"The good news is that someone still wants to spy on us. The bad news is that it’s the Russians."

~` Great op-ed piece by Tom Friedman of the NY Times today.

Nice read of Russia's "problem" in moving beyond

the cold war mentality ~~ TP

----------------

July 13, 2010

The Spies Who Loved Us

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

" My first reaction was: This may be the greatest gift to America by a foreign country since France gave us the Statue of Liberty. Someone still wants to spy on us! Just when we were feeling down and out, the Russians show up and tell us that it’s still worth briefcases of money to plant people in our think tanks. Subprime crisis or not, some people think we’ve still got the right stuff. Thank you, Vladimir Putin! Upon reflection, though, it occurred to me that this is actually a good news/bad news story. The good news is that someone still wants to spy on us. The bad news is that it’s the Russians."