Mole (espionage): Difference between revisions

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎References: Should be a separate section
Tags: Reverted Mobile edit Mobile web edit
Line 8: Line 8:
A mole may be recruited early in life, and take decades to get a job in government service and reach a position of access to secret information before becoming active as a spy. Perhaps the most famous examples of moles were the [[Cambridge Five]], five upper-class British men recruited by the [[KGB]] as communist students at [[Cambridge University]] in the 1930s who later rose to high levels in various parts of the [[British government]].<ref name="Carlisle" /> By contrast, most espionage agents, such as CIA counterintelligence officer [[Aldrich Ames]] and FBI agent [[Robert Hanssen]], who spied on the US government for the KGB, were either recruited or offered their services as spies after they were in place as members of the target organization.
A mole may be recruited early in life, and take decades to get a job in government service and reach a position of access to secret information before becoming active as a spy. Perhaps the most famous examples of moles were the [[Cambridge Five]], five upper-class British men recruited by the [[KGB]] as communist students at [[Cambridge University]] in the 1930s who later rose to high levels in various parts of the [[British government]].<ref name="Carlisle" /> By contrast, most espionage agents, such as CIA counterintelligence officer [[Aldrich Ames]] and FBI agent [[Robert Hanssen]], who spied on the US government for the KGB, were either recruited or offered their services as spies after they were in place as members of the target organization.


Because their recruitment occurred in the remote past, moles are difficult for a nation's security services to detect. The possibility that a top politician, corporate executive, government minister, or officer in an intelligence service could be a mole working for a foreign government is the worst nightmare of [[counterintelligence]] services.{{cn|date=December 2019}} For example, [[James Angleton]], director of counterintelligence for the [[CIA]] between 1954 and 1975, was reportedly obsessed with suspicions that the top levels of Western governments were riddled with long-term communist agents<ref name="Smith"/> and accused numerous politicians such as former U.S. Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]], former Canadian Prime Ministers [[Lester Pearson]] and [[Pierre Trudeau]], former British Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] and many members of Congress before he was removed in 1975.{{cn|date=December 2019}}
Because their recruitment occurred in the remote past, moles are difficult for a nation's security services to detect. The possibility that a top politician, corporate executive, government minister, or officer in an intelligence service could be a mole working for a foreign government is the worst nightmare of [[counterintelligence]] services.{{cn|date=December 2019}} For example, [[James Angleton]], director of counterintelligence for the [[CIA]] between 1953 and 1975, was reportedly obsessed with suspicions that the top levels of Western governments were riddled with long-term communist agents<ref name="Smith"/> and accused numerous politicians such as former U.S. Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]], former Canadian Prime Ministers [[Lester Pearson]] and [[Pierre Trudeau]], former British Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] and many members of Congress before he was removed in 1975.{{cn|date=December 2019}}


Moles have been featured in numerous espionage films, television shows, and novels.
Moles have been featured in numerous espionage films, television shows, and novels.

Revision as of 16:26, 18 April 2024

In

spy (espionage agent) who is recruited before having access to secret intelligence, subsequently managing to get into the target organization.[2] However, it is popularly used to mean any long-term clandestine spy or informant within an organization (government or private).[2]
In police work, a mole is an undercover law-enforcement agent who joins an organization in order to collect incriminating evidence about its operations and to eventually charge its members.

The term was introduced to the public by

Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB,[2] and that a corresponding term used by Western intelligence services was sleeper agent.[5] While the term mole had been applied to spies in the book Historie of the Reign of King Henry VII written in 1626 by Sir Francis Bacon,[1][2]
Le Carré has said he did not get the term from that source.

Overview

A mole may be recruited early in life, and take decades to get a job in government service and reach a position of access to secret information before becoming active as a spy. Perhaps the most famous examples of moles were the

British government.[3] By contrast, most espionage agents, such as CIA counterintelligence officer Aldrich Ames and FBI agent Robert Hanssen
, who spied on the US government for the KGB, were either recruited or offered their services as spies after they were in place as members of the target organization.

Because their recruitment occurred in the remote past, moles are difficult for a nation's security services to detect. The possibility that a top politician, corporate executive, government minister, or officer in an intelligence service could be a mole working for a foreign government is the worst nightmare of

Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and many members of Congress before he was removed in 1975.[citation needed
]

Moles have been featured in numerous espionage films, television shows, and novels.

Reasons for use

The most common procedure used by

terrorist groups
, have similar security monitors.

In addition, the security clearance process weeds out employees who are openly disgruntled, ideologically disaffected, or otherwise having motives for betraying their country, so people in such positions are likely to reject recruitment as spies. Therefore, some intelligence services have tried to reverse the above process by first recruiting potential agents and then having them conceal their allegiance and pursue careers in the target government agency in the hope that they can reach positions of access to desired information.

Because the spy career of a mole is so long-term, sometimes occupying most of a lifetime, those who become moles must be highly motivated. One common motivation is ideology (political convictions). During the Cold War, a major source of moles in Western countries was so-called fellow travellers, Westerners who, in their youth during the 1920s to 1940s, became disaffected with their own governments and sympathetic to world communism without actually joining a communist party.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Smith, W. Thomas (2003).
    OCLC 586163250
    .
  2. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (March 28, 2006). Cassell's Dictionary of Slang: A Major New Edition of the Market-Leading Dictionary of Slang (2nd, revised ed.). New York City, New York, USA:
    OCLC 62890128
    . Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  3. ^ a b Carlisle, Rodney P. (April 1, 2003). Complete Idiot's Guide to Spies and Espionage (illustrated ed.). Indianapolis, Indiana, USA:
    OCLC 52090218
    . Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  4. ^ Shapiro, Fred R. (Oct 30, 2006). The Yale Book of Quotations (illustrated ed.). New Haven, Connecticut, USA:
    OCLC 66527213
    . Retrieved August 26, 2012. According to the Oxford English Dictionary "it is generally thought that the world of espionage adopted [the term mole] from Le Carré, rather than vice versa.
  5. ^ Le Carré, John; Bruccoli, Matthew J; Baughman, Judith (2004). Conversations with John le Carré (illustrated ed.). Jackson, Mississippi, USA:
    OCLC 55019020
    . Retrieved August 26, 2012. interview with Le Carré in Melvyn Bragg The Listener, January 22, 1976 BBC1, (reprint)

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mole_(espionage)&oldid=1219582065"