National Security is a bigger subject than ever with the threat of terrorists and other problems. With more criminals than ever learning how to get a passport, the integrity of our United States borders is being compromised. Issues surrounding passports have been huge in the news lately, and one of the most shocking comes along with the story about the spies captured within the borders of the United States.
You’ve probably heard in the news about the ten Russian spies that had been captured in New York. One of these spies was Anna Chapman. She and her nine fellow Russians pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country” and for procuring information for a foreign government. They also had much more serious money-laundering charges held against them, but these were dropped. Russia agreed to swap four United States spies for the ten Russian spies, the biggest exchange since the Cold War.
Anna Chapman, also known as Anya Kushchenko, married a British man named Alex Chapman back in 2002, but they later divorced in 2006. The story behind their marriage is interesting and reflects Chapman’s life as a spy. They met at a party in 2002 and married less than six months later. They were happily married and head over heels in love according to Alex Chapman’s father, but Anna grew cold and distant. Soon she was meeting with Russian friends and a divorce resulted.
After this, she moved to New York, where she was working to gather information for her home government in Russia. Soon she sent a panicked call to her father, a Russian diplomat named Vasily Kushchenko. In this call, which was monitored by the US, Chapman voiced her concern that she might have been discovered. This call only hastened Chapman’s arrest, along with her other espionage agents.
This story has an interesting twist: Anna Chapman was stripped of her United Kingdom citizenship as well as her passport. This passport and citizenship were from when she was married to Alex Chapman, and even though she wishes to return to the United Kingdom one day, she is officially not allowed back in the country. Hopefully the whole world can see just how what kind of power revoking a passport can have, including our own government and US passport bureau.
This incident gives a whole new perspective about how vital passports are. Think about it, without one, you can’t even leave your home country. The National Government and the US passport bureau are always trying to stay one step ahead of the criminals who try to steal, copy, or forge new passports, but there’s only so much they can do. What you can do is keep a careful eye on your passport. If you don’t have a passport, or don’t know how to get a passport, be sure you go about it the right way in order to protect the identity of you and your family. While passports have been in the news more than ever, you don’t need to become part of the problem.
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