Assumed Identities

Germany feels out of sorts, finding Chinese spies have infiltrated the country, intent on discovering the whereabouts of Falun Gong practitioners in the country. On the very eve of Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to China, an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and diplomatic disarray erupts. Well, it's fairly well known that most countries engage in espionage of one kind or another, be it for industrial secrets, or political or military reasons; in this instance it is for social/ideological/political reasons.

It is awkward, and things will straighten out.

After all, the heads of the two countries just met in complete amity in Toronto, during the G8 and G20 summits, didn't they? Where good fellowship prevailed, in an atmosphere of collegiality and determination to solve the ills of the world, did they not? It is also where U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed matters of mutual interest, and were seen smiling broadly and warmly at one another in published photographs.

And it is true that when world leaders meet, they view one another as human beings, individuals. Friendships are established and trust is built. They feel, through meeting one another in the flesh, even for relatively short periods of time, a certain closeness in the heights of their powerful executive positions, as equals.

Each operates from the thin air of their political aeries and when they meet as heads of state, it is no accident those meetings are termed "summits".

So it is extremely awkward and fiendishly difficult politically when the security agencies of their various national establishments come head to head with malfeasance from one to the other. That is, embedded secret agents are somehow revealed, their cover blown, as the saying goes and their real identities revealed, causing umbrage in one country and embarrassment in the other.

Russian spies discovered to be operating in the United States, tch-tch.

As though the very idea of such an event is inconceivable, as though the United States does not now have and always has had, its own spy agents ensconced within Russia, quietly and with determination, executing his or her own espionage-related directives from the CIA. However, having been found out, and having been followed for a period of time to establish the required evidence through which the presence of the spies is validated and an order for their expulsion obtained, they are outed.

And, as with Israel equipping its agents out on dangerous missions, with identities and passports of other countries, representing individuals whose background has been created for that very purpose, occasionally taking on the persona of an actual person, or some who have died, so too did these Russian agents fake their original and nationality.

As Canadians! Oh my, such consternation from among the Canadians whose names and backgrounds have been compromised...

"You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house, etc. All these serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US and send intels [intelligence reports] to C [SVR headquarters]."

Are we, ignorant of details, but titillated by presumptions, to imagine that the embedded agents became so comfortable with their assumed identities that they simply felt like staying and becoming the people whose existence they emulated, deciding to default from their original purpose and intent and just meld into the society they'd become part of, delivering no useful intelligence to their political masters?

"The targets of the FBI's investigation include covert SVR agents who assume false identities, and who are living in the United States on long-term 'deep-cover' assignments. These Russian secret agents work to hide all connections between themselves and Russia, even as they act at the direction and under the control of the SVR; these secret agents are typically called 'illegals'."

'Illegals'; yes, we assumed as much. But thanks very much for the explanation. This will, without doubt, be playing at a theatre near you, before too long. Watch for it.