Swapping Spies as Questions Continue to Swirl

OK, here’s the deal: We send the Russians their 10 spies back.

And they send us imprisoned scientist Igor Sutyagin – plus – plus nine Russian gymnasts.

The USA could use the help at next year’s Summer Games!

After today’s guilty pleas in Manhattan federal court, the hapless spies are expected to leave America immediately. Sidestepping the threat of long prison terms, they’ll all be sighing with relief.

But will Anna Chapman (and her co-conspirators) really enjoy a brand new life in Moscow? Will the comely one happily trade the pleasures of New York tabloid stardom for the earnest service of what’s become of the KGB? Will a few naked pictures go quite so far in Mother Russia?

Not likely.

Clearly, these suburban spies fail to measure up the high standards of Cold War espionage agents. These hapless folks had everything a good spy should – secret meetings, techno-gizmos, manipulative sexuality – everything, that is, except for secrets.

These palookas don’t actually seem to have known anything.

Including what their lives will be like now.

Ellis Henican is a columnist for amNewYork and Newsday. He is a Fox News contributor.

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