Security risks?
From Trump’s unhinged rant at his Montana rally. Watch the first 30 seconds.
I’ll tell you who represents a security risk: the rich members of Mar-a-Lago and his golf club in Bedminster who have been cozying up to Donald Trump and are really modern-day versions of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings from the TV series The Americans.
I would be sorely disappointed in the Федеральная служба безопасности, otherwise known as the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) if they don’t have at least two couples posing as rich conservative Trump-loving Americans who have been insinuating themselves into Trump’s inner circle at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster. I expect they have a few agents working in the kitchen and on the housekeeping staff too.
These would be Russians, like in the TV show, who speak unaccented English and who have been here for years. They could pass any rigorous background check because they have had legitimate jobs and a circle of friends who would attest to their patriotism.
The Russians have a fourth generation nerve agent called Novichok in the news today, so who can say they don't have undetectable eavesdropping devices bugging the entire resort? Afterall, they have proved that the NSA is no match for their cyberspying expertise.
Trump made light of the fact that Putin is a former KGB agent at his Montana rally saying basically "he'd don't scare me."
Wait until Putin gets him alone and drops a few personal facts about him hinting that he has more to worry about than merely blackmail.
Friday, Jul 6, 2018 · 5:53:41 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
Read The Real-Life KGB Spy Who Inspired FX’s ‘The Americans’
According to BBC magazine, Jack Barsky (real name: Albert Dittrich), who was courted by the KGB in the mid-’70s to become an American (i.e. an “illegal”) in a fantastical case that’s all too real.
Arriving in the U.S. in 1978, Dittrich first posed as a Canadian, William Dyson, and then disappeared, reinventing himself Barsky. “I was sent to the United States to establish myself as a citizen and then make contact, to the extent possible, at the highest levels possible of decision makers—particularly political decision makers,” he told the magazine.
Ask a Cold War Expert: How Realistic Is The Americans?
Was the use of Russian illegals something that was actually going on in the eighties?
The Russians used illegals in waves. There was that wave in the fifties, and then there was that very recent wave that was uncovered, which presumably began in the eighties. In between the fifties and the eighties, there's no known instance of Russian illegals operating in the United States. Although you never know, because our knowledge of this is entirely dependent on the spies who have been uncovered. So the ones that were successful, we kind of don't know about. [Chuckles.]
You said that spying is boring, but Phillip and Elizabeth spend a lot of time seducing people to get information. Is that something that KGB spies would frequently do?
Actually, KGB officers have often used that tactic against Americans and others who were in Russia. Clayton Lonetree is the most important example; he was an American marine who was guarding the Moscow embassy in the eighties, and he helped the spy who seduced him to bug the building. There's also a famous case of a French ambassador by the name of Maurice DeJean, who was subjected to this when he was in Moscow in the mid-fifties. And the term of art for a woman "dangle" is actually "swallow," as in the bird. So that is a recognized tactic.
FX's New Soviet Spy Drama 'The Americans' Is Great — But Is It Realistic? (Business Insider)