Lost Or Stolen U.S. Passports - Prescription For Undercover Operations

Border security is in the headlines a lot lately and rightfully so. Passports play a big roll in making it possible for illegal immigrants and terrorists to cause problems. Since they know how to get an American passport, the security of the United States has been compromised. Recently, you may have seen on the news the story about the spies actually being caught within our borders.

You've probably heard in the news about the ten Russian spies that had been captured in New York. One of these spies was Anna Chapman. She and her nine fellow Russians pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country" and for procuring information for a foreign government. They also had much more serious money-laundering charges held against them, but these were dropped. Russia agreed to swap four United States spies for the ten Russian spies, the biggest exchange since the Cold War.

During 2002, Anna Chapman, whose Russian name is Anya Kushchenko, married Alex Chapman, a man from England. They divorced in 2006 but their marriage gave her credibility that made her espionage activities much easier. At the beginning of their marriage, Alex Chapman through he and Anna were happy but as she renew Russian friendships, she grew away from him and eventually they divorced.

After this, she moved to New York, where she was working to gather information for her home government in Russia. Soon she sent a panicked call to her father, a Russian diplomat named Vasily Kushchenko. In this call, which was monitored by the US, Chapman voiced her concern that she might have been discovered. This call only hastened Chapman's arrest, along with her other espionage agents.

This story has an interesting twist: Anna Chapman was stripped of her United Kingdom citizenship as well as her passport. This passport and citizenship were from when she was married to Alex Chapman, and even though she wishes to return to the United Kingdom one day, she is officially not allowed back in the country. Hopefully the whole world can see just how what kind of power revoking new US passports can have, including our own government and passport agencies. - 39468