The secret’s out: Tony D’Souza on espionage and human weakness

‘The KGB knew how to exploit human weakness.’

How do you recruit a spy? According to the former Soviet security service, the KGB, the best way is to appeal to their human weaknesses. It used the acronym MICE: M for money, I for Ideology, C for Compromise, and E for Ego. It turns out to be a very useful index of human weakness.

Money leads the pack because it is the most direct. A potential recruit can be enticed to work for you simply by payment. You start by giving them a little, and gradually increase the amount until they come to depend on it. Soon, they are so far down the route of financial corruption that there’s no turning back. Aldrich Ames, a CIA officer, received an estimated US$4.6 million from Soviet intelligence. His betrayal came to light after he bought expensive suits and cars. Greed was the reason for his treachery, and it led to the imprisonment, torture and death of at least twenty-five undercover agents.

I is for Ideology. People will betray their country because of it, and also their closest friends. Kim Philby is a case in point. The leading member of the Cambridge Five, he ascended to the top of western intelligence. Unbelievably, at the height of his career he was simultaneously the most senior British intelligence officer in Washington (specialising in, of all things, soviet counter intelligence), and the KGB’s most valued double agent. Philby spied for the Russians for decades. He was not a ‘Gentleman Spy’: his activity resulted in hundreds of deaths. In exile in Moscow, he reputedly read the cricket scores in old copies of The Times and tried to drink himself to death. He died in 1988 and was given a state funeral suitable for a hero of the Soviet Union.

C is for Compromise (or Kompromat), meaning damaging information that can be used to exert influence. Holding an incriminating dossier of kompromat on a recruit will ensure their compliance. Felix Bloch worked for the CIA in Vienna. He was sacked in 1990 under suspicion of giving information to the Soviets. It’s likely that the KGB exploited him after discovering his visits to prostitutes.

E is for Ego, perhaps the most damning of all. When recruiting a spy, it seems that flattery goes a long way. Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent, spied for Soviet intelligence from 1979 to 2001. He was a self-centred narcissist, and held deep grievances about being overlooked by his employers. This made him a prime target for the KGB. Hanssen’s espionage was described by the US Department of Justice as ‘possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history.’

The KGB knew how to exploit human weakness, but do we know our own weaknesses? And do we know that we are exploited by them? The Buddha rightly observed, ‘We are not punished for our anger, we are punished by it.’ To overcome our weaknesses, we must take action. The first thing we must do is identify them and own them. Then we must repent and become genuinely remorseful. After that, we must resolve not to repeat our mistakes and work diligently not to do so. We have to do this for ourselves. Nobody can do it for us.

---

Comments

Please login to add a comment