boston:

How Russian spies blended into Cambridge

- Their neighbors thought they were a sales consultant and a real estate agent. He had a degree from Harvard. They had two children. They were a typical American family, except they were not.

Notable for its Bond-like details: “In 2006, law enforcement officials found that by entering a 27-character code into the computer of the Cambridge spies, they were able to access a special steganography program that makes the messages appear on digital images downloaded from specific websites that they used to communicate secret messages.”

Neither Mr. Soueid nor any other citizen of the U.S. is an agent of the Syrian Government. The accusation that a U.S. citizen is working with the Syrian Government to intimidate U.S. citizens is absolutely baseless and totally unacceptable. Contrary to the statement of the Department of Justice, Mr. Soueid is not an agent of any Syrian institution; he never worked under directions or control of any Syrian official.

That’s the Syrian embassy in Washington responding to charges against a Virginia man accused of snooping on Syrian-Americans who spoke out against President Assad. The U.S. is calling the man “an unregistered agent of the Syrian government.” You’ll find that denial on Eli Lake’s piece on the alleged spy.

Honestly, how can you not click on this hedline?