Spies, Spies Everywhere

Four more espionage arrests add to a year of selling dangerously

The U.S. intelligence community has thousands of them: deskbound clerks, translators and minor functionaries who spend years in decidedly unglamorous jobs in which they are privy to information more valued than their self-esteem. Last week, in separate cases, three of those faceless employees were charged with peddling American secrets to foreign agents. The harvest was apparently random; the only thread was that all were, in the words of one former intelligence official, "tawdry little people who sell their souls for a few thousand bucks." But their apprehension brought to ten the number of spy arrests this year--a number that seems to...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!