Friday, August 13, 2010

Lost U.S. Passports - A Formula For Russian Espionage

By Ben Pate

National Security is a bigger subject than ever with the threat of terrorists and other problems. With more criminals than ever learning how to get a new passport, the integrity of our United States borders is being compromised. Issues surrounding passports have been huge in the news lately, and one of the most shocking comes along with the story about the spies captured within the borders of the United States.

New York was recently in the papers concerning the ten Russian spies that were caught. Anna Chapman was one of them and she and nine other Russian spies plead guilty to "conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country" and for getting sensitive information for a foreign government. They had also participated in money laundering but those charges were cancelled. The United States chose to exchange these spied for four American spied currently held in Russia. Not since the Cold War has such a large espionage issue occurred.

During 2002, Anna Chapman, whose Russian name is Anya Kushchenko, married Alex Chapman, a man from England. They divorced in 2006 but their marriage gave her credibility that made her espionage activities much easier. At the beginning of their marriage, Alex Chapman through he and Anna were happy but as she renew Russian friendships, she grew away from him and eventually they divorced.

After this, she moved to New York, where she was working to gather information for her home government in Russia. Soon she sent a panicked call to her father, a Russian diplomat named Vasily Kushchenko. In this call, which was monitored by the US, Chapman voiced her concern that she might have been discovered. This call only hastened Chapman's arrest, along with her other espionage agents.

After being discovered, her citizenship in the United Kingdom was cancelled as well as her passport thereby revoking her re-admittance to the United Kingdom. This was a good example of just how important new USA passports are. The passport bureau is diligent in checking to be sure that fake passports are identified in the name of national security. This is a big job because it is well known all over the world how important and powerful a passport really is.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment