Smart diplomacy strikes again!  Recall that the Obama/Clinton campaign sold themselves as experienced and savvy in the art of international relations.

Looks like that was nothing more that puffery, and that the administration, now with the traitor John Kerry at the helm at the State Department, is just as incompetent as we all thought they would be, and especially so now that they are all distracted by the many scandals swirling around their corruption. 

The Telegraph and Zero Hedge report the following:

   "Curiously, and hinting that this action was in response to recent escalations in Syria, the language used by Russia was a carbon copy replica of that used by Obama recently to decry Syrian use of chemical weapons, which is the populist lynchpin of the US narrative in obtaining public support for eventual military escalation:

An FSB spokesman told the Interfax news agency on Friday that the US had "crossed a red line" with Mr Fogle's actions, because the CIA had already been warned to stop trying to recruit Russian citizens.

"In October 2011, the FSB officially warned the station chief of the CIA in Moscow, ...... that in the case of continuing provocative recruitment actions with regard to employees of the Russian special services, the FSB would take symmetrical actions with regard to CIA officers," the spokesman said.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Moscow was not immediately available for comment on Friday afternoon.

Just like Israel continues to bombard Syria without any consequences, so Russia continues to use the US State Department as a punching bag without fear of retaliation.

Will the US continue taking it, or will it, as the Telegraph suggests, "provoke an angry response in Washington, and damage important bilateral links..." And how long until Israel conducts another overnight raid in Syria, only this time a Syria which as the NYT reported has now received advanced Russian Yahkonts missiles whose main difference from all prior Syrian armaments is that they are outfitted with "offensive radar" and can be used for more than just self-defense.

Unlike Scud and other longer-range surface-to-surface missiles that the Assad government has used against opposition forces, the Yakhont antiship missile system provides the Syrian military a formidable weapon to counter any effort by international forces to reinforce Syrian opposition fighters by imposing a naval embargo, establishing a no-fly zone or carrying out limited airstrikes.

So with Israel suddenly facing the prospect of actual casualties should it engage in more air raids over Syrian airspace, just what avenues are left for telegraphing superiority and supremacy in the latest middle eastern hotbed of future escalation? Or does this mean the days of foreplay are over."