Spy Games

Michael Ledeen has a very interesting article on National Review Online, an "interview" with the ghost of James Angelton, a former CIA officer who specialized in the Soviet Union. He discusses with Angleton the very suspicious death of Alexander Litvinenko, a KGB spy who defected and became a critic of the Kremlin. Among some enlightening conversation in the article:

ML: Okay, you say that to me. But how would you prepare an analysis for President Bush? After all, he’s invested a lot in a personal relationship with Putin, as Blair has, and as Secretary Rice has. If the Kremlin is back in the business of silencing critics just because of what they say and write, it will be hard for that relationship to continue. So you’d better be convincing.

JJA: There are patterns, very convincing patterns. And then there’s the widely ignored fact that, just last summer, Putin changed Russian law so that this sort of thing is actually legal.

ML: What? I haven’t seen that in print anywhere.

JJA: Have a look at the letters column in the London Times on the 11th of July, just as the G8 Summit was getting ready to start in Russia. Vladimir Bukovsky and Oleg Gordievsky wrote a letter, and you’d better pay attention when those guys talk.

Read the entire article to see why we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the threat that Vladimir Putin has become to freedom--and not just the freedom of Russians.