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Russian Spies posing as Canadians.....accused of spying on the US
This is a bit scary...perhaps the cold war is not as dead as we all thought?
OTTAWA - An Ontario family caught up in a global espionage drama wants answers from the Canadian government amid fears they'll now have trouble travelling abroad — or might even get a late-night visit from Russian spies.
Brampton resident David Heathfield said Tuesday he'd like to hear from authorities in Ottawa after his dead brother's name turned up in U.S. court files about an alleged spy ring run from Moscow.
The FBI says a Boston-area man accused of being a Russian agent assumed the identity of Donald Heathfield, who died at six weeks of age in Montreal in 1963.
Donald Heathfield and his wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, a real estate agent who also claimed to be Canadian, are among 11 people arrested as part of the supposed spy network.
The mysterious man was apparently the developer of Future Map, a software system, and served as a principal with the Massachusetts office of Global Partners Inc., a business-services firm.
In searching a Cambridge, Mass., safe-deposit box, investigators found a photocopy of an Ontario birth certificate in the name of Donald Howard Graham Heathfield. An FBI obituary hunt revealed the man to be the deceased son of Howard William Heathfield of Burlington, Ont., who died in June 2005 at age 70.
Russian foreign intelligence agents of the SVR — and their predecessors with the infamous Soviet KGB — have long taken up the identities of people who passed on as infants as a means of establishing new covers abroad.
But all that was little comfort Tuesday for David Heathfield, who assumes the Russians singled out his brother's 47-year-old death notice in a Montreal newspaper.
"How did they get it? And how do we protect ourselves in the future? What implications is this going to have on us?" he asked.
"Are we going to be able to travel abroad, go to the States anymore? Or are we going to be pulled over all the time, each time the Heathfield name pops up ... and Russian spies come knocking on our door now or something?"
Canadian officials haven't contacted him — and they've said next to nothing publicly about the unfolding cloak-and-dagger tale.
Foreign Affairs officials initially referred calls on the case to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews' office. Toews then steered inquiries back to Foreign Affairs.
"This is an American investigation. We continue to work with our allies on the issue," Foreign Affairs said Tuesday in a statement. "As the investigation is ongoing we have no comment at this time."
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service declined to comment.
Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the United States, said, "I think that the people at CSIS are going to do their due diligence about the allegations."
Alan Cairns, a spokesman for Ontario's Ministry of Government Services, responsible for birth certificates, said the agency would co-operate with any investigation.
Even so, since the real Donald Heathfield was born in Quebec, it seems the Ontario certificate discovered by the FBI was likely a fake.
A spokesman for York University in Toronto confirmed that a Donald Graham Heathfield graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics in June 1995, indicating the accused man once lived in Canada.
OTTAWA - An Ontario family caught up in a global espionage drama wants answers from the Canadian government amid fears they'll now have trouble travelling abroad — or might even get a late-night visit from Russian spies.
Brampton resident David Heathfield said Tuesday he'd like to hear from authorities in Ottawa after his dead brother's name turned up in U.S. court files about an alleged spy ring run from Moscow.
The FBI says a Boston-area man accused of being a Russian agent assumed the identity of Donald Heathfield, who died at six weeks of age in Montreal in 1963.
Donald Heathfield and his wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, a real estate agent who also claimed to be Canadian, are among 11 people arrested as part of the supposed spy network.
The mysterious man was apparently the developer of Future Map, a software system, and served as a principal with the Massachusetts office of Global Partners Inc., a business-services firm.
In searching a Cambridge, Mass., safe-deposit box, investigators found a photocopy of an Ontario birth certificate in the name of Donald Howard Graham Heathfield. An FBI obituary hunt revealed the man to be the deceased son of Howard William Heathfield of Burlington, Ont., who died in June 2005 at age 70.
Russian foreign intelligence agents of the SVR — and their predecessors with the infamous Soviet KGB — have long taken up the identities of people who passed on as infants as a means of establishing new covers abroad.
But all that was little comfort Tuesday for David Heathfield, who assumes the Russians singled out his brother's 47-year-old death notice in a Montreal newspaper.
"How did they get it? And how do we protect ourselves in the future? What implications is this going to have on us?" he asked.
"Are we going to be able to travel abroad, go to the States anymore? Or are we going to be pulled over all the time, each time the Heathfield name pops up ... and Russian spies come knocking on our door now or something?"
Canadian officials haven't contacted him — and they've said next to nothing publicly about the unfolding cloak-and-dagger tale.
Foreign Affairs officials initially referred calls on the case to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews' office. Toews then steered inquiries back to Foreign Affairs.
"This is an American investigation. We continue to work with our allies on the issue," Foreign Affairs said Tuesday in a statement. "As the investigation is ongoing we have no comment at this time."
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service declined to comment.
Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the United States, said, "I think that the people at CSIS are going to do their due diligence about the allegations."
Alan Cairns, a spokesman for Ontario's Ministry of Government Services, responsible for birth certificates, said the agency would co-operate with any investigation.
Even so, since the real Donald Heathfield was born in Quebec, it seems the Ontario certificate discovered by the FBI was likely a fake.
A spokesman for York University in Toronto confirmed that a Donald Graham Heathfield graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics in June 1995, indicating the accused man once lived in Canada.
Sam, your on to me....I am in this primarily US forum as a spy...lol. Joking, as I know you are!!! Ha.
Every country spies on it's allies - Why do you think so many of our entertainers are Canadians THEIR ALL SPIES!
But jokes aside look up Israeli and espionage. The Israelis are responsible for countless American lives etc. being lost with their espionage of America and many of their policies in the past where they traded American spy ring information for looser emigration policies with Russia.
But jokes aside look up Israeli and espionage. The Israelis are responsible for countless American lives etc. being lost with their espionage of America and many of their policies in the past where they traded American spy ring information for looser emigration policies with Russia.
I haven't looked into this very much but it doesn't sound good! And if I were that family, I'd be concerned and looking for answers myself.
See Dazon50's companion post with caregiver's reply.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Current-Events---/Feds-arrest-10-accused-of-being-Russian-agents/show/1277346
See Dazon50's companion post with caregiver's reply.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Current-Events---/Feds-arrest-10-accused-of-being-Russian-agents/show/1277346
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