US Navy sends 12 warships to Middle East amid tensions in the region, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The ships were dispatched to the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea due to the escalation of the situation in the region following the assassinations of Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh and Lebanese Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, media has reported.

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Scott Ritter: Some swapped prisoners were likely ‘on CIA payroll’

All implications are that some of the people involved in the recent prisoner swap between Moscow and several Western countries were CIA espionage assets, Scott Ritter has told Sputnik.

The exchange that occurred on August 1 appears to have been “a deal hashed out between the Russian secret services and the American CIA,” noted the former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and ex-UN weapons inspector.

Commenting on what is being called the biggest such swap since the Cold War, Ritter pointed out that among the 16 prisoners released by Russia was Evan Gershkovich, “caught red-handed receiving Russian secrets.” The Walls Street Journal reporter was subsequently charged with espionage, found guilty at trial, and meted out a lengthy sentence.

US Marine veteran Paul Whelan was likewise charged with espionage, while self-described Russian political figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, as it turns out, had a US green card.

“This implies there was a special relationship between him [Kara-Murza] and the US government that maybe the US government doesn't want to talk about in public,” Ritter said. Kara-Murza “appears to have been on the CIA payroll as well,” he noted.

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