Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
Rob Long ·
Jul 9, 2010 at 7:29am
A Vienna airstrip. A couple of unmarked vans. Unsmiling passengers heading home. Probably an awkward handshake or two. Maybe the escorting officials nodded to each other; maybe not.
And then: the roar of jet engines, and it's over.
Missing: sheeting rain, trenchcoats, darkness, guys with machine guns, barking dogs.
But still, a scene out of a spy novel, which makes sense because these were, in fact, spies. Because we still need spies.
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May '10
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
I'm glad you raised this Rob because I was hoping that some of Ricochet's great legal minds would explain how this works vis a vis the criminal justice system. Who gets to say -- instead of being prosecuted for Federal crimes we will swap you for some of our guys? is that Eric Holder's call? Does a judge have to bless it? No conspiracy theories here, just curious.
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
And on another note, the producers of that Angelina Jolie spy thriller, "Salt," coming out in a few weeks couldn't have had better timing. Hmm...come to think of it, maybe the whole Russian spy thing was a Hollywood conspiracy...
Jun '10
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
...and there's something about Angelina Jolie's personality (or craft?) that makes her believable in a role like that. I can't think of anyone (her age, and younger) who can play both intelligent and dangerous/volatile as well as she can. Gone a little off topic here.
May '10
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
etoiledunord
...and there's something about Angelina Jolie's personality (or craft?) that makes her believable in a role like that. I can't think of anyone (her age, and younger) who can play both intelligent and dangerous/volatile as well as she can. Gone a little off topic here. · Jul 9 at 8:19am
Oh c'mon Etoile, you know you're just hot for her (and her dad's) politics!
Jun '10
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
Has anyone ever noticed that spying only advances the receipt of information by months, sometimes if the spy is lucky, by years? We actually have persons risking their lives to deliver information that would normally come to us in the fullness of time anyway. There are situations where the gathering of information is worth the risk, i.e. catching the next terrorist plot, but in most cases spies are chasing industrial secrets or advance notice of diplomatic positions. Makes me wonder about the value of some types of spies and the information they gain. Then again I’m no spook, which is to say no expert.
As for Angelina Jolie’s craft, and I don’t want to rub “Salt” into a wound, but have you seen “Tomb Raider” or whatever the name was?
May '10
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
Excellent question, Trace.
It's sad that there are so many friends and families of spies and people involved in special ops who cannot share the tales until it's all ancient history. Even if one shares anonymously, foreign agents could potentially identify the storyteller's associates and run background checks until they find the likely operative. I wouldn't condone leaks even if they were safe, of course. But foreign relations are so much more adventurous in actuality than they seem on the nightly news.
Then again, adventures can be more enjoyable in retrospect. My grandma worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in Mobile when a U-boat was spotted inside Mobile Bay during the war. She was sworn to silence, for fear of causing a panic. Had I lived then and she told me when it happened, I might have grabbed my gun and advised neighbors to do the same. A half-century after the fact, it's a cool story.
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
After two tours in Vietnam, I finished up my Army service at the Pentagon where I ran audio/video equipment for briefings down in some sub-basement where all the leaders were supposed to meet just ahead of the mushroom cloud. (Actually, the only time it was really used was when troops helped out with the mail during a postal strike. Kind of a come-down from Armageddon.) Anyway, I had to have some sort of super-duper security clearance for that job and, for a number years after my discharge, I was forbidden to travel to certain countries. I don't remember any except for North Korea, but I just changed my vacation plans that summer from Pyongyang to Cannes.
In retrospect, I guess it would have been exciting to have traveled to a forbidden land, get captured and, ultimately, get exchanged. I can't help feeling there's a TV reality show in all this: "Spy Swapping" or something like that. November Sweeps aren't that far off!
Jun '10
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
Trace Urdan
etoiledunord
...Angelina Jolie... · Jul 9 at 8:19am
Oh c'mon Etoile, you know you're just hot for her (and her dad's) politics! · Jul 9 at 8:27am
You got me. And it's not so much that she's a great talent across the board. It's just that the rest of the talent pool (actresses able to play a female 007) is so thin, as far as I can tell.
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
You want a female James Bond? Two words:
Helen Mirren.
Yes, I know, she's a bit "of an age." But so was Roger Moore.
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
Rob Long: You want a female James Bond? Two words:
Helen Mirren.
Yes, I know, she's a bit "of an age." But so was Roger Moore. · Jul 9 at 9:58a
Two more words: Cate. Blanchett. If Mirren's a Moore, Cate's a Craig. Angelina is a fembot.
May '10
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
Sorry, Rob. There's NOTHING cool about this. It feels too hurried.
Did we learn anything from them before we shipped them out? Or did the Obama folks just want to "reset" another embarrassing foreign policy misstep?
May '10
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
Rob, it's so funny that you mention Helen Mirren, because when I saw your post she came to mind. The folks that we know who work in super secret positions at the NSA, DOD, etc. are all so squeaky-clean. They're so ordinary. They can only tell you the agency they work for, sometimes not even that, but they shop at Costco and go camping. I think a great spy thriller would pose the DAR as a cover for a gov't intel agency with Mirren in command. It's amazing what comes into my head while doing the dishes. Who would suspect conventional and terminally conservative middle-age, middle class DAR women for spies? It's a brilliant cover! If Dan Brown can milk the mythology of the Freemasons, I think someone could get some miles out of exploiting the murkier chapters of the DAR's history. Just a thought.
Re: Spy Swap! Admit it: This is Kind of Cool
Karen, that's a pretty good pitch. Now all we need is Drew Klavan to write it!
And EJ, I'm not sure there was much to get from these folks in terms of (love this word) COINTEL. There's probably a network that's been damaged, but I can't think there's much else going on. The Obama relationship with Russia is a mess and a disaster, but this episode seems like a sideshow.