Spying Has Been Part of History for Thousands of Years

Spy History

Spying has been part of history for thousands of years.

espionage (es'pēunäzh"), the act of obtaining information clandestinely. The term applies particularly to the act of collecting military, industrial, and political data about one nation for the benefit of another.

Hammurabi of Babylon wrote of spying on clay tablets around 1800 BC. Sun-Tzu (~500 BC) of China, a brilliant military leader who wrote The Art of War, noted that spying and other deceptions can help any army win a war against any enemy. The prime minister for the first Mauryan Emperor (India) was Chanakya (~300 BC), who also made use of spies. Egyptians, Assyrians, Hebrews, and several other cultures of the Mediterranean made use of spies in their warfare against each other; some events can be read about in the The Iliad and the Bible. The ninja of feudal Japan gathered information about enemies.

In more modern times, spies were used by various popes to maintain control of the Catholic Church, by Queen Elizabeth I and her various contemporaries throughout Europe. Elizabeth’s spy network was one of the strongest built up to that time. Francis Walsingham, who served under Elizabeth, is considered the father of modern espionage. He had spies among all the various great merchant houses and diplomatic circles. He uncovered Mary (Queen of Scots) plot to overthrow Elizabeth, knew about the attack of the Spanish Armada (even though he didn’t know exactly when it would be), and used codes extensively.

In America, George Washington made extensive use of spies in his war against the superior military strength of the British army. His spies were to find out what the British were doing and keep the British from finding out what the American army was doing. They used secret codes and invisible ink. One of Washington’s specialties was feeding false information to British spies. It has been speculated that without Washington’s mastery of spymanship, Americans would have lost the war. Later, during the Civil War, spies were used extensively by both sides.

As the states of Europe became more solidified, systemized spy networks became the norm. Every ruler had their own network of spies and some had more than one for different purposes. By WWI, most major powers (except the U.S.) had extensive and professional spy networks, and the 20th century became the “Golden Age of Spying.”

Britain established their Secret Service Bureau in 1909. Mansfield George Smith-Cumming became the head of the Foreign division of that Bureau. He was quite an eccentric. Known as ‘C’ (the chief of Britain’s secret service is still called that), he established the department headquarters in his own flat in London. It was "’a regular maze of passages and steps, and oddly shaped rooms,’ which could be reached only by a private elevator. In Cumming's office was a plain work table, a big safe, some maps and charts on the walls, a vase of flowers, one or two seascapes, and various mechanical gadgets, including a patent compass and a new sort of electric clock.” He was an eccentric who wrote only in green ink and stabbed his own wooden leg with a paper knife when he wanted to emphasize a point. His approach to spying was that is was great fun, even if serious business.

The domestic section was headed by William Melville (code-named ‘M’). This is the department that later became known as MI5 (Military Intelligence, section 5), while Smith-Cumming’s section became MI6.

One of the most famous of British agents was Sidney Reilly, whose past was very murky. He apparently wished it that way, and deliberately created various stories about his past. He had definitely traveled extensively, however, and was well-educated. He spoke several different languages, married a wealthy woman (and maybe several others under other names), and was suave and charming. He became a successful spy for Britain (and maybe a few other countries, was involved in several daring and glamorous assignments, and is often cited as the model for Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

The most famous spy of WWI was Mata Hari, an alluring exotic dancer and possible German spy who supposedly seduced French military leaders and gained their secrets through seeming small talk. She was caught, convicted and executed in 1918.

By WWII, Germany had rebuilt its spy network and Japan had created one as well. The Americans established the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942 (this later became the CIA). Code-breaking was raised to a high-level science as each side attempted to find out whatever they could about the plans of the other side. The Enigma code-machine of the Germans was finally broken by the Colossus code-machine invented by the British. Paranoia about German spies infected the United States so thoroughly that people were hypersensitive to any stranger and looked at him or her as a potential spy. Listening devices were feared and campaigns organized over “loose lips.”

One famous spy was Virginia Hall, an American journalist with a wooden leg who worked for the British and the Americans by helping the French resistance. She disguised herself as a peasant with a staff, tending goats, and was able to gain information about German troop movements, pass the information off to Resistance members or through a radio. The German Gestapo tried to catch her but was always a step behind “the limping lady.” Celebrities were sometimes also spies, often allowed to move where others could not. Josephine Baker, Marlene Dietrich and Sterling Hayden were three entertainers who helped the Allies as spies.

Misinformation techniques were mastered by both sides. Operation Mincement was a British ploy to confuse the Nazis. A fake agent with “important papers” on him washed up dead (the real dead person had poisoned himself) on the shores of Spain, being held by Germany. All the information in his papers was fake, but the Nazis believed it completely.

Espionage increased tremendously after WWII with the Cold War between America and Western Europe against Russia, and both against China. Technological tools that increase the ability of spies to get information rapidly developed. Even at the beginning of the century, the development of the radio (for passing information to and fro) and the airplane (for reconnaissance from the air) were two technologies that had an impact on spying. During WWII, many smart inventors spent their time developing new tools for spying (miniature cameras, etc.) and decoding methods for codes and ciphers. Much information spies get these days is through electronic means, in some form or another. Additionally, counterespionage (preventing spies of other countries from getting your secrets) has also become highly important.

China has an effective secret service that monitors their neighbors quite well. Even smaller countries can sustain espionage networks, sometimes very successfully. The Vietnamese Communists had consistently superior intelligence over the opposing side during the Vietnam War. Today, Israel probably has the best espionage establishment in the world. Some of the Muslim countries, especially Libya, Iran, and Syria, have highly developed operations as well.

Modern spies are constantly at work. In 1962, aerial reconnaissance planes took pictures of Soviet missile silos being placed in Cuba, causing the very tense Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1979, six American diplomats hiding in the Canadian Embassy (they had barely escaped capture by Iranian revolutionaries) were smuggled out of the country by CIA agent Antonio Mendez, who disguised his team as a Hollywood film crew scouting locations. They disguised the diplomats as “Hollywood types” and got them out safely. John Anthony Walker was head of a spy ring supplying the Soviets with confidential Naval information from 1967-1985, when his wife finally turned him in. He had worked for the Navy for many years and sold secrets for the money.

Ever since WWI, but most especially since WWII, public imagination about spies has been fired by tales of daring deeds by suave loners. Books, movies, and television series have made the world of spying seem very glamorous, with constant thrills. The reality is much more mundane—a lot of waiting, watching and persuading others to become informers. But the dangers are quite real—spying is not against international, but if you are caught spying on another country in that country you are probably breaking one of their laws, which means anything from life in prison to immediate execution! Still, spying has become an integral part of any country’s foreign relation strategy and is not likely to fade away.

People

agent - A person, usually a foreign national, who has been recruited by a staff case officer from an intelligence service to perform clandestine missions.

agent-in-place - An agent serving as a penetration into an intelligence target who has been recruited or has volunteered to stay in place.

asset - A clandestine source or method, usually an agent.

defector - A person who has intelligence value who volunteers to work for another intelligence service. He may be requesting asylum or can remain in place.

double agent - An agent who has come under the control of another intelligence service and is being used against his original allegiance.

escort officer - The operations officer assigned to lead a defector along an exfiltration route.

(the) eye - The person on the surveillance team who has the target under visual observation at any given moment.

local agent - An agent recruited in a particular target area to do a local task.

mole - A human penetration into an intelligence service or other highly sensitive organization. Quite often a mole is a defector who agrees to work in place.

operative - An intelligence officer or agent operating in the field.

passive probe - Someone sent on an intelligence mission just to passively observe and record details about the target location or organization.

pianist - Used to describe a clandestine radio operator.

point - The member of the surveillance team who is following the target from the closest position, the point position.

rabbit - The target in a surveillance operation

201 file - The file at CIA that contains all the personal information on a staff officer or an agent, including any training and operational details unique to the person.

walk-in - A defector who declares his intentions by walking into an official installation, or otherwise making contact with an opposition government, and asking for political asylum or volunteering to work in place. Also known as a volunteer.

watcher team - A surveillance team usually assigned to a specific target.

(The) Year of the Spy - The year 1985 was labeled "The Year of the Spy" by the media because of the number of espionage-related incidents that came to light that year. Unbeknownst to the media and the CIA at the time, several other significant spying ventures started during this same year and would not come to light until years later.

Organizations

CIA - The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, formed in 1947 to conduct foreign intelligence collection, covert action, and counterintelligence operations abroad. Also responsible for providing finished intelligence to U.S. policymakers.

(the) Citadel - A supersecret department in U.S. intelligence responsible for collecting foreign signals and communications intelligence.

GAD - The Graphics and Authentication Division of the Office of Technical Service, responsible for operational disguise and false documentation capabilities for the CIA.

hostile service, surveillance, etc. - Terms used to describe the organizations and activities of the "opposition services," aka "the enemy."

KGB - The all-powerful intelligence and security service of the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War. Ultimate successor to Cheka. Disbanded into the SVR and the FSB in 1991.

MI5 - The British domestic and foreign counterintelligence service responsible for national internal security.

MI6 - The British foreign intelligence service.

Mossad - Israel's foreign intelligence service.

opposition - The enemy service; any hostile operational force.

OSS - The Office of Strategic Services; forerunner of the CIA, 1942-1945.

overhead platform - A technical platform, aboard an airplane or satellite, used for technical surveillance and reconnaissance.

security service - Usually a country's internal counterintelligence service.

Wizards - An ad hoc collection of top U.S. scientists, researchers, and other technical experts assembled from time to time by OTS to consult on a one-of-a-kind problem.

Places

(the) Appendix - The tower in Lubyanka that houses the KGB's most sensitive departments. It is a nine-story tower that connects the old and new wings of the building and overlooks an inner courtyard.

cache – a secure place to hide things

(the) Camp (also Camp Swampy) - A nickname for the CIA's secret domestic training base.

chokepoint - A narrow passage-such as a bridge, tunnel, or Metro station-used as a surveillance or countersurveillance tool for channeling the opposing force or monitoring their passage.

(the) Emerald City - The code name the Special Surveillance Team used for the CIA Headquarters Building during their exercises.

safe house - An apartment, hotel room, or other similar site considered safe for use by operatives as a base of operations or for a personal meeting.

Operations

bang and burn - Demolition and sabotage operations.

black operations - Clandestine or covert operations not attributable to the organization carrying them out.

compromised - When an operation, asset, or agent is uncovered and cannot remain secret.

covert action operation (CA) - An operation kept secret for only a finite period of time, or an operation whose real source remains secret because the operation is attributed to another source.

dangle operation - An operation in which an enticing intelligence target is dangled in front of an opposition service in hopes they will think him or her a bona fide recruit. The dangle is really a double agent.

exfiltration operation - A clandestine rescue operation designed to get a defector, refugee, or operative and his or her family out of harm's way.

infiltration operation - The covert moving of an operative into a target area with the idea that his presence or true affiliation will go undetected for the appropriate amount of time.

rolled up - When an operation goes bad and the agent is arrested.

smoking-bolt operation - A covert snatch operation in which a special entry team breaks into an enemy installation and steals a high-security device, like a code machine, leaving nothing but the "smoking bolts."

spoofing - A ploy designed to deceive the observer into believing that an operation has gone bad when, in fact, it has been put into another compartment.