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Espionage

"Spy" and "Secret agent" redirect here. For other uses, see Spy (disambiguation) and Secret agent (disambiguation).




Espionage (a word from Latin espionnage) or spying is a practice of obtaining information about an organization or a society that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Unlike other forms of intelligence work, espionage involves accessing the place where the desired information is stored, or accessing the people who know the information and will divulge it through some kind of subterfuge.It also can be used as a general term to describe spying activities.

Espionage is usually part of an institutional effort (i.e., governmental or corporate espionage), and the term is most readily associated with 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 both their enemies and allies, although they maintain a policy of not making comment on this. In addition to utilizing agencies within a government many also employ private companies to collect information on their behalf such as SCG International Risk and others. Black's Law Dictionary (1990) defines espionage as: "...gathering, transmitting, or losing...information related to the national defense."

A spy is a person employed to obtain such secrets. The term intelligence officer is also used to describe a member of the armed forces, police, or civilian intelligence agency who specialises in the gathering, fusion, and of information and intelligence in order to provide advice to their government or another organisation. In general, intelligence officers travel to foreign countries to recruit and "run" intelligence agents, who in turn spy on their own governments. These agents can be moles (who are recruited before they get access to secrets) or defectors (who are recruited after they get access to secrets).

History

Incidents of espionage are well documented throughout history. The ancient writings of Chinese and Indian military strategists such as Sun-Tzu and Chanakya contain information on deception and subversion. Chanakya's student Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Maurya Empire, made use of assassinations, spies and secret agents, which are described in Chanakya's Arthasastra. The ancient Egyptians had a thoroughly developed system for the acquisition of intelligence, and the Hebrews used spies as well, as in the story of Rahab. Feudal Japan often used ninja to gather intelligence. More recently, spies played a significant part in Elizabethan England (see Francis Walsingham). Many modern espionage methods were well established even then. [1]

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.

For three decades the United States has cultivated its best and brightest to pre-eminence in what is now known as the field of communication and control. As technology has advanced, the means and methods of espionage have advanced from Nixon era wire tapping, through Reagan era programs like ECHELON and Carnivore, to surveillance of all electronic transmissions including cell phone logs, voice mail, email, packet sniffing, trace routing and wireless transmissions.

However, the Soviet Union has been said to have had fielded the largest and most advanced spy networks during its time, infiltrating some of the most secure places on the planet, which has caused many scandals.

Since January of 2000, a long list of agencies have been data mining the world's stock exchanges; this program was formalized on October 26, 2001, in the form of the Patriot Act. This helps track the financing of people who might be laundering money. This is done without warrants.

In order to gather political and economic information that might be of advantage to the United States, foreign communications are routinely subject to surveillance. In 2002, new programs of satellite surveillance and unmanned low level drones armed with missiles made it possible not only to perform surveillance in real time, but to respond with force.

Risks

The risks of espionage vary. A spy breaking the host country's laws may be deported, imprisoned, or even executed. A spy breaking his/her own country's laws can be imprisoned for espionage or/and treason, or even executed, as the Rosenbergs were. For example, when Aldrich Ames handed a stack of dossiers of CIA agents in the Eastern Bloc to his KGB-officer "handler," the KGB "rolled up" several networks, and at least ten people were secretly shot. When Ames was arrested by the FBI, he faced life in prison; his contact, who had diplomatic immunity, was declared persona non grata and taken to the airport. Ames's wife was threatened with life imprisonment if her husband did not cooperate; he did, and she was given a five-year sentence. Hugh Francis Redmond, a CIA officer in China, spent nineteen years in a Chinese prison for espionage—and died there—as he was operating without diplomatic cover and immunity.

Espionage by country

Spies in various conflicts

See also: Intelligence agency

Espionage technology and techniques

See also:  and

Spy fiction

Main article: Spy fiction
During the many 20th century spy scandals, a large amount of information became publicly known about national spy agencies and dozens of real-life secret agents. These sensational stories piqued public interest in a profession largely off-limits to human interest news reporting, a natural consequence of the secrecy inherent to their work. To fill in the blanks, the popular conception of the secret agent has been formed largely by 20th and 21st century literature and cinema. While it is obvious from reading news accounts that many real spies, such as Valerie Plame, are attractive and sociable, the fictional secret agent is oftentimes a loner, sometimes amoral—an existential hero operating outside the everyday constraints of society. Loner spy personalities may have been a stereotype of convenience for authors who already knew how to write loner private investigator characters that sold well from the 1920s to the present.

While fictional secret agents, such as Johnny Fedora, were popular during the 1950s and 60s, James Bond, the protagonist of Ian Fleming's novels, who went on to spawn an extremely successful film franchise, is the most famous fictional secret agent of all: he uses the best toys and excels at fighting and seduction, completely ignoring the more tedious side of espionage. In direct contrast to this, John LeCarre's character George Smiley is often considered the "anti-Bond" and one of the more realistic fictional spies: he is a finite and imperfect man, initially defeated by enemies within the Secret Service, who eventually prevails by patience, intelligence, and compassion. Another is the boy spy Alex Rider, created by Anthony Horowitz; Rider is said to be useful due to his youth. Other popular spies are the characters Johnny Fedora by Desmond Cory; Quiller by Adam Hall; Nikita, played by Peta Wilson, and Michael Samuelle, played by Roy Dupuis, in the TV series La Femme Nikita (1997–2001), Jack Ryan in numerous Tom Clancy novels, and Sydney Bristow, played by Jennifer Garner, in the subsequent TV series Alias (2001–2006). The British TV series Spooks is another example of spy fiction.

Spy fiction has also become prevalent in video gaming, where the "wet work" aspect of espionage is highlighted. Game situations typically involve agents sent into enemy territory for purposes of subversion. These depictions are more action-oriented than would be typical in most cases of espionage, and they tend to focus on infiltration rather than information-gathering. Some examples are GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Thief, Metal Gear and Splinter Cell. Recent incarnations have attempted to introduce more psychological aspects of infiltration, such as social camouflage and moral decision making, into gameplay.

See also

References

Further reading

Surveys

World War I

World War II: 1931-1945

Cold War Era: 1945-1991

Spy may refer to:
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A secret agent is a spy, a person that is engaged in espionage.

Secret agent may also refer to:
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Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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Information is the result of processing, gathering, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the receiver. In other words, it is the context in which data is taken.
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society is a grouping of individuals which is characterized by common interests and may have distinctive culture and institutions. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups.
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Secrecy is the practice of sharing information among a group of people, which can be as small as one person, while hiding it from others. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controversial.
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Intelligence (abbreviated int. or intel.) is information valued for its currency and relevance rather than its detail or accuracy —in contrast with "data" which typically refers to precise or particular information, or "fact,"
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government is a body that has the power to make and the authority to enforce rules and laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group.[1]
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A state is a political association with effective dominion over a geographic area. It usually includes the set of institutions that claim the authority to make the rules that govern the people of the society in that territory, though its status as a state often depends in part on
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Military has two broad meanings. In its first sense, it refers to soldiers and soldiering. In its second sense, it refers to armed forces as a whole. Over the years, military units have come in all shapes and sizes.
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Business law
Business organizations
Basic forms:
Sole proprietorship
Corporation
Partnership
(General · Limited · LLP)
Cooperative
USA:
Business trust · LLC · LLLP
Delaware corporation
Nevada corporation
UK/Commonwealth:
Limited company
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Industrial espionage or corporate espionage is espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of national security purposes.

The term is distinct from legal and ethical activities such as examining corporate publications, websites, patent filings, and the like to
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A nation is a form of cultural or social community. Nationhood is an ethical and philosophical doctrine and is the starting point for the ideology of nationalism. Members of a "nation" share a common identity, and usually a common origin, in the sense of ancestry, parentage or
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A Gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two or more parties. It may be written or oral. The essence of a gentleman's agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties for its fulfilment, rather than being in any way enforceable.
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SCG International Risk is a private military contractor and security firm based in the U.S. states of Mississippi, California and Virginia with satellite support offices in Kabul, Dubai and London.
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Black's Law Dictionary is the law dictionary for the law of the United States. It was founded by Henry Campbell Black. It has been cited as legal authority in many Supreme Court cases (see Secondary authority).
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National security refers to the requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, military and political power and the exercise of diplomacy.
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Armed Forces
(1979) Get Happy
(1980)

Alternate cover

US 1979 and 2002 reissue cover, also known as "paint spatter cover"

For the military meaning, see Armed forces.

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Police are agents or agencies empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimate use of force. The term is most commonly associated with police departments of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a
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An intelligence agency is a governmental organization that for the purposes of national security is devoted to the gathering of information (known in the context as "intelligence") by means of espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other
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Information is the result of processing, gathering, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the receiver. In other words, it is the context in which data is taken.
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A mole (also called an informant and in the mafia terms a rat) is a spy who works for an enemy nation and works within his nation's government. A mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector
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defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for traitor, especially if the defector brings with him secrets or confidential information.
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History is the study of the past, focused on human activity and leading up to the present day.[1] More precisely, history is the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race [1]
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The history of China is told in traditional historical records that refer as far back as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors about 5,000 years ago, supplemented by archaeological records dating to the 16th century BC. China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations.
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History of India begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent from 3300 to 1700 BCE. This Bronze Age civilization was followed by the Iron Age Vedic period, which witnessed the rise of major kingdoms known as the
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For the mathematician, see Sun Tzu (mathematician).
Sun Tzu (Chinese: ; Pinyin: Sūn Zǐ) ("Master Sun") is an honorific title bestowed upon Sūn Wǔ
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Chanakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य Cāṇakya) (c. 350-283 BC) was an adviser and a prime minister[1] to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340-293 BC), and architect of his rise to power.
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For the version control system, see Subversion (software).
Subversion refers to an attempt to overthrow structures of authority, including the state. It is an overturning or uprooting.
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Chandragupta Maurya (Sanskrit: चन्द्रगुप्त मौर्य), sometimes known simply as Chandragupta (born c. 340 BCE, ruled c.
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