Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage is called an espionage agent or spy. Any individual or spy ring, in the service of a government, company, criminal organization, or independent operation, can commit espionage. The practice is clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome. In some circumstances, it may be a legal tool of law enforcement and in others, it may be illegal and punishable by law.
The Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) is an interagency deliberative body of the United Kingdom responsible for intelligence assessment, coordination, and oversight of the Secret Intelligence Service, Security Service, GCHQ, and Defence Intelligence. The JIC is supported by the Joint Intelligence Organisation under the Cabinet Office.
The Security Service, also known as MI5, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and Defence Intelligence (DI). MI5 is directed by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), and the service is bound by the Security Service Act 1989. The service is directed to protect British parliamentary democracy and economic interests and to counter terrorism and espionage within the United Kingdom (UK).
The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, until October 1, 1980. It was intended to decrypt messages transmitted by the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union. Initiated when the Soviet Union was an ally of the US, the program continued during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union was considered an enemy.
Captain Sir Mansfield George Smith-Cumming was a British naval officer who served as the first chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
In espionage jargon, a mole is a long-term spy who is recruited before having access to secret intelligence, subsequently managing to get into the target organization. However, it is popularly used to mean any long-term clandestine spy or informant within an organization. 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.
Elyesa Bazna, sometimes known as Ilyaz and Iliaz Bazna, was a secret agent for Nazi Germany during World War II, operating under the code name Cicero.
The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation or SVR RF is Russia's external intelligence agency, focusing mainly on civilian affairs. The SVR RF succeeded the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB in December 1991. The SVR has its headquarters in the Yasenevo District of Moscow with its director reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation.
Rupert William Simon Allason is a British former Conservative Party politician and author. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torbay in Devon, from 1987 to 1997. He writes books and articles on the subject of espionage under the pen name Nigel West.
Dieter Felix Gerhardt is a former commodore in the South African Navy and commander of the strategic Simon's Town naval dockyard. He was arrested by the FBI in New York City in 1983 following information obtained from a Soviet defector. He was convicted of high treason as a spy for the Soviets for a period of twenty years in South Africa together with his second wife, Ruth, who had acted as his courier. Both were released prior to the change of government following the 1994 general election.
British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Intelligence services in the Royal Air Force are delivered by Officers of the Royal Air Force Intelligence Branch and Airmen from the Intelligence Analyst Trade and Intelligence Analyst (Voice) Trade. The specialisation has around 1,200 personnel of all ranks posted to operational air stations, HQs and other establishments of the British Armed Forces, both in the United Kingdom and overseas.
Michael John Smith was convicted of spying in the UK.
Technical intelligence (TECHINT) is intelligence about weapons and equipment used by the armed forces of foreign nations. The related term, scientific and technical intelligence, addresses information collected or analyzed about the broad range of foreign science, technology, and weapon systems.
Air Marshal Sir Francis Joseph Fressanges, was a senior Royal Air Force officer who served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Far East Air Force from 1954 to 1957.
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence on foreign nationals in support of its Five Eyes partners. SIS is one of the British intelligence agencies and the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ("C") is directly accountable to the Foreign Secretary.
Sergeant Gilles G. Brunet was a career officer in Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He was born on September 20, 1934, in Rimouski. Commenced Saint Aloysisus School. He also attended A school at Côtes des Neiges and St-Nicolas School in Montreal. He attended D'Arcy McGee High School. He left school in June 1951. In Ottawa he continued school at Grade 13th at Nepean High school. In 1972 American suspicions had triggered one of Brunet's colleagues, Leslie James Bennett, to lose his security clearance, leading to his dismissal. A year after Brunet's death, a Soviet defector named Vitaly Sergeyevich Yurchenko would clear Bennett, and assert that Brunet was the mole.
Eugen Schwitzgebel was a German officer, a SS Sturmbannführer and Gestapo leader in Aarhus during the Second World War. He was described as "short, stocky Bavarian" who was a "ruthless and impatient man who loved to terrorize his subordinates". He was killed when British airmen bombed the University of Aarhus building which was being used as the Gestapo headquarters and place for keeping the Danish archives.
Ludwig Carl Moyzisch was a diplomatic attaché of the Nazi German Embassy in Ankara, Turkey in 1943. Under this cover, he led the work of the German secret services in Turkey, including Elyesa Bazna, codename 'Cicero'. Moyzisch wrote the book Operation Cicero in part to explain his role and activities working for the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). The book was subsequently adapted into the film 5 Fingers, starring James Mason as the spy.
