MORE FBI LIES - HANSSEN TALE A PROVOCATION, SAYS RUSSIAN Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit MORE LIES FROM THE FBI, SAYS FORMER RUSSIAN FSB HEAD "HANSSEN TALE IS JUST A PROVOCATION" Friday March 2 11:11 AM ET (via Yahoo) Ex-Russian Secret Service Boss Doubts Hanssen Case MOSCOW (Reuters) - A former Russian spy chief cast doubt Friday on allegations that FBI agent Robert Hanssen sold secrets to Moscow for more than $1 million, saying it did not have that kind of money. Hanssen was arrested on February 18 and accused of selling secrets to the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia for $1.4 million in money and diamonds since 1985. "I view this as a provocation from the FBI," said Nikolai Kovalyov, a former head of the FSB domestic security service and now deputy chairman of the State Duma lower house of parliament's security committee. "The astronomical size of the payments also makes me cautious," he told a news conference. "Russia simply does not have that sort of money." He said such spy cases were part of efforts by U.S. President Bush to strengthen his own domestic position after his slim and contested election victory. Kovalyov said recent U.S. and British air raids on Baghdad and the U.S. desire to create a national anti-missile defense shield, opposed by Russia, were part of the same phenomenon. He said Hanssen had been in no position to harm U.S. national interests as his job, uncovering foreign agents in the United States, had not given him access to damaging secrets. The United States alleges that Hanssen compromised technical operations, including electronic surveillance and monitoring techniques, and intelligence targets. Kovalyov also saw no signs that Russia's secret services had embarked on an internal witch-hunt for spies, despite a number of recent espionage cases, including that of U.S. citizen Edmond Pope and of Russian researcher Igor Sutyagin. "As for spy mania, I would say the secret services are acting in a totally restrained and balanced fashion," he said. Pope was sentenced to 20 years in jail for trying to obtain secrets on an underwater missile but was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB spy and former FSB boss. Sutyagin, a researcher for the USA and Canada Institute, a respected thinktank, is still on trial on charges of passing secrets to Western handlers. He denies the charges. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nyteeu-03.02.01-13:48:28-6415