AW, COME ON FELLAS, GO READ A GOOD BOOK – AT 6:47 A.M. ET:  Maybe journalism is just a little rusty about spy stories, espionage and good-old foreign intrigue.  But some stories about the Russkie agents caught a few days ago are bordering on the embarrassing.  From, yes, The New York Times:

They raised children, went to work in the city each day, talked the small talk with neighbors about yard work and overpriced contractors. In short, they could have been any family in any suburb in America.

Of course, guys, of course.  What do you think spies look like?  How do you think they act?  Do you really think they wear trenchcoats, short skirts, and wait around under lampposts?

In Montclair, N.J., a woman who lived next to the Murphy family described them as “suburbia personified.” They asked their neighbors for advice about the best middle schools to send their two young daughters. Richard Murphy mowed the lawn; Cynthia Murphy would come home from her job as a financial-services executive, daffodils and French bread in her hands.

“We would talk about gardening and dogs and kids,” said one neighbor, Corine Jones, 53.

Miles away in Yonkers, there lived another ordinary couple, Vicky Peláez and her husband, Juan Jose Lázaro Sr. They doted on their two pet schnauzers and their teenage son, Juan Jose Lázaro Jr., a classical pianist.

One could barf.  The whole idea behind deep-cover agents is to melt in with the population.  Why is this news?

Movies, books and television shows have taken to depicting suburbia as a place where not all is as it seems, where people with decent jobs and decent homes mask their secret double lives, and that seemed to be the case here: The three couples were among 11 people arrested as part of a ring that prosecutors said spied for the Russians under deep cover inside the United States.

I'm sure the guys who wrote this story are good reporters.  Sophisticated they are not.  Maybe they're dreaming of doing a book on this, and already have the James Bond theme playing in their ears.

America now realizes that not everyone who wishes us ill will get up with a gun and break into Middle Eastern chants.

June 30, 2010