Russian Spy Ring: What Will Happen to the Kids?

July 2, 2010 — -- No matter what happens to the couples who were charged with being secret Russian spies living a cloak and dagger existence under assumed names in the U.S., their children's lives will be forever changed, a man whose father passed U.S. secrets to Russia told "Good Morning America."

"I'm not sure whether it's possible for them to have normal lives after this," Boria Sax said.

He speaks from experience. His father, Saville Sax, passed U.S. atomic secrets to Russians during the cold war.

His son spent 10 years trying to come to terms with his father's actions.

"It takes a great deal of time to find the human being in your mother or your father who is a spy. You, in effect, like everybody else, have to break through their cover," Sax said.

Six of the eight American children born to the members of an alleged Russian spy ring busted earlier this week are underage, and with both parents under arrest, it's unclear what will happen to the children.

Their parents may have had fake names, fake passports and fake marriages, but the children are real American citizens, and their fate is still uncertain.

Two of those children, 16-year-old Timothy Foley and 20-year-old Alex Foley, went to court Thursday to support their parents, Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley of Boston. The Foley sons waved to their parents as they were brought into the courtroom in shackles.

Their parents were among 11 people arrested earlier this week following a multi-year investigation. The suspects are accused of having lived in the U.S. under assumed false identities while secretly working as covert Russian spies on long-term, "deep-cover" assignments to obtain information on nuclear weapons.

The ring was charged with using classic cold war tactics -- including invisible writing and Morse code messaging -- to send intelligence to the Russian government, the FBI said.

In addition to Heathfield and Foley, Richard and Cynthia Murphy of New Jersey, Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills of Arlington, Virginia, Juan Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez of New York -- all couples with children -- were arrested.

Also arrested were Anna Chapman of New York, Mikhail Semenko of Virginia and Christopher Metsos, a Canadian citizen.