Double agent
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(January 2010) |
In the field ofcounterintelligence,adouble agentis an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is tospyon a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organization for the target organization.[1]
Double agentry may be practiced by spies of the target organization who infiltrate the controlling organization or may result from theturning(switching sides) of previously loyal agents of the controlling organization by the target. The threat of execution is the most common method of turning a captured agent (working for an intelligence service) into a double agent (working for a foreign intelligence service) or a double agent into are-doubled agent.It is unlike adefector,who is not considered an agent as agents are in place to function for an intelligence service and defectors are not, but some consider that defectors in place are agents until they have defected.
Double agents are often used to transmitdisinformationor to identify other agents as part ofcounter-espionageoperations. They are often very trusted by the controlling organization since the target organization will give them true, but useless or even counterproductive, information to pass along.[2]
Double agents
[edit]| Context | Agent / Code name | Nationality | Loyal to | Spying on | Comments | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1639 – 1651 |
Samuel Morland |  English
|
Restoration
|
 Commonwealth of England
|
||
| Richard Willis | English
|
Commonwealth of England
|
Restoration
|
|||
| World War I 1914 – 1918 |
Mata Hari |  Dutch
|
 German Empire
|
 French Third Republic
|
||
| World War II 1939 – 1945 |
Mathilde Carré"La Chatte" | French
|
 Double-Cross System
|
|||
| Roman Czerniawski"Brutus" |  Polish
|
Double-Cross System
|
||||
| Eddie Chapman"ZigZag" | English
|
Double-Cross System
|
Infiltrated the GermanAbwehrduring World War II whilst feeding intelligence to MI5. He was so trusted by the Germans that he is reportedly the onlyBritishcitizen to have ever been awarded theIron Cross. | |||
| Walter Dicketts"Celery" | English
|
Double-Cross System(1940-1943)
|
Ex-RNAS officer sent to Lisbon and Germany to infiltrate the Abwehr, report on invasion plans for Britain, and establish the bona fides ofSnow(subsequently imprisoned until the end of war). Subjected to an intensive five-day interrogation in Hamburg and survived.[3]Later sent back to Lisbon to persuade Abwehr officer, George Sessler, to defect and worked undercover in Brazil. | |||
| Roger Grosjean"Fido" | French
|
Double-Cross System
|
French Air Force pilot who worked for the British | |||
| Christiaan Lindemans"King Kong" | Dutch
|
 Abwehr(1944)
|
SOE(1940-1944) Dutch resistance(1941-1944) |
|||
| Arthur Owens"Snow" |  Welsh
|
Double-Cross System
|
||||
| Johann-Nielsen Jebsen"Jonny" "Artist" | German
|
Abwehr(1939-1941)MI6(1941-1945)
|
Abwehr(1941-1945)
|
Anti-Nazi German intelligence officer and British double agent. Jebsen recruited Dušan Popov. | ||
| Ivan Popov"LaLa" "Aesculap" "Dreadnought" "Hans" |  Serbian
|
VOA(1939-1945)Abwehr(1940-1944)MI6(1941-1945)
|
Abwehr(1941-1945)
|
Worked for the Yugoslavian agency VOA, as well as the British MI6 and the German Abwehr. Held the rank ofObersturmbannführerin theGestapo.Brother of Dušan Popov. | ||
| Dušan Popov"Duško" "Tricycle" "Ivan" | Serbian
|
VOA(1939-1945)Abwehr(1940-1941)MI6(1940-1945)
|
Abwehr(1941-1945)
|
Worked for the Yugoslavian agency VOA, as well as the British MI6 and the German Abwehr. Held the rank ofcolonelin the British Army. Brother of Ivan Popov. | ||
| John Herbert Neal Moe "Mutt and Jeff" |  Norwegian
|
Double-Cross System
|
||||
| Tor Glad "Mutt and Jeff" | Norwegian
|
Double-Cross System
|
||||
| Juan Pujol García"Garbo" |  Spanish[4]
|
Double-Cross System
|
British double agent in German spy service; awarded both an MBE and an Iron Cross | |||
| Johann Wenzel | German
|
|
|
Member of Red Orchestra spy ring who, after being unmasked by the Gestapo in 1942, fed false information to the Soviet Union from August until his escape in November. Later joined the Belgian Resistance. | ||
| William Sebold"Tramp" | German U.S.citizen
|
FBI(1939)
|
Abwehr(1939)
|
Coerced by the Abwehr into becoming a spy, exposed theDuquesne Spy Ringto the FBI. | ||
| Cold War 1947 – 1991 |
Aldrich Ames | American
|
 KGB
|
CIA(1957-1994)
|
||
| John Cairncross"Liszt" |  Scottish
|
MGBCambridge Five
|
MI5(1941-1944)GC&CS(1942-1943)MI6(1944-1945)
|
|||
| Anthony Blunt"Johnson" | English
|
NKVDCambridge Five
|
MI5
|
|||
| Guy Burgess"Hicks" | English
|
MGBCambridge Five
|
MI5(1939-1941)Foreign Office(1944-1956)
|
|||
| Donald Maclean"Homer" | English
|
MGBCambridge Five
|
MI5MI6
|
|||
| Kim Philby"Stanley" | English Born inIndia
|
MGBCambridge Five
|
MI6
|
|||
| George Blake | Dutch
|
KGB
|
MI6
|
|||
| Oleg Gordievsky"Sunbeam" "Nocton" "Pimlico" "Ovation" |  Russian
|
MI6(1968-2008)
|
KGB(1963-1985)
|
Abducted in Moscow in 1985; escaped to the United Kingdom two months later. | ||
| Sjam Kamaruzaman |  Indonesia
|
Indonesia Communist Party
|
Indonesian Army
|
Head of the Indonesian Communist Party Special Bureau which was tasked to gathering information and intelligence and was the mastermind of30th September Movement.[5] | ||
| Matei Pavel Haiducu |  Romanian
|
DST(1981)
|
DIE(1975-1982)
|
Defected to France in 1981. | ||
| Dmitri Polyakov |  Ukrainian
|
FBICIA
|
GRU
|
Executed in 1988. | ||
| Robert Hanssen | American
|
GRU
|
FBI
|
Worked for the FBI and sold information to the Soviet Union as a mole. | ||
| Oleg Penkovskiy"Hero" |  Russian
|
NSAMI6
|
GRU
|
A colonel with GRU informed the U.K. and the U.S. aboutthe Soviet emplacement of missiles in Cuba;executed by the Soviets in 1963. | ||
| Stig Bergling |  Swedish
|
GRU
|
SÄPO
|
Among other things, handed over the entire Swedish "FO-code", a top secret list of Sweden's defence establishments,coastal artilleryfortifications and mobilization stores. Convicted in 1979 and sentenced to life imprisonment fortreason. | ||
| Arab–Israeli conflict 1948 – |
Ashraf Marwan |  Egyptian
|
 Mossad
|
Egypt
|
Egyptian businessman and an alleged spy for Israel, or possibly an Egyptian double agent; managed to become celebrated as a hero in each country for his alleged work against the other. | |
| Basque conflict 1959 – 2011 |
Mikel Lejarza"El Lobo" |  Basque
|
 CESID
|
ETA
|
||
| Northern Ireland conflict 1968 – 1998 |
Denis Donaldson |  Northern Irish
|
MI5PSNI
|
 Provisional IRASinn Féin
|
Assassinated at his cottage inCounty Donegalafter being exposed by a Northern Ireland newspaper,The Derry Journal. | |
| "Kevin Fulton" | Northern Irish
|
 Royal Irish RangersInt Corps
|
Provisional IRA
|
|||
| Freddie Scappaticci"Stakeknife" | Irish
|
FRU
|
Provisional IRAISU
|
|||
| Robert Nairac | English born inMauritius
|
British Army
|
Provisional IRA
|
Murdered by theProvisional IRAinCounty Louthin 1977. | ||
| South Africanespionage inZimbabweand theGukurahundi 1980 – 1987 |
Matt Calloway |  Zimbabwean
|
 NIS
|
CIO
|
[6] | |
| Philip Conjwayo | Zimbabwean
|
NIS
|
CIO
|
[7] | ||
| Geoffrey Price | Zimbabwean
|
NIS
|
CIO
|
[6] | ||
| Michael Smith | Zimbabwean
|
NIS
|
CIO
|
[7] | ||
| Kevin Woods | Zimbabwean
|
NIS
|
CIO
|
[6][7] | ||
| Global War on Terrorism 2001 – |
Aimen Dean | United Kingdom(bornBahraini)
|
Secret Intelligence Service(MI6)
|
 al-Qaeda
|
Dean's cover was reportedly blown byRon Suskindwho, usingCIAsources who had received intelligence under theFive EyesUKUSA Agreement,disclosed his identity with details that could only be sourced to Dean in an excerpt ofThe One Percent DoctrineforTime.[8] | |
| "April Fool" | American
|
United States
|
 Iraq
|
Allegedly, an American officer who provided false information toSaddam Hussein | ||
| Iyman Faris | U.S.citizen
|
al-Qaeda
|
FBI
|
|||
Re-doubled agent
[edit]Are-doubled agentis an agent who gets caught as a double agent and is forced to mislead the foreign intelligence service. F.M. Begoum describes the re-doubled agent as "one whose duplicity in doubling for another service has been detected by his original sponsor and who has been persuaded to reverse his affections again".[2]
Triple agent
[edit]A triple agent is a spy who pretends to be a double agent for one side while they are truthfully a double agent for the other side. Unlike a re-doubled agent, who changes allegiance due to being compromised, a triple agent usually has always been loyal to their original side. It may also refer to a spy who works for three opposing sides, such that each side thinks the spy works for them alone.
Notable triple agents include:
Events in which double agents played an important role
[edit]- Babington plot
- Battle of Lexington
- Battle of Normandy
- Camp Chapman attack
- Cold War
- Duquesne Spy Ring
- Gukurahundi
- Stormontgate
- Vietnam War
- War on Terrorism
- Yom Kippur War
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^"Definition of DOUBLE AGENT".merriam-webster.com.Retrieved21 February2018.
- ^abBegoum, F.M."Observations on the Double Agent".Central Intelligence Agency. Archived fromthe originalon January 9, 2008.RetrievedJanuary 5,2010.
- ^Witt, Carolinda (November 2017).Double Agent Celery.Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books.ISBN9781526716149.pp. 182-186
- ^García, Juan Pujol;West, Nigel(2011)."Childhood".Operation Garbo: The Personal Story of the Most Successful Spy of World War II.Biteback Publishing.ISBN9781849546256.
- ^Rizal, M."Misteri Sjam, Pengendali Operasi G30S".detikx.Retrieved2023-10-18.
- ^abcBerkeley, Bill (1989-10-22)."Apartheid's Spies".The Washington Post.Retrieved2018-10-18.
- ^abcDube, Benson (2014-02-21)."Philip Conjwayo dies".Southern Eye.Retrieved2018-10-22.
- ^Windrem, Robert (17 June 2018)."He spied on al Qaeda from inside, until he had to run for his life".NBC News.Retrieved12 June2021.
Further reading
[edit]- Naveed Jamali; Ellis Henican (2015).How to Catch a Russian Spy: The True Story of an American Civilian Turned Double Agent.Scribner.ISBN978-1476788821.
- Masterson, J.C. (1972).The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945.Yale University Press.ISBN0-300-01496-1.
