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| Russia says CIA agent caught trying to recruit spy - Reuters Posted: 14 May 2013 08:47 AM PDT  MOSCOW | (Reuters) - Russia expelled a U.S. diplomat on Tuesday after saying he had been caught red-handed with disguises, special equipment and wads of cash as he tried to recruit a Russian intelligence agent to work for the CIA. The announcement, a throwback to the Cold War, came at an awkward time for Washington and Moscow as they try to improve relations and bring the warring sides in Syria together for an international peace conference. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, had been detained overnight carrying "special technical equipment", a disguise, a large sum of money and instructions for recruiting his target. The Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to discuss the case on Wednesday and released a statement demanding Fogle leave Russia without delay. "Such provocative actions in the spirit of the Cold War will by no means promote the strengthening of mutual trust," it said. Russian television showed grainy footage of a man identified as Fogle being arrested, and the state-run Russia Today channel published photographs on its website that it said showed Fogle being detained in a blond wig. In one photograph, a man lay face-down on the ground with his arms being pinned behind his back. Another image showed two wigs, apparently found on him, as well as three pairs of glasses, a torch, a mobile phone and a compass. Also displayed was a wad of 500-euro ($650) notes and a letter addressed to a "Dear friend". "YOUR COOPERATION VALUED" "This is an advance from someone who has been highly impressed by your professionalism, and who would highly value your cooperation in the future," the letter said. "We are willing to offer you $100,000 and discuss your experience, expertise and cooperation, and payment could be significantly larger, if you are willing to answer concrete questions," it said, offering $1 million a year for long-term cooperation plus possible bonuses for useful information. The FSB, a successor to the Soviet KGB, said Fogle worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and that he had been handed over to embassy officials at some point after his detention. The embassy declined comment. McFaul, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, was holding a live question-and-answer session on Twitter as news of the detention was announced, but refused to take questions on the matter. McFaul has frequently been criticised by Russian media for his critical views on Russia and for meeting opponents of President Vladimir Putin. More than two decades after the end of the Cold War, spying - and spy scandals - are still far from unusual. The last major spy scandal was in 2010, when 10 Russian agents including Anna Chapman were arrested in the United States and later deported in exchange for four Russians imprisoned on charges of spying for the West. U.S.-Russian relations had thawed markedly under Obama's first-term "reset" of ties, but have chilled again since Putin, himself a former KGB spy, returned to the presidency a year ago. THAW TO GO ON? Putin has accused the United States of encouraging protests against him, and Russia has ejected the U.S. Agency for International Development and curbed U.S.-supported NGOs in moves it says are aimed at preventing foreign meddling. But both Obama and Putin have signaled they want to patch things up again, and the countries are trying to improve counterterrorism cooperation after the Boston Marathon bombings. FBI chief Robert Mueller visited Moscow for talks last week. Samuel Charap, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Moscow's response would show whether it wanted to continue the recent thaw. "Does the Russian government do what the U.S. did in 2010, and act quickly to defuse the issue, or does it use the incident to escalate tensions? That is the key question now." The Foreign Ministry said the incident raised "serious questions for the American side" at a time when Putin and Obama had "affirmed readiness to broaden bilateral interaction, including ... in the fight against international terrorism". Matthew Clements, Eurasia analyst at IHS Janes, said the row would probably blow over: "On the higher level .... both countries have always been adept at isolating these incidents from wider relations." Alexei Mukhin, director of the Moscow-based Centre for Political Information, said Putin would "make sure that this situation doesn't get out of hand". He said U.S.-Russian ties would be "hard to ruin" because, after the strains of the past 18 months, they could hardly get much worse. ($1 = 0.7703 euros) (Additional reporting by Thomas Grove and writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Kevin Liffey) |
| IRS chief: Agency lacked sensitivity in screenings - San Francisco Chronicle Posted: 14 May 2013 08:35 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS acting chief acknowledged Tuesday that the agency demonstrated "a lack of sensitivity" in its screenings of political groups seeking tax-exempt status, but he said those mistakes won't be repeated. In his first public comment on the case, Steven Miller said there was "a shortcut taken in our processes" for determining which groups needed special screening. Miller has emerged as a key figure in the controversy over the IRS' singling out of conservative groups for extra scrutiny. President Barack Obama said Monday that if the agency intentionally targeted such groups, "that's outrageous and there's no place for it." In an opinion piece in Tuesday's editions of USA Today, Miller said conceded that the agency demonstrated "a lack of sensitivity to the implications of some of the decisions that were made." He said screening of advocacy groups is "factually complex, and it's challenging to separate out political issues from those involving education or social welfare." "The mistakes we made were due to the absence of a sufficient process for working the increase in cases and a lack of sensitivity to the implications of some of the decisions that were made," Miller wrote. Miller said the agency has implemented new procedures that will "ensure the mistakes won't be repeated." Meanwhile, two Republican governors urged Obama to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the case. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker call the allegations "Big Brother come to life." They want a special prosecutor to find out if any laws were broken and say Obama should fire any IRS employees responsible for the situation. On Monday, the IRS said Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny. Congress, though, was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted, even after Miller had been briefed on the matter. At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, but again did not mention the additional scrutiny — despite being asked about it. Miller's op-ed, however, did not address why he did not inform Congress after he was briefed. At the congressional hearing, Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, told Miller that some politically active tax-exempt groups in his district had complained about being harassed. Marchant did not explicitly ask if tea party groups were being targeted. But he did ask how applications were handled. Miller responded, "We did group those organizations together to ensure consistency, to ensure quality. We continue to work those cases," according to a transcript on the committee's website. Earlier, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., had raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed. Boustany specifically mentioned tea party groups in his inquiry. But in a June 15, 2012, letter to Boustany, Miller said that when the IRS saw an increase in applications from groups that were involved in political activity, the agency "took steps to coordinate the handling of the case to ensure consistency." He added that agents worked with tax law experts "to develop approaches and materials that could be helpful to the agents working the cases." Miller did not mention that in 2011, those materials included a list of words to watch for, such as "tea party" and "patriot." He also didn't disclose that in January 2012, the criteria for additional screening was updated to include references to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by GOP Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, is holding a hearing on the issue Friday and Miller is scheduled to testify. The Senate Finance Committee announced Monday that it will join a growing list of congressional committees investigating the matter. The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see whether they were violating their tax-exempt status. In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors. The agency blamed low-level employees in a Cincinnati office, saying no high-level officials were aware. When members of Congress repeatedly raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed last year, a deputy IRS commissioner took the lead in assuring lawmakers that the additional scrutiny was a legitimate part of the screening process. That deputy commissioner was Miller, who is now the acting head of the agency. Camp and other members of the Ways and Means Committee sent at least four inquiries to the IRS, starting in June 2011. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, sent three inquiries. And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House oversight committee, sent at least one. "This was a targeting of the president's political enemies, effectively, and lies about it during the election year so that it wasn't discovered until afterwards," Issa said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning." The fact is this is the kind of investigation that has to be open and transparent to the American people." None of the agency's responses to Congress acknowledged that conservative groups had ever been targeted, including a response to Hatch dated Sept. 11, 2012 — four months after Miller had been briefed. In several letters to members of Congress, Miller went into painstaking detail about how applications for tax-exempt status were screened. But he never mentioned that conservative groups were being targeted, even though people working under him knew as early as June 2011 that tea party groups were being targeted, according to an upcoming report by the agency's inspector general. The IRS issued a statement Monday saying that Miller had been briefed on May 3, 2012 "that some specific applications were improperly identified by name and sent to the (exempt organizations) centralized processing unit for further review." That was the unit in Cincinnati that handled the tea party applications. Miller became acting commissioner in November, after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush. On June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to a draft of the report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. At the meeting, Lerner was told that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately." However, when Lerner responded to inquiries from the House oversight committee, she didn't mention the fact that tea party groups had ever been targeted. Her responses included 45-page letters in May 2012 to Issa and to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs a subcommittee. Lerner also met twice with staff from the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee to discuss the issue, in March and in May 2012, according to a timeline constructed by committee staff. She didn't mention at either meeting that conservative groups had been targeted, according to the timeline. Associated Press writers Jim Abrams and Henry C. Jackson contributed to this report. ___ Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap |
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