Posted on 11/16/2008 5:23:49 PM PST by bruinbirdman
A spy at the heart of Nato may have passed secrets on the US missile shield and cyber-defence to Russian Intelligence, it has emerged.
Herman Simm, 61, an Estonian defence ministry official who was arrested in September, was responsible for handling all of his country's classified information at Nato, giving him access to every top-secret graded document from other alliance countries.
He was recruited by the Russians in the late 1980s and has been charged in Estonia with supplying information to a foreign power.
Several investigation teams from both the EU and Nato, under the supervision of a US officer, have flown to the Estonian capital Tallinn to assess the scope of what is being seen as the most serious case of espionage against Nato since the end of the Cold War.
“The longer they work on the case, the more obvious it becomes how big the impact of the suspected treachery really is,” according to Der Spiegel magazine. A German official described the Russian penetration of Nato as a "catastrophe".
Comparisons are being drawn with the case of Aldrich Ames, the former head of the CIA counter-intelligence department who was in effect Russia's top agent in the US.
"Simm became a proper agent for the Russian government in the mid-1990s," says the Estonian deputy Jaanus Rahumaegi who heads the country's parliamentary control commission for the security services.
On the face of it, the Simm case resembles the old-fashioned Cold War spy story. He used a converted radio transmitter to set up meetings with his contact. As in the 1950s and 1960s, it seems that the operation was a husband-and-wife team. His wife Heete – who previously worked as a lawyer at the national police headquarters – has also been detained on charges of being an accessory to treason.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Love the title, all kinds of possibilities there.
Just frickin’ great!
To myself, I sigh and say, “of course, what else?”
OPINION:
THIS IS ESPIONAGE that can affect U.S.A's security, U.S.A.'s interests home and abroad, and possibly the welfare of NATO. That's not an embarrassment -- it is a SERIOUS CRIMINAL ACT."
The only thing that is secret is what we the taxpayers know.
Liberal press: weasel words sell!
One can only wonder how many “progressives” Obama will appoint to sensitive security posts and how long it will take before vital top secret information is conveyed to the Russians and Chinese.
Can you imagine being part of a risky covert operation and having your life depend on the moveon.org/code pink/Olberman crowd’s keeping the operation secret.
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