circumstances of their careers. Watch Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS.
Produced by Resa Matthews and Anthony Venditti
Round 2000, FBI brokers realized there have been a number of units of Russian spies in america, posing as People. “Operation Ghost Tales was most likely the most important FBI counterintelligence investigation in historical past,” says Alan Kohler, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.
The spies had been skilled in Russia to assimilate into on a regular basis American life by getting married, acquiring jobs and elevating households, whereas additionally sending encoded messages again house, the FBI brokers say. The spies lived double lives.
For greater than a decade, FBI brokers bugged the spies’ houses, adopted their travels, and in the end cracked their secret communications community.
“They went to high school with People. They went to July 4th events with their neighbors,” says Kohler. “And by no means as soon as did anyone suspect they’d be Russian spies.”
Counterintelligence brokers say the Russian spies bought jobs they believed would enable them entry to folks in highly effective positions. Their mission was to assemble delicate info that may be despatched again to Moscow, which may probably be used to wreck U.S. nationwide safety.
Each transfer they made was monitored. FBI brokers recorded a number of exchanges the place the Russians handed massive quantities of money to one another in public locations – to assist finance their operations – and one occasion the place $60,000 was buried at a freeway relaxation cease, to be retrieved later.
Might the FBI cease the spies earlier than delicate secrets and techniques bought into the arms of the Russian authorities?
“You are all the time questioning, what are you lacking?” says Ricci. “Have they got contacts? Have they got entry to categorised info? … The dangers…had been astronomical.”
THE SPIES NEXT DOOR
Todd Shelton | FBI Particular Agent: After we first realized that we could have … Russian intelligence officers … working in america … that turned a vital menace that we wanted to deal with.
Todd Shelton: We glance to make use of each instrument within the FBI investigative toolbox. Wiretaps, digital monitoring, intercepts of digital communication … to study … precisely what we had been dealing with.
By 2000, the New York workplace of the FBI was main an unprecedented investigation into Russian intelligence brokers residing in america probably threatening nationwide safety.
CBS Information/FBI
Todd Shelton: Initially we targeted on … Juan Lazaro and Vicky Peláez, who’re residing in Yonkers, New York. … We had Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills, who had operated for a very long time within the state of Washington and relocated to suburban Washington, D.C. We had Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley, who had been working and working in and round Boston. … We recognized Richard and Cynthia Murphy, who had been then residing in Montclair, New Jersey.
Todd Shelton: The Murphys had two youngsters born in america.
Leon Panetta | Former CIA director: Their youngsters don’t know. … Retaining the youngsters at the hours of darkness about what they’re doing is a strategy to just remember to hold their identification as safe as potential.
The spies’ identities, or backstory – referred to as a legend – was decided lengthy earlier than they set foot on American soil.
Maria Ricci | FBI Particular Agent: I haven’t got firsthand information on when Richard and Cindy met … and have become a husband and spouse couple. … I do know that historically … skilled intelligence officers … are paired up … at Headquarters again in Moscow.
Their new identification required new IDs and credentials.
Todd Shelton: Richard and Cynthia Murphy are each fabricated folks. They’d a solid U.S. beginning certificates from the state of Pennsylvania and the state of New York, respectively.
Todd Shelton: We had been capable of finding among the authentic documentation … by clandestine searches.
Todd Shelton: The intelligence work — it is not all James Bond and sports activities automobiles. It is nitty-gritty evaluation. How did they learn to do that? The place did they get the documentation? The inks had been studied. The papers had been studied.
With pretend IDs and their backstory memorized, their assignments had been to mix in with People.
Maria Ricci: Once they first come to america, they’re armed solely with a beginning certificates. They needed to construct a life right here.
Maria Ricci: Richard Murphy started his profession as a pc guide. … He went to New College and bought a level … in public coverage. After which he ended up turning into a stay-at-home dad. His spouse, Cindy, she was a monetary planner after which in the end bought her MBA at Columbia College.
Maria Ricci: That is the enterprise card from Marea Monetary … That is Cindy Murphy’s Columbia College ID card.
FBI
Todd Shelton: Cynthia Murphy … actually takes on a outstanding function within the intelligence actions of that couple. Her work at a monetary companies trade gave them intelligence of worth to the economists in Russia.
Todd Shelton: In financial circles, monetary circles, social circles, if you happen to’re on the lookout for methods to point out civil discontent, you may want a pulse of what is going on on within the nation on the time.
Todd Shelton: And … her attendance to Columbia was an enormous alternative for getting access to the up and coming professionals within the U.S.
Maria Ricci: Over the course of the investigation after observing and listening to them for thus lengthy … they had been consistently speaking about find out how to achieve entry to folks in political circles and coverage making circles.
Todd Shelton: One of many issues that makes intelligence officers so deadly is that they … get a big quantity of coaching in find out how to develop and recruit folks, find out how to spot and assess weaknesses in folks.
Maria Ricci: Cindy Murphy was … reporting on individuals who had been all for probably acquiring jobs with the CIA. That was of significance to us.
Additionally, of significance had been the spies the Russians had positioned in Boston: Tracey Foley and Donald Heathfield.
Maria Ricci: Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley had two youngsters, two boys, who had been born in Canada.
Todd Shelton: Tracey Foley was a realtor.
Alex Coon: I used to be managing an actual property firm right here within the Boston space, and Tracey Foley labored for me. … She was most likely one of many hardest working and most competent brokers that I had.
Todd Shelton: We noticed plenty of issues develop with Heathfield and Foley that triggered us to be involved.
Todd Shelton: Heathfield had attended the Kennedy College of Authorities at Harvard. After graduating he remained lively within the alumni circles. He actually used that as a platform to achieve entry to folks that may in the end be in positions of authority.
FBI
Craig Sandler: I met Donald Heathfield … on the Kennedy College. … If there was a deep curiosity in … setting public coverage, or … operating the federal government, these are the folks you discovered there.
Craig Sandler: My impression of Don is that he was … professionally very properly put collectively. He had an attention-grabbing thoughts and he was attention-grabbing to speak to.
Todd Shelton: Heathfield had developed his personal firm referred to as Future Map … during which he had a software program program that he thought may assist with strategic forecasting. … He would market this to folks that he thought may be all for it, massive firms, the army, protection.
Brokers suspected that Heathfield’s software program was nothing greater than a ploy to get near somebody contained in the U.S. authorities.
Todd Shelton: It triggered him to have entry to quite a lot of individuals who would certainly have the kinds of info we imagine that the Russians would worth. … One of many folks was a member of the U.S. authorities with info associated to nuclear know-how. … We knew that Heathfield was attempting to assemble details about how one would be a part of the State Division.
Maria Ricci: We bought info that he was in touch with someone who may probably be important to the Russians and an issue for america. … With each step that they bought nearer, that threat turned larger.
MONEY SWAPS AND DEAD DROPS
Alan Kohler | FBI Supervisory Particular Agent: In 2004 … the spies … turned extra aggressive. … The Russians … wished them to be extra productive. They wished them to focus on folks with extra worth.
That is when the FBI’s pursuit of this Russian spy community out of the blue took an alarming flip.
Maria Ricci: Donald Heathfield … in Boston … was getting near individuals who had been nuclear specialists. … We labored very laborious at guaranteeing that these relationships didn’t progress.
Maria Ricci: Typically it was a query of placing someone else in his path that may be of curiosity to him. Typically it was only a query of maneuvering just a little bit.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the FBI found a significant new hyperlink within the spy community: a Russian operative named Christopher Metsos had been dispatched from Moscow to help the spies.
Todd Shelton: Christopher Metsos performed a vital function in offering cash and objects of tradecraft to the … intelligence officers … working in america.
“Tradecraft” contains the strategies, strategies and applied sciences {that a} spy makes use of to assemble intelligence.
FBI
FBI brokers shortly realized Christopher Metsos was despatched to distribute a secret cache of cash to subsidize the Russian operatives. So, the FBI adopted the cash. The Russians used a “brush cross.”
Todd Shelton: A brush cross could be a fast and clandestine change of things.
Todd Shelton: In Could 2004, FBI surveillance was in a position to doc a brush cross … between Metsos and the Russian authorities … on the Forest Hills, Lengthy Island Railroad Station.
Todd Shelton: A credentialed, diplomat of the Russian Federation is shifting down the steps whereas Metsos is shifting up the steps. Every man carries an similar bag, which they change midpoint on the steps. … Contained in the bag, we imagine to be a big quantity of U.S. foreign money.
FBI
Alan Kohler: That was regarding to us as a result of it — it tell us that the Russians felt like they may freely journey into america and conduct operational exercise proper beneath our noses.
Todd Shelton: Now, Christopher Metsos, flush with the foreign money he is simply obtained from the Russian authorities, strikes to a restaurant in Queens later that very same day.
There, Metsos met with Richard Murphy — the spy who studied public coverage and lived together with his spouse and youngsters in New Jersey.
Maria Ricci: They walked collectively to a restaurant in Sunnyside they usually sat on the desk by the window they usually had been there for about two hours. … We recorded it. We additionally had FBI brokers … within the restaurant subsequent to them.
On the desk, Metsos handed Murphy $175,000. And there was one other $60,000 that got here with a really particular set of directions.
Todd Shelton: The Russians … instructed Metsos to drive upstate New York and bury it. … Via a GPS system … we affixed to the rental automobile that Metsos was driving, we see the automobile go north out of New York Metropolis to a relaxation cease in Wurtsboro, New York.
Brokers shortly recognized the place the cash was hidden.
Todd Shelton: A small variety of brokers … went as much as the remaining cease and … Digging down a brief method, they discovered … bundles of cash that had been buried in what is understood … as a useless drop.
FBI
Alan Kohler: A useless drop is a cache of, usually, cash. It could possibly be weapons, it could possibly be a radio communication system that’s actually buried within the floor, hidden in a hole tree … ready for it to be picked up by a recipient at one other time.
Brokers re-buried the cash and arrange a digital camera.
Todd Shelton: We … instantly arrange a brand new intelligence operation the place the FBI would lie in wait, to see who in the end would come and accumulate that cash.
Again within the suburbs of New Jersey, Richard Murphy, flush with $175,000, made a plan to disperse among the money to a fellow Russian operative in New York Metropolis.
Maria Ricci: Richard Murphy … had an operational mobile phone. And thankfully for us … we had been already compromising that mobile phone. He utilized this mobile phone to … arrange a brush cross in Columbus Circle.
In June 2004, the FBI staked out Columbus Circle and watched as Murphy tried to seek out the opposite operative, whom he had by no means met.
Ed Foley | FBI Particular Agent: Within the video, you see … Richard Murphy go as much as a — a gentleman.
Maria Ricci: Richard Murphy was presupposed to say … “Uncle Paul sends his love” and the response was presupposed to be “Is not it good to be Santa Claus in Could.”
Ed Foley: The gentleman sort of appears to be like at him like, you recognize, you are loopy. You realize, I do not know what you might be speaking about.
Maria Ricci: Richard Murphy approached a few folks attempting to find this man.
Lastly, Murphy situated his goal, Michael Zottoli, the spy primarily based in Washington.
Maria Ricci: They stroll throughout the road and Richard Murphy passes a bag … to Michael Zottoli … with $75,000.
FBI
Witnessing these exchanges of money was important. Now the FBI knew how Russia was paying the spies.
Alan Kohler: It wasn’t transferred in from a Russian financial institution … it wasn’t in rubles. It was simply in hundred greenback payments.
The subsequent transfer was to determine how the spies had been speaking backwards and forwards with headquarters, referred to as Heart, in Moscow.
Maria Ricci: One of many priorities of the squad and the staff was, can we do a covert entry? Can we get into the Murphy residence and learn how they’re speaking with Heart?
Maria Ricci: We waited till they had been on trip. … We performed numerous hours of surveillance … and decided one of the simplest ways of coming into the residence.
Alan Kohler: Because the circumstances develop, we’re in a position to get extra intrusive strategies. … Bugging telephones, placing microphones in homes. … We go in as cleansing crew, as Con Ed. … Usually we pose as what we’re not.
Maria Ricci: After we entered the Murphy house, one of many issues we discovered was what we name the tradecraft field.
The tradecraft field is the spies’ instrument package.
Maria Ricci: We discovered notebooks with codewords. … We discovered an odd piece of paper that had Alt-Management-E after which a 27-character password … And we discovered a bunch of floppy disks. … Initially after we regarded on the discs, they seemed to be clean.
Till a immediate for that 27-character password appeared.
Maria Ricci: We inserted the 27 characters. It was just a little little bit of trial and error … however in the end, we discovered the order. And we had been in a position to enter the system.
Todd Shelton: Instantly when he hit the enter key, a window got here up. Whoop! [gestures with his hands]. They usually knew that they had been into one thing massive.
Not solely had the FBI discovered a method into the spy ring, they made a rare discovery: how the operatives communicated by embedding hidden messages in photos.
FBI
Todd Shelton: This can be a subtle software program system designed to … conceal digital messages.
Maria Ricci: It was a complete recreation changer. … From that time … we had been in a position to learn each message Richard and Cindy Murphy despatched to Heart, and each message Heart despatched again to Richard and Cindy Murphy.
Todd Shelton: For the primary time, moderately than being on the skin, wanting in … we’re studying in virtually actual time precisely what’s taking place.
Alan Kohler: So, we knew the place to go, the place to arrange.
However simply months later, a possible arrest throughout the border in Canada threatened to undo the complete FBI operation.
Todd Shelton: Typically, even essentially the most subtle of intelligence operations may be undone by just a few stroke of dangerous luck.
THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE
Alan Kohler: We had been racing in opposition to the unknown. We did not know when or if the Russians had been going to decide to drag the intelligence officers again, however we needed to plan accordingly.
In early 2006, simply because the FBI was closing in on the American spy ring, the shock discovery of a Russian operative by Canadian intelligence threatened to close down the FBI’s investigation.
Alan Kohler: Our concern was the Russians would fear about … the security of the … spies … that had been primarily based in america and would begin to pull them again to Russia.
Maria Ricci: What can we do if each single certainly one of … them … begins making a run for the border? If we wished to arrest them, may we?
The FBI had advance warning that an arrest in Canada may happen any day. So, brokers pulled an all-nighter, making ready a prison criticism with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace within the Southern District of New York to arrest the spies
Todd Shelton: There was a severe sense of urgency that we wanted to be ready.
Because it turned out, the Russian spy in Canada didn’t get arrested till months later. In June 2006, the Washington-based spies Michael Zottoli and his spouse confirmed up in New York.
Maria Ricci: They do not do what regular vacationers do. They don’t go to see a Yankees recreation. They don’t go to see a Broadway present. As an alternative, they go to Dwelling Depot they usually purchase a shovel. … That was a really sturdy indicator to us that his subsequent cease was going to be Wurtsboro, New York.
Their hunch was useless on. They drove straight to that relaxation cease north of New York Metropolis, the place two years earlier that stash of money had been buried.
Maria Ricci: We had cameras there, and so we had been in a position to seize Michael Zottoli going into the woods and digging up $60,000. … It is wonderful.
After the Canadian spy was arrested, Russian intelligence didn’t find yourself recalling any of the U.S. primarily based operatives. However one thing did change: Christopher Metsos, the spy handler, disappeared.
Maria Ricci: Because of the arrest in Canada … Christopher Metsos by no means got here again to the U.S. after that.
With Metsos now out of the image, the Russians wanted a brand new strategy to distribute cash. The answer? Have an official Russian diplomat working in New York hand it over to one of many spies.
Todd Shelton: In June of 2009, on the North White Plains station of Metro North Railroad, we see the … New Jersey conspirator … Richard Murphy, conduct one other brush cross with a Russian diplomat.
Alan Kohler: Once they had been being despatched directions on the place to satisfy, we had been studying these directions on the similar time. So, we knew the place to go, the place to arrange.
Ed Foley: That was my favourite location of all of the meets, as a result of … it actually challenged us. There have been cameras all over the place. … it was like a film shoot.
Ed Foley: We saturated the realm with … a number of covert automobiles, rental automobiles, folks out with canines within the park.
Todd Shelton: We noticed … Richard Murphy … take a circuitous path to entry the station … which we imagine was particularly to assist him determine any surveillance that may be following him. You will see him wanting round.
Ed Foley [in tunnel at train station]: You see him standing. … He checks his watch. He takes a deep breath. He tugs on his collar. After which he performs the act.
Todd Shelton: They do not even cease on the steps. It actually was a reasonably seamless transition for such a big bundle.
The FBI realized Richard Murphy had in his possession $300,000 in money and a flash drive containing a brand new covert communication system.
Alan Kohler: The comb cross in 2009 between Richard Murphy and one other … Russian diplomat from the Russian mission … was really fairly important for us.
Maria Ricci: It established that there was direct contact between the … intelligence officer … and … an official of the Russian authorities.
The FBI later adopted Richard Murphy to Brooklyn, the place he once more met fellow Russian spy Michael Zottoli.
Maria Ricci: Richard Murphy was going to cross a $150,000 … and the flash drive containing the brand new covert communication system … to Michael Zottoli.
Maria Ricci: As an alternative of doing a fast assembly, they purchased a cup of espresso … they usually sat on a park bench for 2 hours.
Ed Foley: What’s presupposed to be a fast assembly … lasted fairly some time. So lengthy that the battery on the previous mini digital camera began flashing … I am considering I am not going to get the shot.
FBI
Todd Shelton: Close to the conclusion of that assembly, we see Murphy attain into his backpack. He removes a … parcel, putting it into the bag and one other small object, which we imagine to have been that thumb drive. … And he arms these to Michael Zottoli. … Now now we have one other key hyperlink within the chain that we will in the end use to forge a prison cost of conspiracy.
Because the FBI ready costs to lastly arrest the Russian spies, there was yet one more shock.
Alan Kohler: In 2009 a brand new breed of … intelligence officers … arrived in america, and that was within the type of Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko.
Todd Shelton: We noticed this as a brand new menace. These had been respectable folks with respectable entry to america.
Maria Ricci: Mikhail Semenko, he began out on a pupil visa. … Actually good child. He knew 5 languages fluently.
Todd Shelton: He is in Seton Corridor College. Once more, one other flag for us, a tie to an academic establishment that gives fertile floor for recognizing and assessing.
FBI
Todd Shelton: Anna Chapman — younger, hip, fairly. … She was an actual property skilled. She opens an organization referred to as Property Finders. … it permits her to combine and mingle with folks of wealth who could wish to be on the lookout for actual property in New York.
Maria Ricci: She was networking and going to numerous events and assembly lots of people. … and I believe she was most likely going to remain in New York and be a part of the monetary heart.
This new era of spies additionally got here with a brand new set of instruments.
Todd Shelton: Anna Chapman … has a chunk of tradecraft — a devoted laptop computer laptop particularly designed for her to load in intelligence experiences, which could possibly be transmitted to a corresponding laptop computer within the possession of a Russian diplomat, who additionally was an intelligence officer.
Maria Ricci: The video that you just see is her procuring contained in the division retailer. And … the Russian intelligence officer … being outdoors. … He … pretended to be on the cellphone. … She was bouncing from division to division. And … her laptop computer was in that pink, white and black bag that she was carrying, and his laptop computer was in a briefcase.
Maria Ricci: And when these two computer systems had been inside a sure … proximity of one another, they’d … be capable to ship a fast burst message backwards and forwards.
Todd Shelton: We documented a number of events the place this digital change had occurred.
This newest Russian know-how shut the door on the FBI’s capability to crack the brand new spies’ communications.
Maria Ricci: We weren’t in a position to … receive these messages.
Todd Shelton: We see the change within the techniques being employed … with Semenko and Chapman.
Involved that nationwide safety could possibly be at larger threat, intelligence businesses needed to act quick.
Leon Panetta: I used to be very impressed with … the truth that … we knew what the hell was happening right here. However on the similar time — it raised numerous questions in my thoughts about what number of of those folks can we not find out about.
FALSE FLAGS
Alan Kohler: In counterintelligence, nothing occurs by chance. … All the pieces has to occur for a motive.
By 2009, the FBI had been watching the Russian spy community for almost a decade. The Bureau frightened about potential entry to nuclear secrets and techniques, authorities officers and efforts to recruit new spies. Now the FBI’s concern grew with the arrival of that new era of operatives.
Todd Shelton: Mikhail Semenko and Anna Chapman, each … Russian nationals … had entered the U.S. with the hidden job of conducting intelligence work on behalf of the Russian authorities. … They had been youthful … that supplied potential new sources of entry.
Todd Shelton: They’ve credentials that’ll maintain as much as scrutiny. And it is a new menace that we sought to counter.
Alan Kohler: The choice was made that we had been gonna take down the community in 2010.
CBS Information
Alan Kohler: There have been quite a few challenges that we confronted to make this occur. There have been political points. … We had simply hit the reset button with Russia. So, Russia was our pal once more.
Todd Shelton: We had been absolutely conscious that this was not a typical case. And the repercussions of our motion may influence U.S. international coverage.
Todd Shelton: There was a briefing performed with the then-director of the CIA, Leon Panetta.
Leon Panetta: My Russian part on the CIA … requested the FBI to come back over and transient me. … They described what the state of affairs was. … After which they confirmed me among the surveillance they had been doing, to sort of show the purpose. … “Now we have verified that they’re planted brokers by Russia and that they proceed to take care of shut contact with the Russians.”
Todd Shelton: It was a head spinning time for us. … As soon as the choice was made to arrest, and we began to maneuver ahead within the planning course of, one of many key issues that happened was figuring out … a window during which to behave.
Alan Kohler: The summer season of 2010 … particularly that final week in June, was actually going to be the one time that we anticipated having all of the … spies … within the nation collectively.
Todd Shelton: If we miss that chance, it will be a number of months earlier than we once more discovered ourselves with all of the U.S.-based … Russian intelligence officers … at present in america. … All the pieces actually hinged on the ultimate weekend.
That weekend, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had been each attending worldwide summits in Canada.
Alan Kohler: The previous few days earlier than the arrest was sort of a loopy time. … All of the officers concerned in headquarters went up 24/7 on all of our topics. We had airplanes following them round.
Ed Foley: We used nearly our total bodily surveillance cadre. … And it was the complete court docket press.
The FBI had ready prison costs in opposition to the unique 4 {couples} — now they wanted to get costs on the most recent operatives: Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko. Brokers in New York and D.C. initiated what’s referred to as a “false flag.”
Alan Kohler: Basically, a false flag is the place an FBI spy poses as a Russian intelligence officer and provides the goal a process.
Todd Shelton: An overt act which we will doc … an intelligence officer … as engaged on behalf of the Russian authorities.
On Saturday, June 26, 2010, an undercover FBI agent, posing as a Russian official, met with Mikhail Semenko in Washington, D.C.
Todd Shelton: The spy gave him $5,000 wrapped in a newspaper and tells him that I want you to … load a useless drop … in a suburban Virginia park.
FBI
Todd Shelton: Semenko takes the cash, and the next day the FBI paperwork him by video surveillance. … He crawls down beneath the bridge and slides this newspaper again deep into the rafters of the bridge after which leaves.
In the meantime in New York Metropolis, one other FBI spy additionally taking part in a Russian authorities official, met with Anna Chapman at a espresso store. First, he bought Chapman to confess that she was utilizing her laptop computer to speak with the Russian authorities; then to his shock, she gave it to him.
AP/FBI
Todd Shelton: That was a terrific break. She’s handing over the proof, figuring out what it was and the way she’s used it. That is large.
To additional strengthen the case, the FBI agent then requested Chapman to cross off a pretend passport to a different operative.
Alan Kohler: Chapman … accepted the provide at hand a pretend passport to someone else. And Semenko agreed to place some cash beneath a bridge in Virginia. And that was sufficient for us to get the criticism and the fees in opposition to each of them.
However these summits in Canada put the arrests on maintain.
Todd Shelton: It was the request of the administration that we delay our arrest till the U.S. President was again in america and the Russian president was away from North American airspace.
Ed Foley: Sunday, June twenty seventh, 2010, I will always remember. It was scorching. I used to be in New Jersey … masking the Murphys. … We have come to date in 10 years and we do not want any disasters at this level.
Maria Ricci: We had been ready for the go forward in Montclair. … This was the second. This was the second that we have been working for, for thus lengthy. … So, there was a ton of stress on us.
Todd Shelton: As issues unfold throughout the day … we’re in shut communication with all the workplaces.
Todd Shelton: That evening, simply earlier than 11:00, the Boston conspirator Donald Heathfield had airplane tickets to depart from Logan with certainly one of his youngsters to a European go to. So, we had a really quick window during which to react.
Alan Kohler: I used to be very involved that it was going to crumble.
THE SPY SWAP
Alan Kohler: The second of the arrests was … the second we have all been ready for … for years. … A long time.
Todd Shelton: We had been within the Strategic Data Operation Heart at FBI headquarters. … As quickly as we all know the Russian president is out of North American airspace, the U.S. president is again in america … we … transfer to have an effect on the arrests.
ERICA HILL | “CBS Night Information,” June 28, 2010: Tonight, we’re studying of ten arrests right here within the U.S. The suspects accused of being secret brokers for Russia.
BOB ORR | CBS NEWS: A throwback to the chilly warfare. Phony names, cryptic codes, cash drops…
WBZ BOSTON NEWS REPORT: A husband and spouse from Cambridge are in federal custody tonight. They’re accused of being Russian spies.
Maria Ricci: There’s like this unbelievable surge of emotion coming from all instructions. This wonderful pleasure about conducting one thing this large after so lengthy.
Alex Coon: I bought a name … it was round 9:30 at evening on my cellphone and … the individual on the opposite line mentioned … “Are you Alex Coon, the supervisor?” And I mentioned, “Yeah, completely.” They usually mentioned, “Have you learnt that Tracey Ann Foley, who works for you, was simply arrested for being a Russian spy?” … I – I – I believed it was a prank.
Craig Sandler: A pal of mine … mentioned, “Craig, are you aware a man named Don Heathfield?” … “Certain. He is man. Why?” … And my pal mentioned, “Properly, he is been arrested as a Russian spy.” … I am unable to actually correctly describe what an odd feeling it’s to have all the pieces that you just suppose you recognize about an individual be upended.
FBI
In Montclair, New Jersey, neighbors of Richard and Cynthia Murphy had been additionally shocked.
Elizabeth Lapin: The evening of the arrests, I’ve to say, all people was within the streets. It was virtually like a carnival.
Stanley Skolnik: Crowds had been gathering. There have been automobiles parked all over the place. FBI, police. … No one may presumably have understood that there was, happening on this neighborhood, a spy ring. It was fully a shock.
Ed Foley: If you’re working someone for thus lengthy, you sort of get to know them. … The Murphys had been my favourite. We watched their youngsters be born.
Maria Ricci: They had been … toddlers after I first joined the case and I watched them develop up into actually nice, stunning younger women. … [emotional] These two little ladies, positively — positively impacted me. [pauses] That was laborious. … In numerous methods, I really feel like I [laughs] knew them higher than I do know some members of my circle of relatives.
U.S. Marshals by way of AP
With the ten spies in custody, talks shortly started between the U.S. and Russia a couple of spy swap. 4 western spies had been being held in Russian prisons. Now the U.S. wished them freed.
Leon Panetta: I referred to as my Russian counterpart, a man named Fradkov. … And I mentioned, “So we have picked up these 10 people. …They’re your folks.” … He mentioned, “Sure, they’re my folks.” Everyone within the room sort of mentioned, “Wow!” You realize, he is admitting that … these had been spies. … From that time … it turned a negotiation.
Leon Panetta: We agreed to arrange an change in Vienna.
KATIE COURIC | CBS EVEING NEWS: Tonight: A spy for a spy. The most important U.S.-Russia spy swap for the reason that Chilly Battle.
After being interrogated, the spies, together with most of their youngsters, had been placed on the identical airplane. Solely the sons of the New York spies, who had been older, had been allowed to remain within the U.S.
Todd Shelton: Up within the entrance of the airplane, there have been members of U.S. intelligence. Farther again within the airplane had been all of the … Russians.
After secretly and silently watching the Russian spies for years, the brokers may now chat with them.
Alan Kohler: A few of them had been very sullen. A few of them had been very philosophical about it.
Todd Shelton: Richard Murphy was annoyed. I believe that … he … thought that he was a sufferer of another person’s mistake.
Todd Shelton: Michael Zottoli appeared very easygoing. … One of many FBI folks on the airplane … requested him, you recognize, “How lengthy would you could have stayed?” And Zottoli’s response was, “I’d have stayed eternally. I imply, I favored it there. We had a terrific life.”
Todd Shelton: As an intelligence official, the variety of alternatives it’s a must to discuss on to your adversary … that is not a lot. … It actually was a surreal expertise.
Alan Kohler: There was a sure feeling of closure … speaking with them and seeing them and figuring out this was it.
BOB ORR | “THE EARLY SHOW”: On an airport tarmac in Vienna, Austria, the spy swap was accomplished …
Leon Panetta: Russia was delivering the 4 people we wished to the identical location. They usually actually handed one another on the runway. … It was proper out of the flicks [laughs].
Again in Russia, the spies got a hero’s welcome. Some had been even rewarded with high-profile jobs working for state-run businesses. Anna Chapman launched a profession in tv and modeling. Within the U.S., the temper was decidedly completely different.
Leon Panetta: I do not suppose there’s any query that … this operation protected our nationwide safety. … The entire objective of those 10 spies was to have the ability to penetrate delicate positions.
Maria Ricci: Lots of people ask me about this case, they usually say, “Properly, they by no means performed espionage.” And my response is, if they’d, that may have been the one best failure of my profession.” My job was to make sure that they weren’t in a position to get shut sufficient to commit espionage.
Todd Shelton: If in case you have a well-executed counterintelligence operation, nothing’s taken. Nothing’s stolen.
Alan Kohler: The factor about counterintelligence is we’re by no means actually going to defeat our adversaries. … All we will do … is beat them again.
Todd Shelton: At FBI headquarters … we had been considering, what is the subsequent menace? How lengthy do now we have earlier than the Russians substitute this community with one other? And the way are we going to get on that community and have successful just like Ghost Tales?
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