White House Downplays Russian Spy Plot, Says Obama Knew Before Medvedev Visit

Obama administration officials say the arrest of 11 people accused of being part of a Russian spy ring is a mere bump in the road to better relations with America's former Cold War foe.

The White House and the State Department both downplayed the implications of the blockbuster investigation, which revealed an elaborate Russian intelligence plot to infiltrate the U.S. government. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that President Obama had been briefed a "number of times" before the arrests and was "fully and appropriately informed" of the investigation.

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A bump in the road? Russian spies try to get inside the US government to steal god knows what info from us and he says it's just a bump in the road.

As incompetent as those spies were, yup just a bump in the road. There are American spies in Russia too. It's all a game.

Originally posted by InvisibleAlbatross
As incompetent as those spies were, yup just a bump in the road. There are American spies in Russia too. It's all a game.

Yes albatross, you made it clear in numorous other threads that there are american spies in russia.

From my understanding they weren't trying to steal anything...they were trying to influence policy. Why? I'm still trying to figure that out.

One source I've read pointed to an attempt by US government officials to try and revive the cold war 'red scare' by capturing Russian 'spies'...as if the DNC's policies were all a bolshevik plot afterall.

Can we take from this the idea that an individual citizen cannot influence the federal government is a good thing or a bad thing?

They're not being charged with espionage, so calling them spies is a bit of a misnomer.

reply to post by Alien Mind


You ignored the rest of my post. These spies were incompetent, just a bump in the road. What would you have Obama do, start a war over spies?

Why are you so against admitting that your country is doing the same thing?

Both governments know who the "spies" are and let them do their business.

They only "out" the spy rings when they want to make a political statement.

Obama is sending the Ruskies a message for some reason.

There is a reason why the Soviet space shuttle looks exactly like ours.

There are no secrets between states, the only secrets that exist are between the states and their subjects.