Kyle Hatcher: U.S. Complains To Russia About "Sex Tape" Smear Campaign Against American Diplomat

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has complained to the Russian Foreign Ministry about a sex tape that U.S. officials call a smear of an American diplomat.

The State Department is calling the video that appeared on a Russian Web site a fabricated montage that includes some real footage of Kyle Hatcher, a married diplomatic liaison to Russian religious and human rights groups.

"Mr. Hatcher has been the subject of a smear campaign in the Russian press and on the Internet to discredit him and his work," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. "We deplore this type of smear campaign."

The video shows Hatcher making telephone calls on a darkened street. Then it cuts to a hotel room, where Hatcher can be seen in a hotel room, apparently from a hidden camera. Later, the video appears to show a man and a woman having sex in the same room with the lights off. It is not clear that man is Hatcher.

In an interview recorded with ABC News, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle blamed the Russian government.

"Clearly the video we saw was a montage of lot of different clips, some of them which are clearly fabricated," he said. "We had our security office back in Washington take a look at that and they are convinced Kyle has done nothing wrong. I have full confidence in him and he is going to continue his work here at the embassy."

Comments

[Steamboater]

02:54 PM on 09/24/2009

So the russians are up to their old tricks after all. Entrapment of foreigners was common in the Soviet Union nd Putin, who's a former KBG thug, really runs Russia and is the one who's pulling Medvedev's strings. When I visited that country a man attemptedto pick me up in the hotel lobby and said he was a Yank. No American uses that term about themselves so I knew ther was something wrong and walked away. Female prositutes standing outside hotels trying to 'capture' foreigners were common too. Then two guys sat at my table in the dining room without an invitation and one of them kept rubbing my knee. I pulled away several times and finally accused them of being KGB. They denied it fo course but from then on I was followed and the next day practically manhandled in the street when some goon grabbed my arm and and just said, "Your hotel is that way!" After taking photos of the subway, because the subway there are beautiful, I was detained for 6 hours and they demanded my camera. I refused and told them I was a writer for an Amercian travel agent magazine and the last thing they wanted was me to go back to the states and write an article about how foreigners are treated. I got to keep my camera and gotthe hell out of that country fast and was escorted to the plane by 3 pigs in military uniforms. I'd never visit there again.

[petermax]

02:31 PM on 09/24/2009

Did the Russian Foreign Ministry learn this technique from Fox News?

[Lee Andrew]

03:01 PM on 09/24/2009

Yeah.. go figure

[kyeshinka]

02:10 PM on 09/24/2009

The same thing happened with Gen. Prosecutor Yuri Skuratov about 10 years ago. Blurry tape, two women, foreign ministry somehow involved. It's all part of the territory when living and working in Russia and it happens more than you'd think.

[SILVANUS]

02:09 PM on 09/24/2009

What is wrong with a religious man having sex, unless he is being judgmental about others enjoying themselves and each other (of course, this means leaving animals and kids out of any of their play)?

[blacksmithn]

04:07 PM on 09/24/2009

Well, he's married and presumably the woman he's supposedly having sex with on tape isn't his wifey.

[SILVANUS]

04:13 PM on 09/24/2009

Which is not commendable if it is true, but, like Bill Clinton, all he has to do is admit he was a bad boy and people will likely move on, even, maybe, in Russia. I'd have to consult a Russian on that. But Pride goeth before a fall. If Clinton had just admittted he was having a mid life crisis and that baby did a bad, bad thing, the steam would have evaporated from the whole absurd circus. His opposition, I venture, knew his achilles heel was Pride, and they maneuvered him to a "lie".

[bruster55]

01:01 PM on 09/24/2009

Hey why is anyone upset with Russia, You can see the same fabrication techniques on Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh in the OLE USA.

The Russians probably learned how to do this by Rush Limbaugh.

[newyorkid]

12:08 PM on 09/24/2009

the nucIear non-proliferation resolution is aimed at aIIowing the 2ionist entity to have 200 atomic b0mbs.

[BowlingForRevenge]

11:05 AM on 09/24/2009

Well it's obvious the Russian's have seen Mad Men and think it's still 1962.

Comrades, PULEEEZ this is the 21st century surely you can do better!

[rf dude]

10:24 AM on 09/24/2009

Ronnie Howard with a Trump-cut...
--

[blacksmithn]

10:36 AM on 09/24/2009

Well, at least Opie got out of Mayberry. But who knew the KGB would hire Barney Fife to blackmail him?

[BeefJerky]

10:48 AM on 09/24/2009

You beat me to it. That's the first thing I thought.

[apolloguide]

10:17 AM on 09/24/2009

Excuse me, but what is a US Bible Thumper doing in Moscow, the capital of a secular state ? Is this our idea of diplomacy, to force our sick and dangerous religious dogma on a country which has gone the extra mile and ridded themselves of destructive fantasies of "God" ?

We are paying for this ? This guy is on the taxpayers payroll ?

[jws2346]

09:21 AM on 09/24/2009

You've gots to be kiddin' me. A sex tape ransom, didn't that go out of style when that wall in Berlin got whacked up?

[skepticalindenver]

09:27 AM on 09/24/2009

It's because Americans are so hung up on sex. They would laugh at the suggestion of trying this on a French diplomat. But we have the "moral majority(really a minority)" living in the last century...maybe even in the one before the last.

[MalloMel]

11:00 AM on 09/24/2009

It's true. If we were not puritanical and hung up on sex, then this would not even be possible.

I'm not even so sure if it is just "living in the last century." It seems to me that it is like living in the present day Mid East.

[FrTown]

09:08 AM on 09/24/2009

Show me the tape and I'll be the judge of that.

[Jazz88105]

08:18 AM on 09/24/2009

The Russians must think it's the 1950's come on guys don't you have better things to do?

[diggg]

07:17 AM on 09/24/2009

I see Ivan is back to his old tricks.

[Harrier]

05:00 AM on 09/24/2009

Funny, I thought rumors about US torture was also fabricated?

[LatteLiberals]

05:40 AM on 09/24/2009

Huh? When was torture done by the US ever downplayed as mear rumors? They was photographic evidence of it from Iraq early on.

So your defending the Russian government's decision to either spy upon and/or fabricate a smear campaign against American diplomat based upon a made up reason.

[kitsinu]

10:19 AM on 09/24/2009

Republicans still deny torture. They proclaimed it to be a few rogues and such. That or claim what was done wasn't torture. "Seeing is believing." only works when you are grounded in this particular reality.

What I don't get is what point Harrier is trying to make. Is he saying this article is meant to cover up a sex scandal of the Obama administration? If so, the question needs to be asked is if Hatcher was even appointed/hired by the Obama administration. Odds are, he wasn't.

[lemekid]

04:30 AM on 09/24/2009

Just like what Jesus said "Do unto others what you want others to do unto you", the American government or people really have nothing here to complain about. American agents do it in many forms all over the world to other country's diplomats, top government leaders, etc.

[LatteLiberals]

05:41 AM on 09/24/2009

Do you actually have proof of this?

[Garioch]

08:11 AM on 09/24/2009

Well we have proof that they try to assassinate heads of state. If they're willing to do that then I can't see this sort of stuff being an issue can you?

[WSKI77]

09:35 AM on 09/24/2009

PROOF???? If you have proof, they did not do their job properly. That is why it is call covert. No paper trail, no witnesses, and no proof. Job well done...