Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Americans (Hammer and Sickle under the �C� in Americans)

I have to hand it to the Russians. They did a good job hosting the Winter Olympics. It was a first class effort. The biggest concern prior to the games startup was security. Everybody, including Putin, was worried about Terrorists. It’s ironic that it wasn’t terrorists the Soviets needed to worry about but the Ukrainians. Isn’t that the way life always is? You worry about one thing and something unanticipated bites you in the butt.

This Wednesday the new season of the Americans will open. For those not familiar with the series it’s about a Russian and his wife who are agents, pretending to be a normal everyday American family. When I first started watching it I was reminded of the old TV show “I Led Three Lives.” It was about another imbedded Russian agent who was flipped by the FBI.

While I was reading Robert Gates book, “Honor” he refers to an incident where an informant identified several family cells of Russian agents operating in the United States. President Obama was said to be incensed about the case feeling it would put his relationship with the Soviets in jeopardy. It turned out that the agents and their families were quietly whisked away to Moscow. The reporting of the incident in Gate’s book left me scratching my head. I don’t recall the incident being reported in the news, but it must have been. Anyway the true-life story became the basis for the hit TV series.