【英语生活】俄在美特工的“潜伏”生活

Week after week, columnist Vicky Pelaez hammered away at U.S. policy in the pages of a New York City newspaper.

'The essence of capitalism is exploitation and permanent expansion to ensure profit growth and the power of mega-corporations. . .,' Ms. Pelaez, a native of Peru, wrote in a 2007 column for El Diario La Prensa, a Spanish-language daily.

Anna Chapman seemed to have a different view of an immigrant's life in New York. In an interview posted on YouTube, Ms. Chapman compared the U.S. to her native Russia. 'Here, meeting the most successful people is easier than anywhere else in the world. If in Moscow it's practically impossible . . . then in New York everything is different,' she said. 'You can go to dinner with your neighbor and . . . meet the most important venture capitalist tonight.'

The two women did share one goal, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation: They were among 11 defendants working as 'deep cover' Russian agents, sent to the U.S. to assume fake identities and 'develop ties in policymaking circles.' All have been charged with conspiracy to act as unauthorized agents of foreign governments. Nine are also charged with conspiracy to launder money. Of the five defendants arrested in the New York area, the men are being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, and the women at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The suspects lived in areas across the country, from Boston to Seattle, with five of them settling in the New York area. Their alleged schemes took place in the most public of places: a Times Square coffee shop, a Long Island Rail Road station in Queens, a downtown bookstore.

The espionage tale stunned those who knew the New York suspects. Ms. Pelaez's family, colleagues and lawyer said the case against her was thin. Her husband, Juan Lazaro, also was among the accused.

In an interview Tuesday outside the couple's home, Waldo Mariscal said his mother and stepfather have no ties to Russia and have never visited the country, he said. 'It's preposterous,' said Mr. Mariscal, an architect.

Ms. Pelaez arrived in the U.S. more than 20 years ago; earlier, while working in Peru as a TV reporter, she was kidnapped. Her husband, Mr. Lazaro, taught a Latin American class at Baruch University. Neighbors noted summer barbecues with South American music.

Mr. Lazaro claimed to be a Peruvian citizen born in Uruguay, according to the complaint. But in 2002, federal agents heard him at home talking about his childhood with Ms. Pelaez. He told her: 'We moved to Siberia . . . as soon as the war started,' the complaint says.

Colleagues describe Ms. Pelaez as an opinionated columnist with a flair for painting, a love of ceviche and pride in her teenage son's piano skills.

'She dedicated so much time to her painting and El Diario I don't know how she could find time to spy,' said Candida Portugues, a reporter at El Diario La Prensa. 'She did all kinds of stuff. I don't know. It's very difficult for me to believe this.'

Ms. Chapman's lawyer voiced similar disbelief. Ms. Chapman is a 28-year-old divorced Russian national who moved to the U.S. full-time last year. 'This is a . . . very intelligent woman,' said lawyer Robert Baum. 'She has a master's in economics, she speaks fluently several languages and she ran her own real-estate company through the Internet, which was a very lucrative and successful business. She doesn't fit the profile of a spy that they make her out to be.'

It was Ms. Chapman who met last Saturday with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian embassy official, according to the complaint.

Two other suspects, Richard and Cynthia Murphy of Montclair, N.J., were also described as blending into their suburban lifestyles. The couple moved to the U.S. in the mid-1990s.

Mrs. Murphy has worked at Morea Financial Services in Manhattan for 13 years and is currently a vice president, conducting 'comprehensive Financial Planning and Tax Accounting services for high net-worth individuals,' according to a profile on the business networking site LinkedIn. She received an MBA from Columbia Business School last month.

The 55-page complaint reads like a Cold War spy thriller. For example, it says Ms. Pelaez was caught on video accepting a bag from an individual in a park in a South American country in 2000. She was also allegedly overheard by FBI agents on several occasions discussing with her husband the transactions, which involved large amounts of money, and instructing him to pass a note to a presumed Russian agent in invisible ink, according to the complaint.

'Who knows what she's doing, who she's talking to?' her attorney, John M. Rodriguez, said of the meeting in the park. 'I don't know if any money exchanged hands or not. . . . And I suspect the U.S. government has no way of knowing either.'

Mr. Rodriguez said that Ms. Pelaez wasn't concealing her identity, unlike some of the other defendants, and that her relationship with Mr. Lazaro dates back 30 years, prior to the alleged conspiracy with Russia. He said they'd been married for 17 years. While she may be 'leftist leaning,' he said, that does not make her a spy.

专栏作家佩洛斯(Vicky Pelaez)在纽约市一家报纸的版面上通过每周的专栏探讨美国政策问题。

2007年之时，秘鲁人佩洛斯在西班牙语日报《El Diario La Prensa》的一个专栏上写道，资本主义的本质是剥削及永久性扩张，以确保盈利增长及大型企业的权力。

Associated Press马里斯卡尔称对他父母的指控很荒谬。查普曼(Anna Chapman)看似对纽约的移民生活有不同的见解。在YouTube播放的一次采访中，查普曼将美国与其祖国俄罗斯进行了比较。她说，在美国比其它任何地方更容易遇见世界上最成功的人，这在莫斯科几乎是不可能的。在纽约一切都不同。今晚你与邻居共进晚餐时，可能就会遇到最重要的风险资本家。

据美国联邦调查局(Federal Bureau of Investigation)的说法，这两位女性有一点是相同的，她们均同属于11名被控潜伏的俄国特工之列，这些人被派往美国以假冒身份在决策圈内发展关系。11名被告均被控以未经授权的外国政府的特工身份从事阴谋活动。其中九人还被指控以共谋洗钱罪。五名在纽约被捕的被告中，男性关押在曼哈顿的大都会惩教中心(Metropolitan Correctional Center)，女性关押在布鲁克林的大都会拘留中心(Metropolitan Detention Center)。

嫌疑人的居住地分散在从波士顿到西雅图的美国各地，其中五人定居在纽约。他们被指控进行的密谋计划均发生最公开的公共场所：时代广场(Times Square)附近的一家咖啡厅、皇后区(Queens)的一个长岛线铁路站，以及市中心一家书店。

间谍活动传闻让认识嫌疑人的纽约居民大为震惊。佩洛斯的家人、同事及律师说，这种指控成立的可能性微乎其微。佩洛斯的丈夫拉扎罗(Juan Lazaro)也在受指控之列。

周二在这对夫妇的住所外，建筑师马里斯卡尔(Waldo Mariscal)在接受采访时说，他的母亲与继父与俄罗斯没有关系，而且从未到过俄罗斯，这种指控很荒谬。

佩洛斯20多年前来到美国，此前在秘鲁时从事电视记者工作时，她曾遭到绑架。她的丈夫拉扎罗在巴鲁克大学(Baruch University)教授一个拉美课程。邻居们提到了夏季烤肉聚餐及南美音乐。

起诉书表明，拉扎罗是出生在乌拉圭的秘鲁公民。但在2002年，联邦特工窃听到他在家中与佩洛斯提到他的孩童时代。他当时对佩洛斯说，战争一开始，他们就搬到了西伯利亚。

同事们形容佩莱斯是一位固执己见的专栏作家，有绘画天分，喜欢吃南美菜“塞维切”(ceviche)，并自豪于10几岁的儿子的钢琴水平。

纽约《每日新闻报》(El Diario La Prensa)记者波图格斯(Candida Portugues)说，她把很多时间都用在绘画和《每日新闻报》上，所以我不知道她怎么有时间从事间谍活动；她各种事情都做，我不知道，我很难相信这个事情。

查普曼的律师也表达了类似的怀疑态度。查普曼28岁，俄罗斯国籍，离过婚，去年搬到美国定居。律师鲍姆(Robert Baum)说，她是一个非常聪明的女人，她拥有经济学硕士学位，能讲流利的多种语言，通过互联网运营自己的房地产公司，这个公司非常赚钱，非常成功；她不符合他们所说的那种间谍形象。

起诉书说，上周六同一位装作俄罗斯使馆官员的卧底FBI特工会面的，正是查普曼。

另外两位嫌疑人、新泽西州蒙特克莱的理查德•墨菲(Richard Murphy)和辛西亚•墨菲(Cynthia Murphy)夫妇，也被说成是看不出有什么异于他们郊区生活方式的地方。他们是在上世纪90年代中期搬迁到美国的。

据商业社交网站LinkedIn的资料，辛西亚•墨菲在曼哈顿金融服务公司Morea Financial Services工作了13年，目前是一位副总裁，为高净值个人执行“财务规划与税务会计”服务。她于上个月取得了哥伦比亚商学院(Columbia Business School)的MBA学位。

55页的起诉书读起来像是一部冷战时期的间谍悬疑小说。比如其中说，2000年，佩莱斯被拍到在某南美国家的一处公园从别人手里拿了一个包裹。起诉书还说，她曾在多个场合被FBI探员偷听到同丈夫讨论涉及大额资金的交易，并指使丈夫向一位疑似俄罗斯特工传递用隐形墨水写成的便条。

佩莱斯的律师罗德里格兹(John M. Rodriguez)谈到公园里的那次会面说，谁知道她在做什么、她在跟谁说话？我不知道有没有什么资金被转手，我猜美国政府也没有办法知道。

罗德里格兹说，佩莱斯和其他一些被告人不一样，并没有隐匿自己的身份，而她与拉扎罗的关系要追溯到30年前，先于所谓与俄罗斯共谋进行的活动。他说，他们已经结婚17年，虽然她有可能“左倾”，但这并不足以让她成为一个间谍。