In the TV show Alias, the protagonists mother was a Soviet spy who had been ordered by the KGB to marry a US CIA officer and she did, the union resulting in the birth of our heroine.
Has there ever been such a situation in real life? By which I mean a spy marrying and starting a family with the target? While I know of honey traps and sleeper agent, this strikes me as being unlikely. For one it bys starting a family, the agent would put him/herself in a position where they would be unable to take any offspring (with whom they would have developed an attachment) at the time of extraction.
I’ve read a lot about espionage and I’ve never heard of that. Spy agencies tend not to take that long a view of things, and as you say there’s always the risk that family ties will eventually prevail over nationalistic, institutional or ideological loyalties.
Has become quite relevent in light of current events I must say. It seems that the Russian spy ring did just what both I and Elendil’s Heir thought they won’t do.
I haven’t followed the current Russian spy scandal that closely. Did some of them actually woo or marry “targets”? All I heard about was the pair of single Russian agents who pretended to be married to each other.
My understanding is that several of the alleged spies were married couples, but I haven’t heard that the spies actually married anyone working in American intelligence.
Even then, the point holds, they would be in the target country for the longest time (near two decades) for many of them sufficient time to form attachments which would interfere with the mission.
It reminds me of the 1991 British miniseries Sleepers, in which two Russian agents are sent to the UK in 1965, are forgotten about and “go native”. One marries and has three children, while the other becomes a successful stockbroker. When they’re rediscovered following the upheavals of glasnost they go on the run to avoid getting called back. [del]Penis[/del] Hilarity ensues.
Vaguely related I guess, a resident of the former East Germany discovered her husband was a Stasi member, who may have married her (depending on whose linked article you believe) in order to spy on her more effectively.
[link 1];
[link 2];
I would’ve been suspicious from the outset, when he gave me so obviously fake a name as “Knud.”
I hear some are taking a reaalllly long view and arranging to have their children here, just so they can get citizenship and cause havoc years later. :eek:
But againt, its pretty risky that new attachments would be formed or are there ways ti ensure they ain’t formed.