Oooh, this "unwillingness to cooperate with an undercover agent" sounds pretty suspicious to me. Does this mean the authorities could not entice Chapman into doing anything overtly illegal? So they had to act based on lesser suspicions? Hmm, doesn't sound like this will hold up in court. Years of investigation ends up with - what, exactly? Defense is going to have a field day. Where is Rumpole - he would turn this into a party.

She will get a book out of this one! But I have to laugh at the whole case at the moment. It will certainly be interesting to hear the trial, but on the surface: It appears that she was communicating in some way with an official of the embassy. Assuming that the FBI are not completely fabricating things. But who cares, I assure you communicating with an embassy in any form is nothing new. If I go there every week for lemon tea it doesn't mean a thing. A Russian communicating with the Russian embassy. How unusual. A mere communication regardless of manner, hardly suffices to prove an agency agreement. The charges are conspiracy and registration ones. Which seems to point to a lack of material data to demonstrate that there was something being transmitted under an agency agreement. Now she had a meeting, and other than leading ambiguous discussions, which resulted in the lady not carrying out those instructions. Little else happened. The intelligence officer was not, as a fact a representative of the Russian government. Indeed he was a representative of the US government. So lets see what else comes out about her, other than her future book. Because on face value the criminal complaint against her looks a joke. If there isn't anything more substantive, then the US is going to look like a joke at least, or worse a deliberate political manipulator of the judiciary.

Due perhaps to persistent movie shows , USA still suffer from the "cold war syndrom" and also from the "number eleven" obsession...

I read reports that a phone call was intercepted, where she was warned that her cover might have been blown. There are also charges of money laundering by the others. It would be interesting to see what evidence gets presented to back up those allegations. I've also seen a long interview Chapman gave to British media. She comes across as being well educated, spoilt, flirtatious and ambitious. Her motivation genuinely seems have been to make lots of money and have a good time. No one seemed to mind her doing that, and I believe that had it emerged that she was secretly employed by some tabloid newspaper, no one would have even cared!

July 01, 2010, 21:05, Count Cash wrote > She will get a book out of this one! > But I have to laugh at the whole case at the moment. It will certainly be interesting to hear the trial, but on the surface: > It appears that she was communicating in some way with an official of the embassy. Assuming that the FBI are not completely fabricating things. But who cares, I assure you communicating with an embassy in any form is nothing new. If I go there every week for lemon tea it doesn't mean a thing. A Russian communicating with the Russian embassy. How unusual. A mere communication regardless of manner, hardly suffices to prove an agency agreement. The charges are conspiracy and registration ones. Which seems to point to a lack of material data to demonstrate that there was something being transmitted under an agency agreement. > Now she had a meeting, and other than leading ambiguous discussions, which resulted in the lady not carrying out those instructions. Little else happened. The intelligence officer was not, as a fact a representative of the Russian government. Indeed he was a representative of the US government. > So lets see what else comes out about her, other than her future book. Because on face value the criminal complaint against her looks a joke. If there isn't anything more substantive, then the US is going to look like a joke at least, or worse a deliberate political manipulator of the judiciary. Count Cash, Your right! These weren't spies. Just because these people changed their names, stole identities, and have run from bail....these are actions of purely innocent people framed by a country who is bankrupt oand on its way down. I agree, Russia does not spy on America, it is the Americans who spy on everyone else!

I find it interesting that just about everything Anna Chapman has said about herself (her marriage, jobs, nationality, family connections) has been shown to be true. It's also a bit obvious that when a beautiful woman in her 20s sleeps with a business man in his 60s, she's not doing it for love. And there's no evidence that she's actually managed to extract confidentual information from anyone. A spy who is openly doing nothing useful? What perfect cover!

I don't see why the FBI would arrest her for nothing. What would be their motivation for setting her up? I think we can all agree that the FSB and KGB can recruit anyone they want, so why not her... But the FBI should have waited until they had better evidence against her before pouncing

Both Russia and US have engaged many spies to spy the other side. That's a legacy of the Cold War times and there is very little that can be done about that. Some experts have even gone so far to claim the US economy would collapse if all those who spy for Russia would suddenly be withdrawn, and the same disastreous an effect on Russian economy would occur if all US spies were instantaneously removed. Therefore, each side should handle with the spies of the oposite side with a due care. I have heard some rumours saying that FBI investigators had eaten burgers with those Russian spies just before they were released. Besides of all that, I am of opinion that the spies from all over the world should constitute a sort of Union. That way they would be able to protect their Human Rights. They should organize a parade in NYC each year (Parade of Spy Proudness) to turn the public attention on harsh conditions in which they are forced to live and to work.

I'm certain that the FBI have good reason to suspect these people were agents. But why expose them now? Perhaps the FBI just wanted closure, so that they can free up resources to go after bigger fish. Perhaps they were planted by the KGB just to keep the FBI busy. If the Russians knew the Americans suspected these people, then I would imagine they had a lot of fun teasing the FBI. When Anna Chapman failed to deliver the passport, the FBI might have finally realised that they'd been had.