National Affairs: Object Lesson

Colonel Alfred Redl was a master of his craft. While still in his 30s he rose to the General Staff and became chief of counter-intelligence for Austro-Hungary. His agents spider-webbed czarist Russia, and at home he confounded Russian spies who sought Austro-Hungarian military secrets. But talented Alfred Redl had one terrible weakness: he was a homosexual. Russian agents contrived a trap and caught him one day; then they threatened to expose him unless he turned traitor. Redl turned, for eleven years served Russia as a master spy-within-a-spy. The extent of his treason was discovered after war broke out in 1914: Russia...

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