Portal:Espionage

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The Espionage Portal

Espionage is the practice of obtaining information about an organization or a society that is considered secret or confidential (spying) without the permission of the holder of the information. What differentiates espionage from other forms of intelligence work is that espionage involves obtaining the information by accessing the place where the information is stored or accessing the people who know the information and will divulge it through some kind of subterfuge.

Espionage is usually thought of as part of an institutional effort (i.e., governmental or corporate espionage). The term espionage is most readily associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies, primarily for military purposes, but this has been extended to spying involving corporations, known specifically as industrial espionage. Many nations routinely spy on both their enemies and allies, although they maintain a policy of not making comment on this. Black's Law Dictionary (1990) defines espionage as: "...gathering, transmitting, or losing...information related to the national defense."

A spy is an agent employed to obtain such secrets. The term intelligence officer is also used to describe a member of the armed forces, police officer or civilian intelligence agency who specialises in the gathering, fusion and analysis of information and intelligence in order to provide advice to their government or another organisation. Spymaster is a term often used in literature for the superior of a spy ring.

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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Government, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the Government. A third function of the CIA is to act as the "hidden hand" of the government by engaging in covert operations, some of questionable legality, at the direction of the President. It is this last function that has caused most of the controversies regarding the CIA over the years. Its headquarters are in the community of Langley in the McLean CDP of Fairfax County, Virginia, a few miles up the Potomac River from downtown Washington, D.C.. The CIA is part of the American Intelligence Community, which is now led by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The roles and functions of the CIA are roughly equivalent to those of the United Kingdom's MI6 and Israel's Mossad.

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The Petrov Affair was a Cold War spy drama in Australia in April 1954, involving the defection of Vladimir Petrov, third secretary in the Soviet embassy in Canberra. Petrov's wife, Evdokia Petrova, a Russian spy, came to the centre of the affair when she was seized by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation agents from MVD agents who were escorting her from the country. Images of Petrova as she was taken by ASIO agents and made her decision to defect became iconic in Australia in the 1950s.

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Cryptography	Politics	War

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Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens and Communist Party members who were thrust into the world spotlight when they were tried, convicted and executed for spying for the Soviet Union. Specifically, the couple was charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and were accused of passing nuclear weapons secrets to Russian agents. The accuracy of these charges remains controversial. Decades later, however, Soviet communications decrypted by the VENONA project became publicly available which indicated that Julius Rosenberg was actively involved in espionage. They provided no specific evidence that he performed the specific acts of espionage for which he was convicted, or that Ethel Rosenberg was involved.

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Categories

Espionage

• Intelligence agencies
• Terminology
• Spies
• Spy fiction
• Surveillance

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Associated Wikimedia

Espionage on Wikinews	Espionage on Wikiquote	Espionage on Wikibooks	Espionage on Wikisource	Espionage on Wiktionary	Espionage on Wikimedia Commons
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