Double agent
In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent (also double secret agent) is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on 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 the turning (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 a re-doubled agent. It is unlike a defector, 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 transmit disinformation or to identify other agents as part of counter-espionage operations. 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
| Context | Agent | Nationality | Loyal to | Spying on | Comments | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1639 – 1651 |
Samuel Morland |  |
|
.svg.png){kind=small} |
||
| Richard Willis | |
|
|
|||
| World War I 1914 – 1918 |
Mata Hari |  |
.svg.png){kind=small} |
 |
||
| World War II 1939 – 1945 |
Mathilde Carré "La Chatte" | |
 |
|||
| Roman Czerniawski "Brutus" |  |
|
||||
| Eddie Chapman "ZigZag" | |
|
Infiltrated the German Abwehr during World War II whilst feeding intelligence to MI5. He was so trusted by the Germans that he is reportedly the only British citizen to have ever been awarded the Iron Cross | |||
| Walter Dicketts "Celery" | |
|
Ex RNAS officer sent to Lisbon and Germany to infiltrate the Abwehr, report on invasion plans for Britain, and establish the bona fides of Snow (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 Air Force pilot who worked for the British | |||
| Christiaan Lindemans "King Kong" | |
.svg.png){kind=small} |
Dutch resistance (1941-1944) |
|||
| Arthur Owens "Snow" | .svg.png){kind=small} |
|
||||
| Johann-Nielsen Jebsen "Jonny" "Artist" | |
|
|
Anti-Nazi German intelligence officer and British double agent. Jebsen recruited Dušan Popov. | ||
| Ivan Popov "LaLa" "Aesculap" "Dreadnought" "Hans" |  |
|
|
Yugoslav working for his national military agency VOA. He also worked for British MI6 and German Abwehr. In German Gestapo he held rank of Obersturmbannführer. Brother of Dušan Popov. | ||
| Dušan Popov "Duško" "Tricycle" "Ivan" | |
|
|
Yugoslav working for his national military agency VOA. He also worked for British MI6 and German Abwehr. In British army he held rank of colonel. Brother of Ivan Popov. | ||
| John Herbert Neal Moe "Mutt and Jeff" |  |
|
||||
| Tor Glad "Mutt and Jeff" | |
|
||||
| Juan Pujol García "Garbo" | .svg.png){kind=small} |
|
British double agent in German spy service-awarded both an MBE and an Iron Cross | |||
| Johann Wenzel | |
|
|
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" |  |
|
|
Coerced by the Abwehr into becoming a spy, exposed the Duquesne Spy Ring to the FBI. | ||
| Cold War 1947 – 1991 |
Aldrich Ames | |
 |
|
||
| John Cairncross "Liszt" |  |
|
|
|||
| Anthony Blunt "Johnson" | |
|
|
|||
| Guy Burgess "Hicks" | |
|
|
|||
| Donald Maclean "Homer" | |
|
|
|||
| Kim Philby "Stanley" |  |
|
|
|||
| George Blake | |
|
|
|||
| Oleg Gordievsky "Sunbeam" "Nocton" "Pimlico" "Ovation" | .svg.png){kind=small} |
|
|
Abducted in Moscow in 1985; escaped to the United Kingdom two months later. | ||
| Matei Pavel Haiducu | .svg.png){kind=small} |
|
|
Defected to France in 1981. | ||
| Dmitri Polyakov |  |
|
|
Executed in 1988. | ||
| Robert Hanssen | |
|
|
Worked for the FBI and sold information to the Soviet Union as a mole. | ||
| Oleg Penkovskiy "Hero" |  |
|
|
A colonel with GRU informed the U.K. and the U.S. about the Soviet emplacement of missiles in Cuba; executed by the Soviets in 1963. | ||
| Stig Bergling |  |
|
|
Among other things, handed over the entire Swedish "FO-code", a top secret list of Sweden's defence establishments, coastal artillery fortifications and mobilization stores. Convicted in 1979 and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason. | ||
| Arab–Israeli conflict 1948 – |
Ashraf Marwan |  |
 |
|
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" |  |
 |
|
||
| Northern Ireland conflict 1968 – 1998 |
Denis Donaldson |  |
|
 |
Assassinated at his cottage in County Donegal after being exposed by a Northern Ireland newspaper, The Derry Journal. | |
| "Kevin Fulton" | |
 |
|
|||
| Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife" |  |
|
|
|||
| Robert Nairac |  |
|
|
Murdered by the Provisional IRA in County Louth in 1977. | ||
| South African espionage in Zimbabwe and the Gukurahundi 1980 – 1987 |
Matt Calloway |  |
.svg.png){kind=small} |
|
[5] | |
| Philip Conjwayo |
|
|
|
[6] | ||
| Geoffrey Price | |
|
|
[5] | ||
| Michael Smith |
|
|
|
[6] | ||
| Kevin Woods |
|
|
|
[5][6] | ||
| Global War on Terrorism 2001 – |
"April Fool" | |
|
 |
Allegedly, an American officer who provided false information to Saddam Hussein | |
| Iyman Faris | |
 |
|
|||
Re-doubled agent
A re-doubled agent is an agent who gets caught as a double agent and is forced to mislead the foreign intelligence service. F.M. Begoum describes the redoubled 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
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 is usually considered to have 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.
Events in which double agents played an important role
- 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
References
- "Definition of DOUBLE AGENT". merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
- Begoum, F.M. "Observations on the Double Agent". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved January 5, 2010.
- Witt, Carolinda (November 2017). Double Agent Celery. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 9781526716149. 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. ISBN 9781849546256.
- Berkeley, Bill (1989-10-22). "Apartheid's Spies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- Dube, Benson (2014-02-21). "Philip Conjwayo dies". Southern Eye. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
- Toharudin Rasid (2 March 2019). "Putera Lapis Mahang: My Military Life: AF 132 PANGLIMA ANGKATAN TENTERA MALAYSIA (CDF)". Putera Lapis Mahang. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
Further reading
- Naveed Jamali; Ellis Henican (2015). How to Catch a Russian Spy: The True Story of an American Civilian Turned Double Agent. Scribner. ISBN 978-1476788821.