Seemingly hearkening back to the days of the Cold War, the Associated Press is reporting that the 10 people charged with spying for Russia against the United States are being deported in a "spy swap".  Under the terms of the swap, Russia would send back to the US several convicted American spies currently imprisoned in Russia, while the ten "sleeper spies" who were arrested in the US and have now pleaded guilty to conspiracy not to register as an agent of a foreign country in America.

From several accounts, it would appear that the United States is getting the better end of the deal:  the Russian-jailed American spies were caught passing secrets, while reports are that the American-charged spies provided no actual information to Russian authorities.  But President Obama has a great opportunity to negotiate further.

According to Amnesty International , there are currently 71 "prisoners of conscience" being jailed in Cuba.  Their crime?  Dissent against the Castro regime.  Why not make the "spy swap" really count, and get the Russians to pressure Cuba to release some or all of those dissenters?  It would cost the Russians nothing, but would be a major public relations coup for Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin, as well as for President Obama.

In brokering such a deal, President Obama could show that he's a tough negotiator, and that he takes human rights and right of political dissent seriously.  How better to deflect claims that his Department of Justice is soft on political intimidation that have arisen with the voter intimidation case involving the New Black Panthers than to show a steely spine in getting political dissenters freed from Communist Cuba?  Human rights advocates on both the left and the right — from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to National Review — would hail Obama's act.

What would the Russians get?  For one, it would deflect away from Putin's own heavy-handedness at home, as well as provide a symbol of moving away from the Cold War mentality of Cuba as a Communist arm of the Soviet Union.  It would also draw attention away from the embarrassing nature of the spy-ring bust.

President Obama should grab this opportunity to make the "spy swap" really count — to improve the lives of political dissidents, and use his supposed personal magnetism to accomplish something great for human rights and individual liberty.