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Espionage

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Espionage is the practice of obtaining secrets (spying) from rivals or enemies for military, political, or economic advantage. It is usually thought of as part of an organized (ie, governmental or corporate) effort. A spy is an agent employed to obtain such secrets. The definition has been restricted to a state spying on potential or actual enemies, primarily for military purposes, but this has been extended to spying involving corporations, known specifically as Industrial espionage. Many nations routinely spy on their enemies, and allies, although they generally deny this. Black's Law Dictionary (1990) defines espionage as: "...gathering, transmitting, or losing...[information related to the national defense]."

Incidents of espionage are well documented throughout history. The wisdom of Sun-Tzu contains information on deception and subversion. The ancient Egyptians had a thoroughly developed system for the acquisition of intelligence. And more recently, in Elizabethan times, there was a deeply entrenched network of intelligence gathering (run by Sir Francis Walsingham).

Espionage, by a citizen of the target state, is generally considered to be a form of treason. In many countries espionage is a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment, e.g. espionage is still a capital crime in the USA.

In Britain a foreign spy would face up to 14 years imprisonment under the Official Secrets Act while a Briton who spied for a foreign country would face a maximum life sentence for treason if it could be proved they were aiding Britain's enemies. Spying for proscribed terrorist organisations violates the Terrorism Act 2000. During the Second World War German spies in Britain were executed for treachery, a special offense covering any aid given to the enemy, including by foreign nationals.

The Cold War involved intense espionage activity between the United States of America and its allies and the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China and their allies, particularly related to nuclear weapons secrets.

Recently, espionage agencies have targeted the illegal drug trade and those considered to be terrorists. Spies have also engaged in assassination and kidnap of people their country doesn't like, for example the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Intelligence agencies have also been involved in covert and overt paramilitary activity (including assassination, kidnap, sabotage, guerrilla warfare, more convential warfare behind enemy lines and coup d'etats), this included many CIA operations during the Cold War and the current "war on terrorism".

See: Cold War espionage

Noteworthy Incidents in the History of Espionage

Spies in various conflicts

Notable spies or alleged spies

Czechoslovakia (StB)

East Germany (Stasi)

France

Germany

Israel (Mossad)

Poland

  • Marian Zacharski - Polish Intelligence officer arrested in 1981 Among other things, he won access to material on the then-new Patriot and Phoenix missiles, the enhanced version of the Hawk air-to-air missile, radar instrumentation for the F-15 fighter, "stealth radar" for the B-1 and Stealth bomber, an experimental radar system being tested by the U.S. Navy, and submarine sonar.
  • William Bell

United Kingdom (MI5/MI6)

  • Robert Baden Powell, operated as a spy during the Boer War while fronting as a rather goofy naturalist who chased butterflies around Boer fortifications and drew his intelligence on the pictures of the specimens he caught.
  • Michael Stokes and Harold Shergold SIS (Secret Intelligence Service/MI6) officers who helped run Penkovsky, Shergold debriefed George Blake
  • Janet Chisholm wife of UK diplomat and courier contact for Penkovsky
  • Noel Coward, joined the secret service at his own insistance and used his society connections and reputation to his advantage.
  • Sidney Reilly the so-called 'Ace of Spies', may have ended as defector to Soviets during last penetration mission
  • Sir William Stevenson (codenamed Intrepid) Canadian championship boxer and businessman who ran British Security Coordination in NYC from before to near the end of WWII (see British Security Coordination: The Secret History..., NY, Fromm International, 1999: A Man Called Intrepid, 1976, is entertaining but often unreliable)
  • Greville Wynne UK international businessman recruited by SIS as a courier to and from Penkovsky, arrested in Budapest and tried with Penkovsky
  • Francis Walsingham was one of the earliest known spymasters. He worked for Queen Elizabeth I.

United States (CIA)

  • Robert Amory Deputy Director of CIA (& WWII Marine officer) during Bay of Pigs planning, excluded by Allen Dulles from the project
  • Moe Berg
  • Joseph Bulik CIA case officer helped with Penkovsky
  • Adamski cover name for Polish trade official recruited by Clarridge
  • James Jesus Angelton CIA counter intelligence chief for decades
  • Richard Bissell CIA Deputy Director of Operations who planned Bay of Pigs operation, and who worked with Kelly Johnson of the Lockheed Skunk Works to develop and deploy the U-2 aircraft before schedule and under budget (see J T Richelson, Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology, 2001)
  • Charles Bohlen an 'anti-spy' as ambassador; when his CIA station chief and several others were compromised by Soviet female agents, he asked that all CIA personnel be withdrawn
  • Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge longtime CIA field agent (NE & SE Asia) and administrator pardoned by GHW Bush for Iran-Contra involvement; was Aldrich Ames' supervisor (See A Spy for All Seasons, 1997, Scribner's).
  • Jack Downing CIA case officer who ran Ogorodnik
  • Allen Dulles OSS spymaster in Bern, Switzerland, during WWII, later Director of the CIA
  • Sheffield Edwards CIA officer who liased with Mafia boss Sam Giancana regarding the assassination of Fidel Castro (early 60s)
  • Jake Esterline CIA Bay of Pigs trainer/planner
  • William King Harvey CIA (though first FBI) officer whose idea the Berlin Tunnel (Operation Gold) was while Chief of the Berlin Operations Base; debriefed Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley, supposedly demanded recall of Kim Philby from the US in the early 50s (see Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, Battleground Berlin: CIA v KGB in the Cold War, Yale Univ Press, 1997)
  • George Kisevalter CIA case officer/handler who 'ran' both Popov and Penkovsky
  • Ryszard Kuklinski - was a Polish-born colonel and "Cold War" masterspy, who passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between years 1971 and 1981
  • Jack Hawkins CIA Bay of Pigs trainer/planner (former Colonel)
  • Aleksandr Dmitrievich Ogorodnik code name TRIGON, Soviet diplomat who 'walked in' to work for CIA in Bogota Columbia in 80s and later in Moscow
  • Oleg Penkovsky GRU Colonel who became an agent in place for the CIA (after an attempt at contact via students in July 1960 on the Moskvoretsky Bridge in Moscow) and whose information was very important during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Influenced by the example of Colonel Charles Maclean Peeke, US Army, whom he met in Ankara Turkey ('55-'56) (see Schecter and Deriabin, The Spy Who Saved the World, Scribner's, 1992)
  • Pyotr Popov GRU Major who became an agent in place for the CIA beginning in 1953
  • Gary Powers pilot of U-2 which crashed in the Soviet Union. Exchanged for Colonel Abel after trial and conviction
  • Paul Redmond the 'George Smiley' of the CIA; helped uncover Ames
  • Konstantin Volkov Soviet diplomat in Turkey whose attempted defection to the US was betrayed (probably by Philby). He was kidnapped back to Moscow.
  • Diana Worthen CIA colleague of Ames in Mexico, reported suspicions about him in 90
  • Harriet Tubman
  • Fritz Kolbe German diplomat who passed secret Nazi documents to the US embassy in Berne from 1943 until 1945. Described by the CIA as the most important spy of the Second World War

Soviet Union (KGB)

Unknown affiliation

Fictional spies

Espionage organizations

See also Intelligence agencies and Special Operations Executive

Intelligence disciplines

See List of intelligence gathering disciplines

  • SIGINT — Intelligence gathered by intercepting communications.
  • HUMINT — Intelligence gathered by a person on the ground.
  • ELINT — Intelligence gathered from electronic sensors.
  • OSINT — Intelligence gathered from open sources.
  • IMINT
  • MASINT

Espionage technology and techniques

Counter-espionage technology and techniques

  • TEMPEST — Protection devices for communication equipment.

See also

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