Seven children belong to the four couples charged with being spies for Russian intelligence services
Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 June 2010 21.14 BST
Katie Murphy, 11, said goodbye to her parents to go to a a friend's birthday party and sleepover. When she got home next morning, her mother and father had been arrested and FBI agents were turning her bedroom upside down. Neighbours looked on astonished as Katie and her sister Lisa, seven, left the house carrying pillows and backpacks and accompanied by a female FBI agent.
In all, seven children belong to the four couples charged with being spies. Some are too young to understand other than that their parents are gone...
Going back to the real cold war, perhaps the most heart-wrenching case of such children is the sons of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Robert and Michael were six and 10 in 1953 when their parents were put to death for passing atomic secrets to Moscow. They have spent their lives grappling with that.