Double Agent Quotes
Traitors and spies were their terms for Southern sympathizers in the Federal Government. Many of these would pass information to the rebels.
The 1st the CIA ever had. Popov was, in the 1950s, considered the CIA’s most valuable agent. He was motivated by deeply felt anger at Soviet exploitation of Russian peasants, including his family. He was caught and executed by Russian authorities in 1960. The quotation illustrates just how simple was his initial communication for spying.
This is done in modern times. Note that the objective is NOT to arrest or execute the enemy spies but to turn them into what we call “Double Agents.”
Indeed his valet was a spy who worked for the British. However, Franklin assumed that European courts and capitals were filled with spies, and instead of trying constantly to ferret them out, he made sure that he never allowed anyone to know what he wanted to keep secret. While Jefferson essentially adopted the same viewpoint, John Adams, much more uptight and rigid, was very distressed with Franklin over their differences in counter-espionage strategy. In reality, no secrets ever leaked back to England, but their spies sent some of the most absurd reports of the “evil” Dr. Franklin. He was designing a huge set of lenses that could be pointed at the British fleet in the Channel, magnify the rays of the sun and set the ships ablaze. Another had Franklin designing a chain that would be stretched from France to England and an electric current transmitted thereupon causing the English island to blow up. These reports made Franklin and the French the first who were feared for their plans to design and deploy weapons of mass destruction.
