take a look at this dragonfly pretty average insect right nothing special about it at all you fool you absolute fool hidden inside this high-tech bug is a tiny microphone meant to eavesdrop on unsuspecting baddies this spy gadget known hilariously as the insectathopter was designed by the cia in the 70s and could fly via remote control up to 650 feet a flying bug disguised as a bug brilliant while the insectathopter was never actually deployed it is one of many real-life gadgets and gizmos that were designed to be used by spies a pipe with a radio hidden
inside a camera inside of a cigarette pack a secret transmitter that looks like a dog turd they're all real but unfortunately they represent a somewhat bygone era of espionage that was a little closer to the spy fiction most of us think of today most spies have turned in their radio pipes for a boring old computer and maybe a wiretap or two hi i'm justin dodd and on today's episode of misconceptions we're talking about the sexy secret world of espionage spoiler alert it's not as sexy or secretive as you might think let's get started yep they
bought it gathering until now countries only spy on their enemies spies spy on bad guys that's like the number one rule of spying according to the book i got at the scholastic book fair 22 years ago if the goal is to painstakingly obtain important intel about a foreign group military or government seems like it would be the best use of all those resources and money if that intel involved a potentially dangerous country not like you know one of our closest allies that hasn't always been the case though and it's not for lack of diplomatic maneuvering
following the end of world war ii the uk usa agreement marked a new era of intelligence operations comradeship the agreement currently involves australia canada new zealand the united kingdom and the united states who are collectively known as the five eyes which is undeniably pretty cool basically these five powers agreed to share their sensitive intelligence and in turn probably not spy on each other this agreement was kept so secret that it wasn't made public until 2010 almost 60 years after its founding but for that whole time these five nations and specifically the uk and the us
have worked together and shared their intel for the greater good so really why would we ever spy on allies when we're all just openly gossiping in our little cliques anyway well hate to break it to you but even the strongest the friendships come with a healthy dose of paranoia countries spy on their allies all the time and so do humans when you have a sneaking suspicion they're all hanging out without you this has been a practice since the dawn of espionage and it's never been more relevant than it is today intelligence operations are always most
concerned with the safety of their own nation first so if it's in their best interest to spy on a country that's technically their ally so be it the world was outraged when the u.s was accused of bugging the german chancellor's phone less than 10 years ago but then it was later revealed that german intelligence had accidentally eavesdropped on the us's secretary of state oops charles kupchan professor of international affairs at georgetown put it simply everybody spies on everybody including friends on friends and even the unbreakable bonds of the five eyes are not exempt from this
practice it was revealed in 2013 that the members of the uk usa agreement very well might spy on each other but not necessarily out of mistrust since there are many laws prohibiting governments from spying on their own citizens some countries have used shady workarounds to gather such intel max boot a writer for commentary said this intelligence sharing allows them to do an end run around prohibitions on domestic surveillance the brits can spy on our citizens we can spy on theirs and then we can share the results in 2013 the national security agency denied these accusations
saying any allegation that nsa relies on its foreign partners to circumvent u.s law is absolutely false nsa does not ask its foreign partners to undertake any intelligence activity that the us government would be legally prohibited from undertaking itself and as we discussed in our episode on the cold war even in instances of spying on enemy governments it was not always entirely devious or violent in fact the other team spies were a welcome part of the not quite war a series of agreements between western countries and the soviets allowed for what was essentially legal spying on
both sides of the conflict these so-called military liaison missions were meant to alleviate tensions between the opposing powers by bringing some of the clandestine activities of the cold war out into the relative open so if your perception of covert operatives only involves secret missions to evil enemy countries during wartime you might be giving intelligence agencies more credit than their due spies are a modern concept okay you probably realize that spycraft didn't start with sydney bristow but i do think that most people when hearing the word spy imagine a distinctly modern agent this could either be
the heavily fictionalized james bond or the image of a stereotypical cold war era spy trench coats and all but even limiting ourselves to the world of literature this timeline is far off one of the first examples of modern spy fiction is a book called appropriately the spy written by james fenimore cooper in 1821 but american history buffs and fans of the broadway musical hamilton know that spies were crucial much earlier than that during the revolutionary war george washington's culpa ring held thwart british surprise attacks and capture enemy spies among other things so it must be
the 18th century that espionage began well i'll spare you and stop this guessing game now because we still have a few thousand years before we reach the first instance of espionage we know spies have been around for quite some time because stories about them appeared in of all places the bible in the book of numbers for example there's the story of the twelve spies where israelite chieftains traveled to canaan to obtain information from moses many attribute the first use of espionage to the ancient egyptians pharaohs employed spies to acquire intelligence and protect themselves from foreign
enemies they're even credited with using many of the same tactics spies are associated with today such as coded messages clothing with hidden compartments and disappearing ink many other groups such as the hidites in the 13th century bce developed their own espionage networks sometimes in direct response to egypt's growing spy network the greeks and romans each developed their own spy tactics which included secret and efficient communication between city-states the creation of alliances and planning surprise attacks in 4th century bce india the royal advisor shanakiya wrote arthashastra a statecraft manual it detailed the important processes of intelligence
collection by and for powerful states with passages giving hilariously specific details on possible spies for example a man with shaved head or braided hair and desirous to earn livelihood is a spy under the guise of an ascetic practicing austerities feudal japan used shinobi to spy on their enemies shinobi were ninjas but the mythical lore surrounding this popular archetype is additionally full of many more misconceptions queen elizabeth the first principal secretary frances wassingham became known as her spymaster employing espionage tactics that would take other powerful nations years to begin implementing such as the use of double
agents and misinformation over the next few centuries spies were no longer a mysterious or rare occurrence in government they were a given it was downright irresponsible to not have at least a couple people on your payroll keeping an eye on your enemies or your allies all espionage is focused on national security industrial and corporate espionage are two very active forms of intelligence gathering because believe it or not money is a pretty big motivator to commit crimes these types of espionage are conducted for commercial purposes instead of national security and can include stealing trade secrets snooping
around for info on industrial manufacturing techniques nabbing customer data sets getting a peek into research and development finding out about prospective deals etc while industrial espionage has really become rampant in the last few decades thanks to advances in technology and the nearly universal reliance on the internet and computers it actually dates back a few hundred years some people claim the first industrial spy was father francois savier don control a jesuit missionary who was sent from france to china on a special mission around the year 1700. while it was to local observers a typical mission trip
his superiors were also intensely curious about the chinese process of making porcelain the missionary spy spent over two decades in china's porcelain making capital sleuthing and learning all he could about the manufacturing process and secrets according to historian robert finlay the letters containing all of his gathered information represent one of the earliest and most calculated cases of an effort to implement mercantilist economic strategies of technology transfer nowadays industrial espionage is mostly found in the tech world given the huge monetary value of intellectual property like algorithms and software silicon valley is a popular target so you
better watch out when that curious do mustachio janitor comes in to wipe down your desk you might be stealing all of your company's data at the request of your biggest competitor or he might just be trying to do his job calm down espionage is a sophisticated fool-proof government tactic so if we've established that spying is an oft-used ancient practice with thousands of years of experience under our belts safe to say that it's a surefire and sophisticated government operation i mean even sun tzu author of the art of war wrote about the importance of such a
critical group of people over 2 000 years ago to fail to know the conditions of opponents because of reluctance to give rewards for intelligence is extremely uncharacteristic of a true military leader therefore no one in the armed forces is treated as familiarly as our spies no one has given rewards as rich as those given to spies and no matter is more secret than espionage but the reality is professional espionage is not without its failures history is littered with very unintelligent uses of intelligence during world war 1 room 40 the british decrypting center acquired useful intel
about the enemy fleet during the battle of jutland the intel was promptly ignored in the battle which could have been handily won came to a costly draw in 1941 russian spy richard sorga gained intel about an approaching german invasion of russia while sleuthing in germany's embassy in japan stalin rebuked the information even going so far as to threaten anyone who believed it this decision cost an untold number of lives there's even a wild tale from 1914 of french government officials using their decryption office the cabinet noir as a way to embarrass one another for political
gain and in turn preventing the intelligence officers from doing their actual job like you know preventing foreign attacks the whole thing culminated with the former prime minister's wife madame henriette caillou walking into the office of gaston comey the editor of a newspaper who was believed to have decrypted messages that threatened her husband she promptly drew a revolver shot him dead her claim was that the newspaper was going to publish scandalous love letters between her and her husband while he was still married to his first wife but the real threat was a series of intercepted german
telegrams it's also complicated and silly i mean it's like every cut scene from a metal gear solid game the new yorkers adam gopnik described the paradoxical nature of intelligence like this a seeming national advance in intelligence is squandered through crossbred confusion political rivalry mutual bureaucratic suspicions intergovernmental competition and fear of the press as well as leaks to the press all seasoned with dashes of sexual jealousy and adulterous intrigue and if we're talking about spy flips i have to mention one of my favorite stories operation acoustic kitty we talked in detail about this feline mishap in
our list show episode about weird weapons from history but i'll give you the short version in the 60s the cia developed a radio transmitter that could be surgically implanted and cats to spy on the kremlin yeah this is all real and it gets so much worse in the first test mission the cat reportedly ran across the street with the intent of eavesdropping on two men standing outside a building and was promptly run over by a taxi though cia sources dispute the dead feline portion of the story the project was scrapped soon after thank you for
your service spy cat thanks for watching misconceptions the sexy world of espionage isn't exactly like a james bond movie or better yet a johnny fedora novel which is a real character i just found out about and am obsessed with johnny fedora incredible make sure to subscribe and i'll see you next time
