Russia's Ugly Spy Tactics
So much for the famed "reset." Eli Lake in The Washington Times reports Russia's campaign of intimidation against American officials, including mysterious break-ins and concocted sex scandals:
One example of such intimidation occurred in 2009 against a senior U.S. official in the Moscow office of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the congressionally funded nongovernmental organization that promotes democracy throughout the world. The Times has withheld the name of the official at the request of NDI.
According to a Jan. 30, 2009, cable from U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle disclosed by WikiLeaks, USAID employees received an email with a doctored photo of the NDI official reclining with an underage girl.
The email from someone purporting to be a Russian citizen accused the official of raping her 9-year-old daughter.
In the cable, Mr. Beyrle said the embassy thought the Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was behind the smear attack, which also appeared in Russian newspapers. The FSB is the successor agency of the Soviet-era KGB.
