Double agent

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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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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 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.<ref name=":30" />

Double agents

Examples of known double agents and moles

Context	Agent / Code name	Nationality	Loyal to	Spying on	Comments	References
Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1639 – 1651	Samuel Morland	Template:Flagicon English	Template:Flagicon Restoration	Template:Flagicon Commonwealth of England
	Richard Willis	Template:Flagicon English	Template:Flagicon Commonwealth of England	Template:Flagicon Restoration
World War I 1914 – 1918	Mata Hari	Template:Flagicon Dutch	Template:Flagicon German Empire	Template:Flagicon French Third Republic
World War II 1939 – 1945	Mathilde Carré "La Chatte"	Template:Flagicon French	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System
	Roman Czerniawski "Brutus"	Template:Flagicon Polish	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System
	Eddie Chapman "ZigZag"	Template:Flagicon English	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System		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"	Template:Flagicon English	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System (1940-1943)		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.<ref name= P&Sbook4>Template:Cite book pp. 182-186</ref> Later sent back to Lisbon to persuade Abwehr officer, George Sessler, to defect and worked undercover in Brazil.
	Roger Grosjean "Fido"	Template:Flagicon French	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System		French Air Force pilot who worked for the British
	Christiaan Lindemans "King Kong"	Template:Flagicon Dutch	Template:Flagicon Abwehr (1944)	Template:Flagicon Template:Flagicon SOE (1940-1944) Dutch resistance (1941-1944)
	Arthur Owens "Snow"	Template:Flagicon Welsh	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System
	Johann-Nielsen Jebsen "Jonny" "Artist"	Template:Flagicon German	Template:Flagicon Abwehr (1939-1941) Template:Flagicon MI6 (1941-1945)	Template:Flagicon Abwehr (1941-1945)	Anti-Nazi German intelligence officer and British double agent. Jebsen recruited Dušan Popov.
	Ivan Popov "LaLa" "Aesculap" "Dreadnought" "Hans"	Template:Flagicon Serbian	Template:Flagicon VOA (1939-1945) Template:Flagicon Abwehr (1940-1944) Template:Flagicon MI6 (1941-1945)	Template:Flagicon Abwehr (1941-1945)	Worked for the Yugoslavian agency VOA, as well as the British MI6 and the German Abwehr. Held the rank of Obersturmbannführer in the Gestapo. Brother of Dušan Popov.
	Dušan Popov "Duško" "Tricycle" "Ivan"	Template:Flagicon Serbian	Template:Flagicon VOA (1939-1945) Template:Flagicon Abwehr (1940-1941) Template:Flagicon MI6 (1940-1945)	Template:Flagicon Abwehr (1941-1945)	Worked for the Yugoslavian agency VOA, as well as the British MI6 and the German Abwehr. Held the rank of colonel in the British Army. Brother of Ivan Popov.
	John Herbert Neal Moe "Mutt and Jeff"	Template:Flagicon Norwegian	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System
	Tor Glad "Mutt and Jeff"	Template:Flagicon Norwegian	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System
	Juan Pujol García "Garbo"	Template:Flagicon Spanish<ref name="garcia2011">Template:Cite book</ref>	Template:Flagicon Double-Cross System		British double agent in German spy service; awarded both an MBE and an Iron Cross
	Johann Wenzel	Template:Flagicon German	Before 1942 Template:Flagicon Red Orchestra During 1942 Template:Flagicon Gestapo	Before 1942 Template:Flagicon Nazi Germany During 1942 Template:Flagicon Soviet Union	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"	Template:Flagicon German Template:Flagicon U.S. citizen	Template:Flagicon FBI (1939)	Template:Flagicon Abwehr (1939)	Coerced by the Abwehr into becoming a spy, exposed the Duquesne Spy Ring to the FBI.
	Larissa Swirski "Queen of Hearts"	Template:Flagicon Russian Template:Flagicon Spanish	Template:Flagicon Abwehr Template:Flagicon MI6 (1943-1945)	Template:Flagicon Nazi Germany	Recruited by the Nazis in Ceuta; changed alliances after learning about the concentration camps. Role in preventing the Nazis from taking Gibraltar.
Cold War 1947 – 1991	Aldrich Ames	Template:Flagicon American	Template:Flagicon KGB	Template:Flagicon CIA (1957-1994)
	John Cairncross "Liszt"	Template:Flagicon Scottish	Template:Flagicon MGB Template:Flagicon Cambridge Five	Template:Flagicon MI5 (1941-1944) Template:Flagicon GC&CS (1942-1943) Template:Flagicon MI6 (1944-1945)
	Anthony Blunt "Johnson"	Template:Flagicon English	Template:Flagicon NKVD Template:Flagicon Cambridge Five	Template:Flagicon MI5
	Guy Burgess "Hicks"	Template:Flagicon English	Template:Flagicon MGB Template:Flagicon Cambridge Five	Template:Flagicon MI5 (1939-1941) Template:Flagicon Foreign Office (1944-1956)
	Donald Maclean "Homer"	Template:Flagicon English	Template:Flagicon MGB Template:Flagicon Cambridge Five	Template:Flagicon MI5 Template:Flagicon MI6
	Kim Philby "Stanley"	Template:Flagicon English Template:Flagicon Born in India	Template:Flagicon MGB Template:Flagicon Cambridge Five	Template:Flagicon MI6
	George Blake	Template:Flagicon Dutch	Template:Flagicon KGB	Template:Flagicon MI6
	Oleg Gordievsky "Sunbeam" "Nocton" "Pimlico" "Ovation"	Template:Flagicon Russian	Template:Flagicon MI6 (1968-2008)	Template:Flagicon KGB (1963-1985)	Abducted in Moscow in 1985; escaped to the United Kingdom two months later.
	Sjam Kamaruzaman	Template:Flagicon Indonesia	Template:Flagicon Indonesia Communist Party	Template:Flagicon Indonesian Army	Head of the Indonesian Communist Party Special Bureau which was tasked to gathering information and intelligence and was the mastermind of 30th September Movement.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Matei Pavel Haiducu	Template:Flagicon Romanian	Template:Flagicon DST (1981)	Template:Flagicon DIE (1975-1982)	Defected to France in 1981.
	Dmitri Polyakov	Template:Flagicon Ukrainian	Template:Flagicon FBI Template:Flagicon CIA	Template:Flagicon GRU	Executed in 1988.
	Robert Hanssen	Template:Flagicon American	Template:Flagicon GRU	Template:Flagicon FBI	Worked for the FBI and sold information to the Soviet Union as a mole.
	Oleg Penkovskiy "Hero"	Template:Flagicon Russian	Template:Flagicon CIA Template:Flagicon MI6	Template:Flagicon GRU	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	Template:Flagicon Swedish	Template:Flagicon GRU	Template:Flagicon SÄPO	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.
Basque conflict 1959 – 2011	Mikel Lejarza "El Lobo"	Template:Flagicon Basque	Template:Flagicon CESID	Template:Flagicon ETA
Northern Ireland conflict 1968 – 1998	Denis Donaldson	Template:Flagicon Northern Irish	Template:Flagicon MI5 Template:Flagicon PSNI	Template:Flagicon Provisional IRA Template:Flagicon Sinn Féin	Assassinated at his cottage in County Donegal after being exposed by a Northern Ireland newspaper, The Derry Journal.
	"Kevin Fulton"	Template:Flagicon Northern Irish	Template:Flagicon Royal Irish Rangers Template:Flagicon Int Corps	Template:Flagicon Provisional IRA
	Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife"	Template:Flagicon Irish	Template:Flagicon FRU	Template:Flagicon Provisional IRA Template:Flagicon ISU
	Robert Nairac	Template:Flagicon English Template:Flagicon born in Mauritius	Template:Flagicon British Army	Template:Flagicon Provisional IRA	Murdered by the Provisional IRA in County Louth in 1977.
South African espionage in Zimbabwe and the Gukurahundi 1980 – 1987	Matt Calloway	Template:Flagicon Zimbabwean	Template:Flagicon NIS	Template:Flagicon CIO		<ref name=":29">Template:Cite news</ref>
	Philip Conjwayo	Template:Flagicon Zimbabwean Template:Flagicon South African citizen	Template:Flagicon NIS	Template:Flagicon CIO		<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>
	Geoffrey Price	Template:Flagicon Zimbabwean	Template:Flagicon NIS	Template:Flagicon CIO		<ref name=":29" />
	Michael Smith	Template:Flagicon Zimbabwean Template:Flagicon South African citizen	Template:Flagicon NIS	Template:Flagicon CIO		<ref name=":0" />
	Kevin Woods	Template:Flagicon Zimbabwean Template:Flagicon South African citizen	Template:Flagicon NIS	Template:Flagicon CIO		<ref name=":29" /><ref name=":0" />
Global War on Terrorism 2001 –	Aimen Dean	Template:Flagicon United Kingdom (born Bahraini)	Template:Flagicon Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)	Template:Flagicon image al-Qaeda	Dean's cover was reportedly blown by Ron Suskind who, using CIA sources who had received intelligence under the Five Eyes UKUSA Agreement, disclosed his identity with details that could only be sourced to Dean in an excerpt of The One Percent Doctrine for Time.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
	"April Fool"	Template:Flagicon American	Template:Flagicon United States	Template:Flagicon Iraq	Allegedly, an American officer who provided false information to Saddam Hussein
	Iyman Faris	Template:Flagicon U.S. citizen	Template:Flagicon image al-Qaeda	Template:Flagicon FBI

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 re-doubled 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".<ref name=":30">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Vitaly Yurchenko

Triple agent

Template:Redirect 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 usually has 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.

Notable triple agents include:

• Michael Goleniewski
• Abdul Razak Hussein
• Ibrahim Ismail
• Humam Khalil
• Katrina Leung

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

Further reading

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• F. M. Begoum: Observations on the Double Agent