Origins of Espionage and Famous Cases - Term Paper Example

Espionage 27th, September, Espionage Espionage and its inevitable partners are crucial to the detection of national security. Without aptitude about the capabilities and plans of others and protecting one’s own plans from being ascertained, the state’s foreign policy would be ineffective and doomed to failure. Regardless of its importance, most people know little about espionage and often the subject receives less attention in the academic literature. Increased knowledge about espionage is paramount in the 21st century as new threats appear thus, creates the need for national security. Espionage is perceived as the secret accumulation of intelligence or confidential information. It is commonly regarded as spying that entails secretly gathering of information about a competing industry or a foreign government without the holder’s consent of the information. The term can be a reference to economic, political, or business decisions. However, espionage is common to government defensive and foreign policy. Espionage is intrinsically taken for granted, and in many cases punishable by law. Generally, many associates the term with state spying for military purpose that play a crucial role in planning combat phases. The term is an old ancient craft used throughout history in various instances such as in the Bible in the book of numbers when leaders sent spies to scrutinize a country. Still, the cold war relied on intense espionage activities that helped to establish the nuclear weapons secrets. Following this, one can affirm that large corporations and governments make use of espionage to varying degrees. This paper seeks to discuss the origins of Espionage, its’ famous cases, targets, and various agents and techniques used to collect this information. Origins of Espionage and Famous Cases Espionage is one of the most known activities of treason. It categorized as political crime that involves transmitting and gathering information correlated to the intent of national defence. Espionage events are well acknowledged throughout history and recorded in ancient documents such as the Bible (Buckley, 2010). In the Bible, one can trace the term in the book of Numbers when Israelites secretly surveyed the country of the Canaanites. Moses dispatched some spies from each Israelites tribe to survey the land of Canaanites for forty days. The intended purpose was to gather information about agriculture and events of the country and efficiently use this information to conquer the land. This was the land promised by God to Abraham that he would posses for future generations, Isaac. Eventually, the entire nation dwelled in the desert for forty years until when Caleb and Joshua conquered the Promised Land. This account creates a picture that espionage was a powerful tool used to gather information for the purpose of nation defence. It created an opportunity for Joshua and Caleb to receive the land, which they had explored with their descendants. The Chinese military theorist, Sun Tzu’s wrote a book in 500 B.C on The Art of War that comprised of insights for systematizing espionage system with defectors known as rebels. It is clear to OConnell & Loeb (2011), that Sun Tzu regarded the natural evolution with its application as an applicable tool in the United States. Were it not for espionage, the author believed that U.S would not endeavour risks linked to economic espionage. Still, Homer who was a Greek Philosopher affirmed that Egyptians had exceptional spying agents that helped in gathering information about other countries. As a result, the country developed a political spy system that assisted in military purposes. As argued by Pilkington (2010), international law distinguishes the crucial played by espionage in times of war. This traced in the period of 1900-1999 during World War where its unique nature was exceptional. During World War 1, British Intelligence interviewed Mata Hari and she admittedly agreed to have been the French spy. Although it is not known whether it was true, she was found guilty for espionage. Casanova was among the famous spies of the 17th Century who worked as a secret agent for the Inquisitors of State. In 1782, he was executed for spreading rumours against one of the city that was equivalent to the actual truth. Klaus Fuchs spied for the Soviet Union and evaluated what the Americans and British developed. It was considered that, Belle Boyd spied for the associates in the American Civil War. Her occupation in espionage began when some union soldiers attacked her home with an intention of raising the American flag. Later, she disclosed the secrets she had learnt from her slave Eliza who confided details to her. In sum, she is accounted as a civil war spy. Lastly, Nathan Hale is widely considered as the first American spy who volunteered for mission of intelligence gathering about British movements. He left a legacy in his speech before his death that, he regretted his death but it was worth to lose for his country. Targets According to Gilbert (2008), Espionage agents are trained in specific targeted field that allows them to achieve their duties and responsibilities. The espionage operation identifies the target of espionage thus place an intrinsic value to the organizational development. The broad areas of the targeting expertise are popular sentiment that majors on foreign and domestic policies. Often, agents are recruited from the crews of field journalists, sociology researchers, and postgraduate students. Natural resource majors on strategic assessment and identification of various resources such as food, water, and energy among others. Usually, agents are selected from bureaucrats that oversee the country’s resources. Espionage targets on economic strengths of infrastructure, production, and research among others. In this case, Agents hired from technology, science, and commercial field are in some cases from military technologists. The Military Capability Intelligence majors in broad areas such as defensive, offensive, naval, and space. In this case, espionage facilitators train agents and eventually posted to selected areas with covert identities. Lastly, counterintelligence specifically targets their opponents of intelligence services. They prevent hostile intelligence organizations from collecting information against them. Typically, it prevents the process and mission involved in the counter intelligence cycle in, which it shields. There are various military and civilian in foreign operations depending on different countries. Agents In espionage, an agent is an individual who does spying, or recruited by another country to spy or work against his country or a third country. An agent is a significant person as he engages in activities of espionage. In some cases, an agent in espionage is referred as a case or an intelligence officer. There is a distinction between the operative and an agent in that the former is a permanently employed by the agency while the latter recruited from the outside agency and give reports to the operative. To some extent, the two terms can be confusing as some operatives perceive themselves as agents and vice versa. As argued by Miller (2007), working as an agent is demanding as it obligates one to gather information about other countries’ activities, military operation, or secret agents. In this case, information can range from political, economic, or social perceptive. There are various types of agents in use in espionage as discussed by Ottanelli (2006). This research depicts different types of agents as the double agent, sleeper, re-doubled, provoker, triple, confusion, and illegal agent. Double agent is someone who engages in conspiracy activities for two security or intelligence operations. This person acts as a secretly agent for one operation in a different agency. An instance would be when an individual from one government pervade another country’s agency and behave as part of the country’s agency. He aims at spying the target organization while being part of the target organization. A double agent has enormous risks in that when caught spying, he may be jailed or imprisoned. A sleeper agent is someone who may be inactive at a given period and act when instructed. A sleeper agent is recruited to perform his specific duties while being under a cover in the area of interest. Arguably, these agents operate effectively as they may access and expose a lot of information without being caught. Re-double is an individuals who when caught as a spy is obligated to delude the foreign intelligence operation. Usually, he has knowledge of intelligence services and operational techniques therefore, making the third party judgement complex. On the other hand, a provoker agent is someone instructed to connect certain groups then instigate illegitimate actions that would birth conflicts and eventually end in arrests. He may be a police officer who provokes suspects to commit a crime under conditions to obtain evidences and obtain crime suspects. Provocateur agents are mostly used by governments or organizations against other political opponents to raise legal or ethical issues and in doing, may create the wrong ideal of the person to the public. Just as the name suggests, a triple agent is an individual who provides information for three intelligence operations. This individual provides sensitive information to the intelligence services thus privileged in assessing facts and information affecting different operations. A confusion agent is an individual who presents misleading information to the opponent intelligent services with the attempt to hit the target of operation. In most cases, such an individual may present misleading information in the midst of confusion tactics. Lastly, an illegal agent is an individual alleged to live in a different country under false credentials. In most case, he works in another country without any credentials. It is worth noting that, espionage is a crime in many countries. Despite many risks associated with being a spy, the intelligence community perceive it essential spying and almost every nation has divisions of external and internal intelligence. The CIA is an example of external division commonly known in carrying out investigation effectively. Globally, it has been effectual in investigating various issues affecting countries. In some cases, CIA intervenes in defending human rights by scrutinizing issues and activities occurring in various countries. Often, it used for intelligence gathering and act on various areas that requires instantaneous intervention. Techniques used to collect This Information A research in Wall Street Journal published in 29th June 2010, indicates that, agents should be trained to gather quality information. Quality spying regards one to use different techniques to gather the desired information. There are various techniques used to gather the required information. These include human intelligence, cyber spying, covert agent and listening devices, surveillance, and interrogation. The mentioned techniques are essential as they ensure that there is valuable gathering of desired information (“Dow Jones & Company Inc,” 2010). First, human intelligence is a technique that gathers information from the person on the ground. In this case, one may obtain information from military attaches, patrolling, war prisoners, refugees, and friendly accredited ambassadors. This technique is paramount as it creates a strong ground to collect information from witnesses or the person on the ground. Over years, many countries have utilized this technique as it less expensive compared to other techniques such as technical. Mostly, it may require one to go to the field and collect the desired information. Secondly, cyber spying is the technique of obtaining secrets from internet, personal computers, or networks without the consent of the other party. It may be obtained from public activities in social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook or from computer desks or software programs. Typically, such operations are essential in spying as they collect valid evidences through individual computers or internet networks. Cyber spying is paramount to governments as well as law enforcement to maintain social control and detect criminal threats. In the 21st century, cyber spying has been useful to deter activities of terrorists who often are a threat to the nation. It is worth noting that computers can be the target technique of spying because of the personal installed on them. Thirdly, a covert agent is another technique used in gathering information. A covert agent is a retired employee or officer assigned to operate with intelligence agency. This is a crucial technique to collect information as it entails an expert who is an overseer of the organizations or the government’s being spied. Most agencies prefer using this technique to others because it useful in bring valid information that no one may have obtained unless being part of the organization being spied. Fourthly, surveillance is a crucial technique that helps to monitor and regulate illegal activities of a country. Over years, many countries have used this technique to spy on terrorists and its implementation has been fundamental in providing warnings and evidences of terrorists’ suspects. Particularly, this technique has been paramount in the 21st century where crime has become a prime concern in many countries. Technology has set a strong pace that assists in monitoring criminal activities thus helping the nation to access the required information to prosecute the suspects. Lastly, interrogation also referred as interpellation involves interviewing people concerned with an aim of obtaining information. Often, subject of interpellation are victims, witnesses, or suspects of the crime. The technique is employed by intelligence agencies, military, and polices. The mentioned techniques are paramount for effective spying as they ensure collection of valid information. It obligated that the espionage agents use the above techniques when spying to avoid misjudgement or accusations of disclosing information that does not exist. Using these techniques would be important in spying as they would violation of human rights to privacy. In most case, many people regard others not to intervene with their lives. However, it is important to detect any crime or information that may violate the country’s policies. In doing, one should use effective techniques that help in gathering information. In today’s society, there have been controversial on the subject espionage. In many countries, it is illegal when used for the wrong purpose but legal when used for the right purpose (Messmer, 2008). For wrong purposes, spying may be done to take advantage of the spied organization through obtained information. For instance, some people may spy a nation to attack it or use their resources. However, it may be essential when a nation or an individual spies to defence an organization or a nation. In the 21st century, terrorism has increased at a high rate thus, creates the need of understanding and embracing espionage. Despite high rates of crime, espionage has not been embraced or regarded as a powerful tool to detect crime. There has been little knowledge about the subject thus, many regards the subject as illegal. Indeed, few people do not understand the need of using espionage for right purposes but many regard it as illegal. As discussed, the term is an old ancient craft used throughout history in various instances such as in the Bible and world war. At this point, espionage activities helped to establish the nuclear weapons secrets and information that affected different nations. Following this, it is obvious that espionage was embraced in historical times thus, should be embraced in today’s society. To sum up, espionage enhances benefits of investigating information that assists to defence a nation. This paper summarizes the origins of Espionage, its’ famous cases, targets, and various agents and techniques used to collect this information. References Buckley, M. (2010). National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society. New York: Amulet. “Dow Jones & Company Inc.” (2010). Espionage history and the Russian 10; the arrest of sleeper agents on U.S. soil is the stuff of spy novels, not the cold war. Wall Street Journal (Online), pp. n/a-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/527775752?accountid=45049 Gilbert, A. (2008). Secret agents. Laguna Hills, Calif: QEB Publishing. Messmer, E. (2008). Espionage becoming a growing net threat. Network World, 25(3), 1-1,18. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216001750?accountid=45049 Miller, D. A. (2007). Espionage and intelligence. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press. OConnell, J., & Loeb, V. (2011). Kings counsel: A memoir of war, espionage, and diplomacy in the Middle East. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Ottanelli, F. (2006). In denial: Historians, communism & espionage. Science & Society, 70(3), 421-423. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216130819?accountid=45049 Pilkington, M. (2010). Mirage men: An adventure into paranoia, espionage, psychological warfare, and UFOs. New York: Skyhorse Pub. Read More