| |
| Espionage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Spy)
"Spy" and "Secret agent" redirect here. For other uses, see Spy (disambiguation) and Secret agent (disambiguation).
For other uses, see Espionage (disambiguation).
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (November 2006)
This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2006)
Espionage or spying is a practice of gathering intelligence about an organization or a society that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. It is also the use of spies in a war. Unlike other forms of intelligence collection disciplines, 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. The US defines espionage towards itself as "The act of obtaining, delivering, transmitting, communicating, or receiving information about the national defense with an intent, or reason to believe, that the information may be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation. Espionage is a violation of 18 United States Code 792-798 and Article 106, Uniform Code of Military Justice[1]." The United States, as do most nations, conducts espionage against other nations, under the control of the National Clandestine Service. Britain's espionage activities are controlled by the Secret Intelligence Service.
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."
While news media may speak of "spy satellites" and the like, espionage is not a synonym for all types of intelligence functions. It is a specific form of human source intelligence (HUMINT). Codebreaking (cryptanalysis or COMINT), aircraft or satellite photography (IMINT) and research in open publications (OSINT) are all intelligence gathering disciplines, but none of them are espionage. Not all HUMINT activities, such as interviewing prisoners, reports from military reconnaissance patrols and from diplomats, etc., are espionage.
A spy is a person employed to obtain such secrets. Within the US intelligence community, asset is a more common usage. A case officer, who may have diplomatic status (i.e., official cover or non-official cover) supports and directs the human collector. Cutouts are couriers who do not know the agent or case officer, but transfer messages. In larger networks, the organization can get quite complex, with many sophisticated methods to avoid detection. See Clandestine HUMINT for details of the actual operations and people of espionage systems.
Case officers travel to, or communicate with, foreign countries to recruit and "run" intelligence agents, who in turn spy on targets in their countries where they are assigned. A spy may or may not be an actual citizen of a target country. Spies from sophisticated organizations, especially that do not need to infiltrate the most sensitive organizations, may be members of the espionage organization's country or group. Great care can be given to creating a synthetic identity for them, called a legend in tradecraft.
These agents can be moles (who are recruited before they get access to secrets), defectors (who are recruited after they get access to secrets and leave their country) or defectors in place (who get access but do not leave).
|
|
|
