WASHINGTON, March 22 � U.S. officials were expecting Russia to retaliate Thursday after the Bush administration ordered the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the Kremlin�s suspected use of FBI agent Robert Hanssen to steal U.S. secrets. Six diplomats were ordered out and 45 others were advised to leave by summer. One U.S. official told NBC News that if Moscow overreacts �this could get ugly,� with even more U.S. expulsions.

THE SOURCE told NBC�s Jim Miklaszewski that if Russia moves to expel an even larger number of U.S. diplomats Washington could end up expelling many of the 200 Russian diplomats in Washington, D.C.
U.S. officials also made clear that President Bush will not back off. The action is �aimed at taking a tougher stand� with Russia, one official said. �This is something the Bush administration was already prepared to do.� Using the recent Hanssen spy case, the source said, �makes it a bit easier.�

U.S. intelligence believes there are more Russian and former Soviet spies operating in the United States today than during the Cold war. Estimates put the number of Russian spies here at about 200.
That�s about the same number of Soviet spies during the Cold War, but after the breakup of the Soviet Union each newly independent state has its own corps of spies, so the actual number has increased. �The spies per capita is on the rise � this is a growth industry,� said one official.

RUSSIAN REACTION

NBC�s Dana Lewis reported from Moscow that Russian sources indicated Moscow was planning retaliatory expulsions. President Vladimir Putin�s foreign policy adviser described the U.S. plan as a �relapse into the Cold War era.�
�If these reports are true, such action would cause deep regret in Russia,� senior Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko was quoted as saying.

The speaker of Russia�s lower house of parliament predicted a quick tit-for-tat. �We�ll find reasons for finding exactly that number of (American) diplomats who should not be working in Moscow,� said Gennady Seleznyov.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters he might have an official statement later Thursday, and a diplomatic source told the Interfax news agency that Russia was waiting for Washington�s formal notice on the expulsions.

�If it happens, Moscow�s retaliatory measures will follow without delay,� the source said.

�INTELLIGENCE HANDLERS�

NBC News reported that Secretary of State Colin Powell first delivered the news to the Russian ambassador to the United States, Yuri Ushakov, in a meeting at the State Department on Wednesday. A formal notice was expected later Thursday.

The Russians being expelled were accused of being �intelligence handlers� directly implicated in the Hanssen case, one of the most serious security breaches in U.S. history, one senior U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who was briefed on the expulsions Wednesday, said four to six Russians suspected of spying had already left the country.

The other 45 Russians were being asked to leave by this summer to reduce the number of Russian intelligence officers operating in the United States, now believed to be well over 100, the U.S. official said. In that category are some of Russia�s most experienced intelligence officers here, Graham said.

�There have been a series of messages of disappointment directed at the Russian government for its role in the Hanssen affair,� Graham said.

He said it was likely the next shoe to drop would be a tit-for-tat expulsion of American diplomats from Russia.

�Assumedly, they are going to make a request for some of our most experienced to leave,� Graham said. �That is the expected way in which these counterintelligence incidents work when they go sour.�



REACTION TO HANSSEN CASE

The move is a reaction to the arrest last month of Hanssen, a counterintelligence officer charged with passing information to the Soviet Union and Russia for 15 years. The United States alleges that Hanssen compromised extensive U.S. intelligence-gathering operations, including a tunnel dug beneath the Russian embassy in Washington
Hanssen, 56, was a 25-year FBI veteran and counterintelligence expert. He is accused of giving Moscow 6,000 pages of secret U.S. documents since 1985 in exchange for than $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. He was arrested Feb. 18 after authorities said he dropped off a package of documents at a Virginia park for his Russian contacts.

A 100-page affidavit accused Hanssen of compromising, among other things, �an entire technical program of enormous value, expense and importance to the United States government.� Hanssen is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on May 21.

SPY INDUSTRY GROWS

While the U.S. move Wednesday will put a dent in Russian spying in America, it will by no means stop it, officials say.
�They have three times more spies here than (in) any other country,� one official told NBC News. The FBI has long claimed that the Russians have restored their spy operations in the United States to peak Cold-War levels.

While the Hanssen case was among the reasons cited by the United States, one official said the real reason for the action was a decision by the Bush administration to be more aggressive about expelling suspected foreign spies.

SUSPECTED SPY LEAVES

Last week, the FBI said a press attach� for the Russian Embassy who returned home last week may have been a spy. Vladimir Frolov, who cut his second tour of duty in the United States short when he abruptly left the country, told reporters he was returning home to join the Russian newspaper Izvestia.

The United States often expels diplomats after political conflicts and spy scandals.

The Reagan administration ordered 55 Soviet diplomats to leave the country in 1986. The move was partly in retaliation for Moscow�s expulsion of five U.S. diplomats. The Soviets also were ordered from the country to bring the Soviet embassy staff in Washington and consulate staff in San Francisco �to parity� with the U.S. contingent in Moscow and Leningrad.

In December 1999, a Russian diplomat was expelled amid accusations that he picked up transmissions from a listening device in a government building where then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright�s office was located.

NBC�s Jim Miklaszewski, Dana Lewis and Pete Williams, as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Clinton once said that he loathes the military.

Boy, did he show it. More spies, Subs that are out of control, and nuclear secrets delivered by a chow mein scientist.

Thank you Clinton, help us George W.

george w; like his father and reagan before him;

take no shit from other countries.

something we haven't seen since kennedy.

go george.

We have nothing to worry about. With the current state of the russian military, halff their nuclear arsenal probably doesn't work.

hmmmm....actually, they're pretty good. Trust me. I'll add some shit about it right here on Monday. Their nuclear arsenal is in quite stable condition, and getting better as I type this. Right now they're selling nuclear-warhead carrying torpedoes to China, capable of reaching speeds up to 230mph underwater. There's an article in Popular Mechanics, this months issue.

What's the point of having a nuclear torpedo? To kill a japanese fishing boat?

Let me re-phrase that, it's an Torpedo/ICBM lunched from a sub, that will travel underwater and re-surface to hit the target on the continent. It's capable of such high speeds by creating a vacuum around it using miniature thrusters located near the tip of the cone, as well on the sides, right next to the "fins." Main thrusters engage once this "torpedo/ICBM" re-surfaces. As for the Japanese fishing boats - that was an American mistake, not Russian. In case you didn't know the difference between the two.

follow up to the story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/547917.asp

FBI woke up: http://www.msnbc.com/news/549221.asp

[This message has been edited by sckbch (edited 03-26-2001).]

What is this...?

�We will easily find� U.S. diplomats to be expelled �in a more painful form to the U.S. than it was in our case,� Sergei Ivanov, chief of Russia�s influential Security Council, said on Polish state television during a visit to Warsaw late Thursday. �We have time to think, to carefully pick from among more than 1,000 U.S. diplomats in Russia, to choose those who are most precious to the Americans,� he was quoted as saying through an interpreter.


But listen to this...How Hanssen recived some of his payments.

An expert in counterintelligence, Hanssen understood that sudden, unexplained deposits of money into his account could trigger suspicion. Hanssen allegedly often accepted payment in diamonds, telling his Russian handlers that he would tell authorities that the diamonds came from his grandmother if they were ever discoved. In addition, the KGB placed funds in escrow in a Moscow bank on Hanssen�s behalf.

also true...

FBI Director Louis Freeh said security measures needed to be tightened, but added that at some point the bureau has to rely on the integrity of its senior employees.

Info from MSNBC


And according to Sckbch's links, the FBI is now goin to polygraph 500 top managers, etc...this is going to help?

[This message has been edited by Lokil (edited 03-28-2001).]

The spy game, we all do it, eventually we all get caught. Kick them out and start over, it's been going of for years, so what's the big deal?

The cold war was really never over, as soon as it "ended" with Russia, it started with China, now Russia, the sleeping giant is a little stirred. Perhaps it will wake up.

i'd say things are heating up with the Chinese right now after the little run in with the US spy plane and the Chinese plane. seems that even though they were under orders to destroy all sensitive info, the US crew didn't have enough time to erase it all. i heard that they had to manually destroy some of the stuff with axes. but the problem is that it's fairly easy to put that back together. and for the last few days, spy satelites have shown that the plane is under a large tarp so who knows what they're doing under there. this could be trouble, especially with the Chinese already buying secret info, this time it just dropped into their laps. and although they are not releasing the US crew "they're not hostages. they're just in protective custody". somebody needs to bring the boys home. show your balls Georgie boy.


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Why do the caterpillar and the ant have to be enemies? One eats leaves, and the other eats caterpillars. Oh, I see now.