Low down, two-timing double agents

Why do stories of double-agents continue to shock and amaze us?

If key figures of the British establishment like Philby, Burgess and MacLean, the famous Cambridge University Soviet spy ring, could be recruited in post-war Britain to spy for the Russians and one of them even rose to become the head of MI-6 Russian counter-intelligence, then surely failures of patriotism should be a little old hat?

The latest double-agent scandal unfolding in the US is that surrounding Katrina Leung, a Los Angeles woman paid over 1.7 million US dollars for information on China as an FBI infomant. It appears she had an eighteen-year long affair with her “handler” who covered for her when suspicions were raised.

It does seem a little odd that foreign intelligence gathering institutions, based to some extent on the assumption that people will be prepared to lie to or betray their own country (or at least a foreign power with whom they are connected) are surprised when their own “assets” turn against them or are found to have been playing both ends against the middle.

And while we think of double-agents as being engaged in the height of duplicitous and mercenary behaviour, once you are persuaded to sell information to a foreign government what better explanation for your close connections to that government in the eyes of your own than to start spying for your own government as well?

Perhaps the thing we find most fascinating is the extent to which national security might be jeopardised by mere human fallibility. What we are dealing with here is basically that age-old conundrum, the workplace affair gone badly wrong. It seems that despite the security implications, the whole mess was something of an FBI open-secret in the LA bureau. Just to heighten the sense of scandal, it seems there are allegations Ms Leung also had an affair with a second FBI agent, one based in San Fransisco.

She was betraying not only two countries, but was two-timing her “handler” as well. Romantic and political betrayals seem to abound in this spy-thriller in the making, and it’s all set in the heart of Hollywood.

I wonder who has the movie rights?