And just what is ti that these tens of thousands of spies are going to do?
Assassinate local leaders. Destroy infrastructure. Set wildfires. Use your imagination.
If you have 20k+ operatives in a foreign country (especially a country with freedom-of-movement like the US), and you could activate them, either all at once, or in echelons, what would you have them do?
Supposedly, the Soviets had plans like this in place for the US, during the Cold War. The Americans (a fictional TV series based on real-life events) had an episode on this very scenario, a while back.
It wouldn't surprise me if other countries had similar sleeper agents here in the US. Probably the Russians still do.
They will attack from their overwhelming forces on the balconies of their Manhattan condominiums and resort properties, and send copies of engineering specs for American machines they already stole twenty years ago.
The worst they could do is put a chink in our armor.
Some of them have been caught stealing corn seed from experimental fields. Probably don’t limit themselves to corn, either.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-seeds-idUSKCN0X80D6
Remember when the Chinese sponsored Vietcong took over Huế? They were able to round up every government official, march them all off into the jungle and kill every last one of them in one single night.
They knew exactly where they lived, who they visited, where they shopped and where they ate dinner, and when.
How you ask?
The cabbies had been providing the Vietcong daily reports on their every move for years in advance.
Soooo, where do most of the cabbies in your berg come from? In Washington DC, it's Somalia...
Elsewhere it's the Chinese H1-B workers keeping an eye on their employers and coworkers. How well would we fair on a shootin' war if the first move was to blow the brains out of our brains, eliminate the best designers, engineers, and technical organizers in a single hour?
Just because we've forgotten the lessons of Huế and the lessons of the Sepoy Rebellion's "The Perfect Day" doesn't mean our enemies have.
“And just what is ti that these tens of thousands of spies are going to do?”
Mohammed and Malvo held three states hostage using a “Clunker Chevy”.
Hit the highways and drive like morons, causing traffic jams and delaying people's arrival to work........
Be a fifth column? Influence universities, the media and Congress?
They are not going to give you chopsticks at your favorite asian take-out!