Leaks And Moles
Top Secret
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Confidential
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Whistleblowers
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Moles
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When an employee discovers the company they
work for is up to no good they may “blow the whistle” and reveal all to the
press. In 1994, for example, American Jeff Wigand revealed that tobacco
companies knew that cigarettes are addictive and include cancer-causing
additiveslong before it became public knowledge. Another famous whistleblower
was Ingvar Bratt. In the 1980s, Bratt released details of how Indian prime
minister Rajiv Gandhi accepted payments from Bratt’s employer, Swedish
gunmakers Bofors, in return for a government contract.
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A mole is a spy who “burrows” his or her way
into an enemy country’s spy network or government to get secrets. A famous
case took place at the height of the Cold War (a period during the 20th
century when relations between the US and western Europe and the communist
countries of Russia and eastern Europe were particularlyfrosty). In 1965,
Karel Koecher pretended to defect from (leave) communist Czechoslovakia to
live in the US. A few years later he joined the CIA (US foreign intelligence
agency) and started feeding back spy secrets to the Russian equivalent, the
KGB. Koecher got away with it for almost 20 years until he was found out.
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Leaks
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Double agents
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Sometimes secret information is released
without authorization and without saying who let the secret out. In 1972, US
president Richard Nixon’s involvement in the illegal break-in at the
Democratic Party’s election headquarters in the Watergate office building was
leaked to journalists by Mark Felt (who worked for the FBI—the US federal
investigation agency—and went by the codename Deep Throat). Websites with
special security features are being developed for people to leak secret and
sensitive documents from governments and organizations without getting
caught. Some conspiracy theorists, however, think the sites could actually be
fronts for government intelligence agencies.
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Spies who work for one country’s secret service
while really working for an enemy in secret are known as double agents. In
the 1930s, British student Guy Burgess was secretly recruited by the KGB
while studying at Cambridge University. He then joined MI5, the British secret
service, and passed on secrets to the KGB.
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Off-the-record
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Sleepers
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When politicians tell journalists something
“off-the record,” they do not want to be quoted. Sometimes the politicians
are simply being friendly. More often, the idea is to influence the way
journalists present things without the public knowing they are doing it.
Off-the-record briefings happen all the time, but they only come to light
when something goes wrong and the politician’s name gets out.
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Sleeper agents enter a foreign country and try
to blend in as ordinary people. At first they undertake no spying activities,
but find jobs that will prove useful to them in the future. When the time is
right—sometimes many years later—they are “activated” and begin their
espionage activities. Günter Guillaume was a sleeper agent for communist East
Germany during the Cold War. He was sent to West Germany in 1956, where he
got a job working for one of the political parties. He eventually became a
close aide of the leader of West Germany, Chancellor Willy
Brandt, and was able to send back top-secret
information to the East German secret service. Guillaume’s activities were
uncovered in 1974. He was imprisoned, and Chancellor Brandt was forced to
resign because of the scandal.
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Spin
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Undercover
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Sometimes information and news stories are
released at a particular time or in such a way that they influence the way
the public reacts to things. This is called spin. The name comes from how a
pitcher can give a ball spin so that it curves through the air in a way that
confuses the batter. Government press officers are often criticized for using
spin, and the most notorious practitioners are called “spin doctors.” In some
countries, the media is state-controlled and spins the news by reporting only
stories that are favorable to the government.
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Police and intelligence agencies often go
undercover to infiltrate criminal gangs. The officers assume new identities,
complete with fake ID documents and background stories. To keep their cover, they
must sometimes take part in criminal activities themselves.
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