REAL-LIFE SPARROWS
SEX SPY SCHOOL ISN’T JUST A HOLLYWOOD CONCOCTION…
it started with delilah. Bribed by the philistines to find the source of besotted Samson’s strength, she seduced him and sold the secret of his silken locks for 1,100 pieces of silver. (Judas got a measly 30 for betraying Jesus.) ever since then, espionage has been indebted to charismatic beauties prepared – or ‘persuaded’ – to prostitute themselves for political ends.
Unsurprisingly, women already au fait with men’s baser needs proved perfect candidates. mata hari (aka dutchwoman margaretha zelle) was an exotic dancer who became the toast of paris – and caught the eye of French intelligence agency deuxième Bureau. able to travel across borders during world war 1 due to holland’s neutral status, hari was offered a million francs to seduce Crown prince wilhelm. But when she offered French intel to Germany that only amounted to gossip, she was exposed as a double-agent and put on trial. despite insisting that she was, “a harlot? yes, but a traitor, never!” hari was duly executed by firing squad.
in world war 2, bored diplomat’s wife and socialite Betty pack leapt at the chance to work for mi6 and honey-trap polish political aide michal lubienski. She transcribed pillow talk and ransacked his briefcase, providing leverage for Britain to force polish mathematicians to collaborate on the enigma machine. She later stole a German campaign map and obtained italian and French naval codes, once having noisy sex as a distraction to allow a safecracker to break in.
Christine Keeler was a topless dancer when deployed by mi5 informant Stephen ward to seduce russian intelligence officer yevgeny ivanov into sharing Soviet nuclear secrets; her simultaneous affair with John profumo, Secretary of State for war, blew their cover. profumo resigned, ivanov was recalled to moscow, ward took his own life, the Conservatives lost power.
in hindsight, honey-trapping russia was a fool’s errand, the KGB having perfected the art. the russian Foreign intelligence Service (SVr) now has ‘the institute’, 20 miles outside moscow. Some claim it’s a charm school that perfects social and linguistic skills, training sleeper spies (such as anna Chapman, ‘swapped’ back to russia in 2010) to blend in and await instructions, others say recruits are screened porn before taking part in orgies, then critiqued. Former KGB general oleg Kalugin backs the latter, saying, “in the west, you ask your men to stand up for their country. in russia, we just ask our young women to lay down.”