Double agent

For other uses, see Double agent (disambiguation).

"Triple agent" redirects here. For other uses, see Triple agent (disambiguation).

In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent (also double secret agent) is an employee of a secret intelligence service, whose primary purpose is to spy on a different target organization, but who, in fact, is a member of the target organization.

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.

Double agents

  Double agent   Re-doubled agent   Mole

Examples of known double agents and moles

Context	Agent	Nationality	Loyal to	Spying on	Comments	References
Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1639 – 1651	Samuel Morland	English	Restoration	Commonwealth of England
	Richard Willis	English	Commonwealth of England	Restoration
World War I 1914 – 1918	Mata Hari	Dutch	German Empire	French Third Republic
World War II 1939 – 1945	Mathilde Carré "La Chatte"	French	Double-Cross System
	Roman Czerniawski "Brutus"	Polish	Double-Cross System
	Eddie Chapman "ZigZag"	English	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
	Roger Grosjean "Fido"	French	Double-Cross System		French Air Force pilot who worked for the British
	Christiaan Lindemans "King Kong"	Dutch	Abwehr (1944)	SOE (1940-1944) Dutch resistance (1941-1944)
	Arthur Owens "Snow"	Welsh	Double-Cross System
	Johann-Nielsen Jebsen "Jonny" "Artist"	German	Abwehr (1939-1941) MI6 (1941-1945)	Abwehr (1941-1945)	Anti-Nazi German intelligence officer and British double agent. Jebsen recruited Dušan Popov.
	Ivan Popov "LaLa" "Aesculap" "Dreadnought" "Hans"	Serbian	VOA (1939-1945) Abwehr (1940-1944) MI6 (1941-1945)	Abwehr (1941-1945)	Yugoslav working for his national military agency VOA. He also work for British MI6 and German Abwehr. In German Gestapo he held rank of Obersturmbannführer. Brother of Dušan Popov.
	Dušan Popov "Duško" "Tricycle" "Ivan"	Serbian	VOA (1939-1945) Abwehr (1940-1941) MI6 (1940-1945)	Abwehr (1941-1945)	Yugoslav working for his national military agency VOA. He also work for British MI6 and German Abwehr. In British army he held rank of Colonel. Brother of Ivan Popov.
	John Herbert Neal Moe "Mutt and Jeff"	Norwegian	Double-Cross System
	Tor Glad "Mutt and Jeff"	Norwegian	Double-Cross System
	Juan Pujol García "Garbo"	Catalan	Double-Cross System		British double agent in German spy service-awarded both an MBE and an Iron Cross
	Johann Wenzel	Polish	Before 1942  Red Orchestra After 1942  Gestapo	Before 1942  Red Orchestra After 1942  Soviet Union	Member of Red Orchestra spy ring who, after being unmasked by the Germans, fed false information to the Soviet Union
	William Sebold "Tramp"	German U.S. citizen	FBI (1939)	Abwehr (1939)	Coerced by the Abwehr into becoming a spy, exposed the Duquesne Spy Ring to the FBI.
Cold War 1947 – 1991	Aldrich Ames	American	KGB	CIA (1957-1993)
	John Cairncross "Liszt"	Scottish	MGB  Cambridge Five	MI5 (1941-1944)  GC&CS (1942-1943)  MI6 (1944-1945)
	Anthony Blunt "Johnson"	English	NKVD  Cambridge Five	MI5
	Guy Burgess "Hicks"	English	MGB  Cambridge Five	MI5 (1939-1941)  Foreign Office (1944-1956)
	Donald Maclean "Homer"	English	MGB  Cambridge Five	MI5  MI6
	Kim Philby "Stanley"	English  Born in India	MGB  Cambridge Five	MI6
	George Blake	Dutch	KGB	MI6
	Oleg Gordievsky	Russian	MI6 (1968-2008)	KGB (1963-1985)	Abducted in Moscow in 1985; escaped to the United Kingdom two months later.
	Matei Pavel Haiducu	Romanian	DST (1981)	DIE (1975-1982)	Defected to France in 1981.
	Dmitri Polyakov	Ukrainian	FBI  CIA	GRU	Executed in 1988.
	Robert Hanssen	American	GRU	FBI	Worked for the FBI and sold information to the Soviet Union as a mole.
	Oleg Kalugin	Russian	CIA	KGB	Longtime head of KGB operations in the U.S., provided disinformation regarding American involvement in Prague Spring; and also played a role in the establishment of Yeltsin as post-USSR leader. Sentenced in absentia in 2002 to 15 years imprisonment; the US refuses to extradite him
	Oleg Penkovskiy "Hero"	Russian	NSA  MI6	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	Swedish	GRU	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 79 and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason.
Arab–Israeli conflict 1948 –	Ashraf Marwan	Egyptian	Mossad	Egypt	Egyptian businessman and an alleged spy for Israel, or possibly an Egyptian double agent; managed to become celebrated as a hero in each country for his alleged work against the other.
Basque conflict 1959 – 2011	Mikel Lejarza "El Lobo"	Basque	CESID	ETA
Northern Ireland conflict 1968 – 1998	Denis Donaldson	Northern Irish	MI5  PSNI	Provisional IRA  Sinn Féin	Found dead in his cottage after a Northern Ireland newspaper exposed him.
	Peter Keeley "Kevin Fulton"	Northern Irish	Royal Irish Rangers  Int Corps	Provisional IRA	Allegedly betrayed by his employers and nearly sacrificed to cement Freddie Scappaticci's cover in the IRA.
	Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife"	Italian	FRU	Provisional IRA  ISU	Allegedly the British government ordered him to expose Fulton to increase his own standing in the IRA.
	Robert Nairac	English  Born in Mauritius	British Army	Provisional IRA
Global War on Terrorism 2001 –	"April Fool"	American	United States	Iraq	Allegedly, an American officer who provided false information to Saddam Hussein
	Iyman Faris	Pakistani  U.S. citizen	al-Qaeda	FBI
Chinese intelligence operations in the United States	Katrina Leung	Chinese  Taiwan citizen  U.S. citizen	MSS	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 redoubled 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".

• Vitaly Yurchenko

Triple agent

A triple agent pretends to be a double agent for one side, while he or she is truly a double agent for the other side. Famous triple agents include Kim Philby and Alexander Litvinenko.

A lesser used definition of triple agent is an agent who works for three intelligence services, but is usually truly loyal to only one of them.

• Henri Déricourt, Secret Intelligence Service agent with the Special Operations Executive who may have "turned" for the Germans (d. 1962).

Events in which double agents played an important role

• Babington plot
• Battle of Normandy
• Stormontgate
• Cold War
• Battle of Lexington
• Vietnam War
• War on Terrorism
• 1973 Yom Kippur War
• Duquesne Spy Ring
• Camp Chapman attack

See also

3

External links

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