Spy Swap Coming

Governments spy on each other all the time. In any embassey or consulate there will be several people assigned the task of obtaining inromation about other nations. That may mean military or political secrets but it can also include commercial secrets, agricultural forecasts or sophisticated pieces of equipment. If a spy is covered under diplomatic immunity and he is caught, all that can be done is to declare him "persona non grata" and send him home. Unprotected spies are arrested and put in prison.

As time passes, nations that are engaged in very active intelligence efforts against each other often have a collection of imprisoned spies. These people can be exchanged for others in the legenndary process called the "spy swap".

In the movies, the scene is often a long, narrow bridge. It's dark, foggy and the bridge is well lit only in the center. Cars approach at either end and stop. One or more people exit the cars at either end of the bridge and walk towards the middle.

Some sort of mayhem often ensues in the movies or on television. In real life, spy swaps are just as tension filled but rarely end in shooting and explosions.

In 1962, one of the most famous spy swaps occurred in Berlin. Francis Gary Powers, an American Air Force officer and pilot of a U-2 aircraft shot down over the Soviet Union, was exchanged for Colonel Rudolf Abel, A Soviet intelligence officer. The swap took place, as did others, at the Glienicke bridge which connected East and West Germany across the Havel River.

Anatoly Shcharansky, a dissident author in the Soviet Union, was exchanged for several Soviet intelligence officers in 1985. He and three others accused of spying for the West were exchanged for five people in U.S. custody and 3 held by the West Germans.

The ten people currently under arrest in the United States for spying for Russia are expected to be a part of the latest spy swap. Igor Sutyagin, a Russian phyiscist currently serving time in Russia for spying for the United States, is reputed to be the other side of the swap. The ten Russians would plead guilty to some criminal charges and agree to deportation in return for no prison time. They would be flown, most probably, to Vienna, where they would be exchanged for Sutyagin. It is possible that other individuals, as yet unnamed, may be a part of the swap because most swaps involve similar numbers of people from both sides.

The ten currently under arrest include one U.S. citizen and several of the couples have children that are U.S. citizens. It is not clear how a spy swap would affect these Americans or their citizenship.