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Putin says “Traitors always end badly” But “illegals” can end up in Playboy
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Sergei’s Death. Mistakes. Nonsense and a Chuckle
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Sergei Tretyakov, Russian Spy ‘Comrade J,’ Dead at 53
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Dateline Interview
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The arrest of eleven Russian “illegals” last week caused my phone to ring. The BBC, NPR, NBC, and Russian television wanted to speak to me. I said no because I was not familiar with the case, but then the media began reporting that the FBI had uncovered the spy ring because of a tip from Sergei Tretyakov, the subject of my book, COMRADE J, and a good friend.
Is Solitary Confinement Cruel?
Is being confined indefinitely in a solitary prison cell “cruel and unusual punishment” and does it violate a prisoner’s right to due process?
A team of students at the University of Denver Strum School of Law and two of their professors claim the answer to both questions is yes. In 2007, they filed a civil rights lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on behalf of a familiar name: Thomas Silverstein.
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Silverstein sent me this drawing after I mailed him one of my books. Several BOP officers were angry that I gave him a copy but didn't offer them one.
Silverstein is a major character in my book, The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison, and someone I have known since 1987. That’s when I became the first and – to date — the only reporter ever allowed to interview him in prison.