These are risky maneuvers, and there are better and safer ways to pass messages, like having a pre-arranged site that is accessed by each side at different times. Also known as the "brush pass," it's a brief encounter between friendly spies to share a few words or documents. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was engaging with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.
The use of a confusion agent can also be put under operations known as active measures - which were often carried out by Soviet intelligence during the Cold War - to spread disinformation, manipulate media, and push propaganda.įormer NSA analyst John Schindler wrote about one such operation recently, in which Cuban intelligence was able to influence The Daily Caller website to publish scandalous allegations that U.S. Here's an example: At an embassy function sure to be teeming with military leaders, diplomats, and spies alike, it would be the confusion agent's job to keep the other side's spies occupied with boring chit-chat so he or she can't listen to what the diplomat nearby is saying. This is a spy who has the goal of screwing up the opposition's intelligence service, rather than gaining any information. A CIA agent would better describe a mole inside the agency that is under the control of a foreign intelligence service who is throwing secrets its way. While movies and media often refer to "CIA agents," the correct term is actually CIA officer. To intelligence personnel, an agent more often refers to an asset or source from a foreign entity. These types of spies could also be referred to as "sleepers" if they are just there, waiting to be told what to do next. uncovered a ring of 11 "illegals" from Russia who had assumed stolen identities and reported back to Moscow since at least the 1990s. Sometimes this means they will simply burrow in and pose as just an average person in the neighborhood.Īs recently as 2010, the U.S. They are operating in a country illegally and alone. They have no overt relationship with their intelligence service, nor do they operate out of an embassy or have diplomatic cover. Illegals are the spies operating in deep cover. In his book "A Spy for All Seasons," former CIA officer Duane Clarridge writes that "Israelis have often used this technique by impersonating CIA officers when trying to recruit Arabs."Īnna Chapman, one of the Russian "illegals." "Illegal" It's like lying to your personal diary.Ī common piece of trade craft involves a spy's effort to recruit assets by deceiving them into believing the spy is from a different country. When writing about the recruitment effort, he or she might write that an attempt was made to get information, but the FSB agent balked at the idea. Because both sides have had problems with their files being given away to the other side, the CIA officer may make an "eyewash" entry to protect the new source. Let's say a CIA officer successfully recruits a member of Russia's intelligence service, the FSB. "Oh no sir, I'm just a tourist taking pictures." In going to his or her cover within a cover, a spy would admit to doing something less serious than espionage, which would hopefully explain away the suspicious activities the spy was observed to be doing. If the backstop may not hold up, a spy may revert to this "Inception"-like phrase. If a spy is inside Iran posing as a businessman, then his backstop would be documents, financial records, and a phone number back to his office that would vouch for him, as one example. It's the spy's version of an alibi if the spy were to be picked up by the bad guys. This is an arrangement made to make sure a spy's cover isn't blown. These are referred to as "walk-ins" or "volunteers," although they don't have to literally go to a location.įormer CIA officer Aldrich Ames and former FBI agent Robert Hanssen were both "volunteers" to the Soviet KGB. While spies often have to go out and look for people to turn against their homeland and spill secrets, sometimes a potential asset just shows up at the embassy door. Just as a journalist may test a source or press for other information to confirm what he or she is being told, an intelligence asset needs to be "validated" - meaning there is a process to make sure the asset is authentic, reliable, and useful.
Not every source is going to be a meaningful one. This can be technical - a hacked phone for example - or a human asset: A person working for a foreign intelligence agency who has agreed to share secrets a spy is looking for. In intel-speak, an asset is anything that holds intelligence value. At 359 pages, it's a hefty read, so we pulled out some of the most interesting and unique terms here. The website Public Intelligence obtained an unclassified glossary of terms and definitions for counterintelligence professionals created by the Defense Department a couple of months back.
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