Another Russia Critic Shot

This Time In The U.S.

Story From NBC4 TV in Washington DC

Outspoken Critic Of Russia Shot

Man Wounded On Driveway

POSTED: 4:45 pm EST March 2, 2007
UPDATED: 6:26 pm EST March 2, 2007

ADELPHI, Md. -- Prince George's County police are investigating the shooting of a man in the Adelphi area Thursday night.

Officials said Paul Joyal was walking up his driveway on Lackawanna Street at about 7:30 p.m. when he was confronted by two men and shot. He was taken to an area hospital in serious condition.

Neighbors said police responded quickly to the shooting.
Sources told News4's Pat Collins that nothing was taken from Joyal and that someone heard one of the men tell the other man to go ahead and shoot Joyal.

Earlier, at about 6 p.m., Joyal met his friend, Oleg Kalugin, at the Spy Museum. Kalugin, an ex-KGB general, is an advisory director of the museum. After he was shot, Joyal told his wife to call Kalugin to tell him about the shooting, sources told Collins.
The FBI is assisting Prince George's County police in the investigation.

Joyal is a vice president at National Strategies Inc., directing the Law Enforcement and Public Safety division. He was a federal law enforcement officer and director of security for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1980 to 1989.
Joyal is on the Prince George's County Law Enforcement Task Force as well as Gov. Martin O'Malley's public safety transition team.

He is also frequently interviewed by media outlets about counter-terrorism and intelligence matters. Recently, he appeared on "Dateline" and was critical of Russian President Vladymir Putin and the death of a former Russian spy who drank radioactive tea in London.
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If this happens to be the work of Russian agents or a Russian group working on its own, this would be a big failure of U.S. counter-intelligence groups. U.S. counter-intelligence should know where potentially hostile agents are, what they are doing, who they are talking to, etc, as long as they are in the United States.

The incompetent Bush administration, as expected, seems unable or incapable of dealing with this kind of threat effectively.

I have doubts that this was some sort of random act by a couple of street criminals. If it was just "street crime", the suspects would have more than likely taken his wallet or asked for his car keys. That hasn't been mentioned so far as a motive. That is likely why the FBI joined the case right away. It will be interesting to see how this story plays out.

Even if it isn't connected with a Russian group, the U.S. must still do a better job of securing its borders, improving its immigration system, and tracking potential foreign agents on its own soil. In the London (Litvenyenko) case, the Russian suspect simply walked right into the UK using fake documents. The U.S. "supposedly" has reduced this threat with new security measures since 9/11. However, 9/11 was a double edged sword. While ID requirements have gotten better (supposedly), the FBI and other counter-intelligence/Federal law enforcement organizations have been distracted from the threat of traditional foreign agents.

If there is even a hint that Russians were involved, the U.S. must give the Russians a one-way ticket home. That includes all or nearly all of the Russian embassy staff, and even Russian civilians working in DC or in other parts of the country who do not have a good reason to be here. They can then send a new Russian staff. Immigration policy could be changed to imrove screening of Russians (and other foreign nationals) who want to enter the U.S. in the future.

If the U.S. ICE service (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) cannot keep up with Mexicans crossing the border illegally, then our Federal agencies are probably not doing a good job of watching trained agents from other countries.

This is what I mean when I say the issue of border security is more than just an issue of Mexicans crossing illegally. The U.S. needs new immigration policy across the board that would establish who gets to enter, who is tracked, and under what circumstances can they visit, etc. Immigration policies must be fundamentally changed to cover these kinds of security risks as well. Unfortunately, these kinds of threats have not been part of the debate regarding Immigration reform.

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Additional Report from MSNBC