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Alleged Russian Spy: "Anything Can Happen" In The USA
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 30, 2010
Modified Jul 1, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 30, 2010
Modified Jul 1, 2010
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Who doesn't love a story about alleged Russian spies living amongst us in the city and the suburbs? And when one of those "spies" seems to be a party girl with a "Victoria's Secret body." The Post takes a real shine to Anna Chapman, who wrote on her Facebook page, "America is a free country. Over here, it is easy to meet successful people. In Moscow, it is practically impossible because you have to be as successful as they are... here you can meet successful people on the street and go have dinner with them."
The tabloid says, "'Anna Chapman' sidled up to power players while hobnobbing at society functions, charity events and book openings in slinky designer outfits. It was her apparent way of collecting information to send back to her native Russia -- but she also enjoyed going out clubbing, blogging and seeing the sights." OMG, blogging! "During her two years in the Big Apple, she frequented New York hotspots like the Thompson Hotel, Greenhouse and Juliet -- and even spent some time visiting the Statue of Liberty." According to Russian media, "the vivacious vixen grew up in Volgograd -- the former Stalingrad -- until the eighth grade, when her father was posted to the Russian embassy in Kenya. She moved to Moscow after high school, and later got a master's degree in economics there."
The Daily News examines NJ couple (or spies!) "Richard and Cynthia Murphy," who lived in Montclair, NJ and Hoboken, NJ. A friend of the couple says upon hearing the news, "We're like, 'Holy crap, this is Cyndy and Rick Murphy.' Then we contact the FBI, and they corroborate all this ... but it's still so surreal. We were stunned... They'd baby-sit our kids. I kind of realized the other day that they never really let us baby-sit their kids - which, thinking back now, I can probably see why."
The friend added, "I'm almost wondering if they got caught up in a situation that they didn't know how to get out of, a situation they didn't really want to be in but were forced to." A situation that involved spy sex—the News notes that the couple had "unprotected spy sex"—resulting in the "spy kids"—to remain undercover. The Department of Justice's criminal complaint says, "llegals often operate in pairs - being placed together by Moscow Center while in Russia, so that they can live together and work together in a host country, under the guise of a married couple. Illegals who are placed together and cohabitate in the country to which they are assigned will often have children together. This further deepens an illegal's 'legend.'"
A Montclair neighbors of the Murphys told the Post that the couple claimed to be from...Toronto, Canada: "But when this one woman mentioned a particular [Toronto] neighborhood to them, they didn't know what she was talking about." And a Boston-area woman said that alleged spy Tracey Lee Ann Foley introduced herself after Foley and her husband, suspected spy Donald Howard Heathfield, bought a condo in the neighborhood:
"We started talking in English, and she was telling me she was from Montreal, so we started speaking in French," said the neighbor, Doris Stanley, who studied French, Russian and Italian at Yale.
"Then suddenly she switched to English and I said, 'Oh, this is odd, I've never understood anyone from Montreal because they use a different grammar and there's a different accent than natives of France,' " Stanley said.
"I said, 'Pardon me, this is a little rude, but where did you say you're from in Montreal?' "
Foley replied, "The reason you . . . understand me is because I went to school in Switzerland," Stanley recalled."She started explaining more about her accent, and she appeared a little nervous-like, and she said, 'Oh, you know everyone in this country comes from somewhere else, or has relatives from somewhere else,' " Stanley said.
"It was at that point at which I said, 'Oh yeah, my father came from Odessa' " -- a city in the former USSR -- and "I saw her eyes widen, I swear, I saw a definite emotional reaction," Stanley said.
The son of El Diario columnist Vicky Peláez and stepson of Baruch College instructor Juan Jose Lázaro Sr., who are both accused of being spies, too, denied the Justice Department's accusations. Waldo Mariscal said their connection to Russia was "Russian music. Tchaikovsky." The Wall Street Journal refers back to a 2007 column of Peleaz's—"The essence of capitalism is exploitation and permanent expansion to ensure profit growth and the power of mega-corporations "—and notes how the criminal complaint has Lazaro telling Peleaz that he grew up in Siberia (which is in Russia).
It's suspected that Cynthia Murphy was trying to rub shoulders with a powerful donor of Hillary Clinton's. And Richard Murphy allegedly said he was born in Philadelphia, but a neighbor says, "It was suspicious that he had a Russian accent and an Irish last name. Who does that?"
Tagged
anna chapman
Cynthia Murphy
illegals
Richard Murphy
russia
Russian spy
spies
spy
spying
usa
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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