From writer Dan Simmons’s website:
http://forum.dansimmons.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=100552#Post100552
Dan Simmons comments:
My White Horse Souse, the Olde Lampwicke, my last contact in the U.S. intelligence community, tells me that the Russian spies were swapped so quickly that there was no serious interrogation of them, that different agencies weren’t allowed time to discover whom these espionage recruiters had recruited or what the recruits’ missions in the U.S. were, that there was no time to discover who their controllers were in the Kremlin, and — most disturbing (to the Olde Lampwicke and thus to me) — they were exchanged so quickly, without the usual trials and time in jail here, not because of the importance of the Russian nationals being held in Russia for “contacts with American intelligence officials” whom we got in exchange, and not because of fear that American intelligence methods would come out in a trial, but because Vladimir Putin, using a back channel, directly demanded that Obama immediately release these captured Russian spies — one of them a daughter of a former KGB higher-up turned diplomat who was a friend of Putin’s from his old KGB days.
According to my Souse, President Medvedev — our president’s yuck-it-up burger’n’fries pal — wasn’t even in the loop on this demand. The ultimatum (with serious ramifications concerning the Russians stalling the START treaty Obama is so eager to sign) went straight from Putin to Obama with a 24-hr. time period for compliance. Obama is reported to have complied within three hours.
I’ll be curious if any of the Olde Lampwicke’s Putin-related info about a secret ultimatum is confirmed by our news agencies. The frustration of many in the U.S. intelligence community over not being able to properly process the captured deep-cover sleeper agents has already been recorded here and there. (Although others tell CNN and MSNBC that there was no need to keep the Russian agents any longer.)
Either way, it seems to be a hell of a way to run a national intelligence effort.
bump