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Watch Out! Spies About!

SHE knew that her husband was a spy. He had been passing information to a foreign power for years. He even bragged to her about it. Should she go to the police or keep quiet? What would you do under such circumstances? Would loyalty to principle or to your family get the upper hand? What about the fear of scandal? Finally, the woman informed the authorities. But she was in for a big surprise.

The above is one of so many spy stories that have hit the headlines in recent times. Perhaps you also recall the following:

Norway, January 1984: A top Norwegian diplomat arrested and charged with passing highly sensitive documents to a foreign power.

India, January 1985: Government officials and businessmen held on charges of violating the Official Secrets Act.

Federal Republic of Germany, summer 1985: Number of suspected agents, including a counterintelligence chief, defect to German Democratic Republic.

Russia and Britain, September 1985: Each country expels 31 of the other’s diplomats, journalists, and commercial employees, many of whom are accused of spying.

Switzerland, December 1986: Married couple charged with espionage.

France, March 1987: Members of spy network arrested on suspicion of having fed classified space center know-how to a foreign power.

United States, April 1987: U.S. Marine guards recalled from Russia, Austria, and Brazil for investigation into spy charges.

Inundated with reports like these, you may be left guessing at terms such as “moles” and “counterintelligence.” Are there really more spies these days or simply more of them being caught? Could any of this affect you personally? You may be surprised to know just how much the world of espionage touches your life.

Back Into the Cobwebs of Spying

Peering into the past points us to a partnership of long standing: politics and the military. Webster’s dictionary defines espionage as “spying by special agents upon people of a foreign country or upon their activities or enterprises . . . the accumulation of [such] information . . . for political or military uses.”

Among the earliest to organize a secret service were the Egyptians. King Thutmose III used spies to smuggle 200 soldiers, sewn in flour bags, into the city of Jaffa. About 400 B.C.E., Chinese Sun Tzu wrote a book called Ping Fa (The Art of War), in which he stressed the importance of good intelligence organization. In the 15th century, European countries began to use their embassies in foreign capitals for spying. Diplomacy and espionage tiptoed hand in hand across European frontiers. Plumed in the colors of nationalism, the once fellow travelers became kinsmen.

Nationalism swept abroad in Europe and with it the need for armies, diplomats, and agents. Techniques were developed for making and breaking codes. Intelligence (gathering and analysis of information) and counterintelligence (preventing others from getting secret information) became separate parts of the espionage web. Cardinal de Richelieu (France) and Frederick the Great (Prussia) spun notable spy networks. The threads of Britain’s secret service were at one time spun by Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe.

All developments were offset, though, by one great obstacle: communication. Agents relied on ship, horse, or carrier pigeon to transmit messages. Opposing armies could still assemble within a short distance of each other without knowing it. In 1815 Napoleon drew faulty conclusions about enemy troop movements a few miles away. He lost Waterloo and an empire. Intelligence was revolutionized much later by the technology of our century.

Out of the Cloak-and-Dagger Age

This century of conflict has thrust new challenges on intelligence services. Offshoot branches of secret service flourish in a climate of mistrust. “Fear is the very soul of the espionage business,” states German newsweekly Der Spiegel. “The shakier the world situation, the more secure [spying] as a profession becomes.” As a result, “there is not a country on earth that believes it can manage without a secret service.” Spying thrives on suspicion and breeds it; hence the multitude of intelligence fields: strategic (needed by top-level planners), military (army, navy, and air), economic, scientific, geographic, and so on. Each adds its piece to the jigsaw.

Intelligence has indeed broadened its horizons. Formerly, classified data was mostly to be found along the corridors of political power or within military preserves. Today’s rootstock of national secrets, though, is more broadly based. Why so?

The huge arms buildup since World War II means that several nations produce sophisticated weaponry. But the country that also has the technology to process split-second decisions or aim its firepower more accurately clearly holds a trump card. This know-how is in the hands of manufacturers of everything from ball bearings to video games.

Hundreds of companies and millions of employees have thus become targets for the industrial spy. In the United States alone, over four million people have access to some 20 million secret documents. Do you work with so-called sensitive information or does a family member? That information may be of value to someone on the lookout for classified data.

Such are the spoils of undercover warfare. The network that sneaks off with expertise developed at enormous cost in another land has a prized trophy. Yes, intelligence setups can save huge sums of money. But they also run up immense budgets. The Sunday Times book review quotes an estimate that intelligence worldwide costs a staggering $29 billion a year. It is said to employ over a million people. Even the United Nations’ budget is dwarfed by such figures. Fischer’s Weltalmanach puts that at less than $1 billion and the payroll at 40,000. The colossal expense of espionage is met out of public funds, taxes you pay.

Itchy Fingers and Itchy Feet

Agents used to ply their trade out of principle, for country or ideology. For instance, Oleg Penkovsky, famous spy of the 1960’s, allegedly leaked to the West details of Russia’s military situation at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. Der Spiegel then wrote that he did it because of his political ideals and went on: “Only once did he receive money. He was given 3,000 rubles [then worth about $3,330] for expenses, 2,000 of which he returned.”

Spies nowadays have baser motives. Time wrote: “Most recent converts to espionage care little about politics, and are rarely trapped by blackmail. Mainly, they are either hard up or greedy for cash.”

“The public has ceased caring about secrets,” writes The Sunday Times, “assuming them all to have been given away long since.” Why this erosion in public respect for confidentiality? Partly because some leading politicians leak secrets to the media to press home personal advantage. And many others follow suit. In a recent dispute between two government ministers in Britain, one published extracts of a confidential letter so as to embarrass the other.

In the case mentioned at the start, the husband betrayed not only his employer but also his family. Unknown to his wife, he had drawn their own son into the espionage net. Both men went to prison.

Books and films portray the spy world with bronzed heroes, minicameras, and clandestine rendezvous. Newspapers herald the unearthing of the latest mole, that is, an agent who infiltrates the intelligence service of the opposition and tunnels his way into a key post. This media image is completely out of focus with reality. Moles and minicameras are used but to a very small degree. Collecting intelligence information is mostly a tedious affair. It involves poring over trade journals and finance or scientific magazines to glean seemingly trivial details that together build an intelligible whole. And yet, some people are still attracted to the undercover realm in search of thrills.

No More Lies, No More Spies

The espionage web casts a broad shadow, even beclouding the lives of outsiders. They pay for it. They live in the climate of suspicion it breeds and feeds on. They are confronted by its dazzling image. The wise course for Christians is to resist totally the greedy, dishonest, and immoral world of spying.​—Compare 1 Timothy 6:7-10; Colossians 3:5-10.

How different things would be if we had one world government that dispensed with nationalism to unite citizens, not divide them! How splendid if officials gave a shining example in trustworthiness and honor and if love, not fear, prevailed! All that is exactly what the Kingdom of God will achieve.​—Revelation 7:9, 10, 16, 17; 2 Peter 3:13.

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What About Spies in the Bible?

The term “spying” was known in Egypt and Canaan by the 18th century B.C.E. at the latest. Joseph, who was then the chief food administrator of Egypt, used a ruse to identify the motives of his ten half brothers, insisting that they were spies.​—Genesis, chapter 42.

Over two hundred years later, Moses acceded to the request of the Israelites and dispatched 12 men to spy out the land of Canaan.​—Numbers, chapter 13; Deuteronomy 1:22-25.

Joshua sent Israelites to have a look at the cities of Jericho and Ai before each battle.​—Joshua 2:1; 7:2.

A spy was expected to take a close look at the land in order to gather information about it. The Hebrew word translated “spy” depicts someone who wanders through the land on foot, observing intently what he sees.

Note that when the tribe of Joseph wanted details on the city of Bethel before trying to capture it, they employed spies. (Judges 1:22, 23) Various translations of the Bible tell us that they “sent scouts” (The Living Bible), “made a reconnaissance” (The Jerusalem Bible), or “sent men to reconnoitre” (Moffatt).

Hence, spying mentioned in the Bible is a far cry from the grossly immoral world of espionage of today.

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Napoleon drew faulty conclusions. He lost Waterloo and an empire