'Spy' Looks Normal, Goofy on Facebook

Spy flap spurs talk of banning 007s from social media
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 30, 2010 5:49 AM CDT
'Spy' Looks Normal, Goofy on Facebook
Like fellow accused spy Anna Chapman, Mikhail Semenko has an extensive Facebook presence.   (www.facebook.com)

Mikhail Semenko's co-workers found him clumsy and awkward, but on Facebook he looks like a pretty sociable guy. The accused Russian spy's profile features pics of him mugging with friends in a Bill Clinton mask and a USSR T-shirt, Gawker reports, as well as just chatting at parties with beer in hand. Semenko and fellow 20-something spy Anna Chapman are present on LinkedIn as well, and Chapman also has a Twitter feed.

News of the plugged-in spies adds to calls in the intelligence community to ban agents from using social media, Marc Ambinder writes in the Atlantic. Facebook and its ilk are considered a "counterintelligence risk of the first order," Ambinder notes, and operatives receive no training in how to figure out who the bad guys on Facebook might be.
(More Anna Chapman stories.)

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