Editing Double agent (section)

{{Short description|Type of special intelligence service}}
{{Other uses}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2010}}

In the field of [[counterintelligence]], a '''double 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/double%20agent|title=Definition of DOUBLE AGENT|publisher=merriam-webster.com|access-date=21 February 2018}}</ref>

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 [[Defection|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 [[Counterintelligence|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.<ref name=":30" />