Caught On Tape?
It begins like a classic espionage flick: a cryptic call from a pay phone.
"It's Anatoly from Krasnoyarsk. I brought what I promised," the voice on the tape says.
According to Russian TV, it's Anatoly Popov, who served 12 years in prison for trying to hijack a plane and is now back in Moscow trying to sell secrets. He's speaking to Captain Robert Brannon, the U.S. Naval attaché at the American embassy.
With surveillance cameras rolling, Popov meets in a restaurant with two other men identified as employees of the U.S. embassy and offers them a map of a minefield of a river in Siberia.
One of the Americans allegedly says, "I'll give you a little money," although you can't see his lips move because he's hidden behind Popov.
That was the end of the Popov caper, reports CBS News Correspondent David Martin. According to Russian television, he turned himself in before he could be arrested.
As the Naval attaché in Moscow, Brannon reports to the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, so you can understand why the Russians would consider him a spy and keep him under surveillance.
Russian television also played an audiotape it said is Brannon talking with a man named Igor Sutyagin, who was on trial for espionage.
- Brannon: "I wonder if you ever received a fax."
Sutyagin: "Yes."
Brannon: "And the information I tried to send you?"
Sutyagin: "Yes, that happened yesterday. The best was that envelope."
Brannon: "Well, I'm glad things worked out."
Maybe the Russians want to keep him around because he's so easy to keep track of.
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