Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

The tawdry tale of an Israeli turncoat

I’m always struck by the tawdriness of the real world of intelligence, so unlike the glamour of many thriller novels. It turns out that a retired Israeli intelligence operative sold out to the KGB because he needed money to bail him out of some business failures. They worked him for seven years, during which he ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
576216_091125_issoviet2.jpg
576216_091125_issoviet2.jpg

I’m always struck by the tawdriness of the real world of intelligence, so unlike the glamour of many thriller novels. It turns out that a retired Israeli intelligence operative sold out to the KGB because he needed money to bail him out of some business failures. They worked him for seven years, during which he spilled as much as he could, including information about “American intelligence officers in contact with Israeli intelligence, including names, positions and specialties”-and received a grand total of $31,000. What a shmuck!  

Flickr user: zeevveez

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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