While they passed along no US secrets, the 10 Russian sleeper agents involved in the spy swap posed a potential threat to the US and received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from Russia, US Attorney General Eric Holder said.
“Russia considered these people as very important to their intelligence-gathering activities,” he told CBS television’s’ Face the Nation in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Holder defended the decision to allow the 10 to return to Russia in exchange for the release of four Russian prisoners accused of spying for the West because the swap presented “an opportunity to get back ... four people in whom we have a great deal of interest.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, sidestepping the question of whether Russia’s espionage poses a threat to the US, said the swap came amid improved relations between the two countries.
“The economic discussions that [Russian] President [Dmitry] Medvedev and [US] President [Barack] Obama had just recently and the progress that we’ve made in reducing nuclear weapons — and hopefully we’ll get a treaty through the Senate this summer that will further reduce nuclear weapons — means our security is stronger and safer and our relationship is stronger,” Gibbs said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Holder also sought to erase concern over the fate of the children of the Russian agents, saying they all were allowed to return to Russia “consistent with their parents wishes” or, in the case of those who were adults or nearly adults, were allowed to make their own choices of where to live.
“The children have all been handled, I think, in an appropriate way,” he said.
The seven offspring embroiled in the spy saga ranged in age from a one-year-old to a 38-year-old architect. In most cases they were born and grew up in the US, making them US citizens.
On pending terrorism cases, Holder acknowledged “there’s a real question” as to whether a terrorist suspect such as self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed can face the death penalty if he were to plead guilty before a military commission.
Holder indicated he still favors bringing Mohammed and four alleged accomplices before civilian courts, but that has been met with opposition in Congress and elsewhere.
He said no decision has been made on where the trials will be held or whether they would be civilian or military.
He said one roadblock is that Congress has yet to come up with the money for the trials.
“The politicization of this issue when we’re dealing with ultimate national security issues is something that disturbs me a great deal,” Holder said.
Holder also said the closing of the Guantanamo detention camp has become more difficult “because there have been people who have changed their positions” and Congress hasn’t agreed to provide the money to relocate the detainees to an underused state prison in Illinois.
He said other states have offered to take the prisoners, but did not name any states.
“There is no reason to believe that people held in Guantanamo cannot be held wherever we put them in the United States. Again, very safely and very effectively,” Holder said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese