FBI Headquarters

The FBI's J. Edgar Hoover Headquarters, across the street from the Department of Justice, in Washington, DC. (AP Photo)

(Cliff Owen)

"I'm already dead," Alexey Yurievich Artamonov told his CIA handler in 2008.

That was not the desired answer. Artamonov, a Russian intelligence officer, and his wife had defected to the U.S., offering up valuable secrets in exchange for new identities and green cards. The CIA wanted them to return to Russia and serve as moles. Artamonov refused, insisting Russian agents and mobsters were hunting for them. They'd be jailed and probably killed, he said. The CIA, annoyed, essentially turned them over to the FBI.

The move to the federal law-enforcement agency proved a disaster for the Russian defectors, replete with sometimes clownish bureaucratic infighting between the CIA and the FBI. The Artamonovs worked for the FBI for five years, writes investigative reporter Bryan Denson. They provided the names of corrupt Russian officials. They laid out how Russian spies infiltrate U.S. corporations and how Russian banks launder money for various mobsters around the world. They helped the FBI track down diamond thieves.

But the promised quid pro quo -- green cards, a new life in the U.S. -- was not forthcoming. The Artamonovs, now using the surname Neumann, ended up in Portland, abandoned by both the CIA and the FBI. They're waging a legal battle to stay in the country, all the while looking over their shoulders.

"We risked our lives for them," Alexey, now Jan Neumann, told Denson, a former long-time reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive. "We accomplished a lot. We made this country safer. All the promises have been broken. This is huge damage to the reputation of the United States."

Denson is telling the couple's story in the new issue of Newsweek magazine. It's a fascinating, horrifying tale. Follow the link to read the entire expose.

-- Douglas Perry