Here’s how a Russian Sparrow conducts a Honey Pot spy mission
SUMMARY
The world of espionage is a high-stakes chess game of clandestine operations where the end justifies the means. The idea of professional temptresses infiltrating our government and financial institutions has been romanticized as a relic of another age, yet the threat has increased in spite of the defeat of the Soviet Union. The Russians have never been able to live down the embarrassing capitulation of Mikhail Gorbachev and tirelessly seek to restore their empire to its former glory.
Beautiful, educated women are recruited and groomed to target our policymakers, financial institutions, and even embassy guards to further a nefarious agenda. A threat to our infrastructure is a threat to every troop currently forward deployed. The remnants of the USSR are gathering once again, focused on the destruction of everything American. This is how the enemies of the west deploy their operatives to conduct Honey Pot operations against us and our allies alike.
(Ronald Kessler)
Cold War Sparrows
Honey pot spies are trained to be masters of opportunity and stealth by their direct chain of command or sent to spy schools. Other spies trained in sabotage are selected from within the intelligence agency itself, sparrows operate in a fashion similar to contractors: the less they know, the better. They will have few points of contact and will be groomed to identify targets on their own. The timeline between contact can span anywhere between days to years, unaware of other ongoing operations. As they become closer to the hearts of their target and infiltrate their inner circle, they carry on their day to day activities as sleeper cells. Agents will be given free rein to operate autonomously until they are contacted by their handlers.
Ronald Kessler, the author of Moscow Station, explains in his book in detail how the Russians were able to effectively infiltrate the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in 1989. He states that the Russians would lure lonely service members with Honey Pots to get them to collude with their Russian girlfriends, allowing the embassy to be bugged to the point where the building was deemed inoperable and had to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch.
He received criticism from the public that it was inconceivable that troops could be seduced into treason. He strongly advised that troops should be trained further in OPSEC and recommended that embassy duty should be reserved for married service members to prevent such tactics in the future.
Modern Sparrows
Espionage is as old as warfare itself, and the Russians have perfected weaponized seduction as a Hail Mary in a tactic now known as the Honey Pot. Potential candidates are identified by their intellect, beauty, heritage, mastery of language, and cultural knowledge of foreign powers. They will be investigated thoroughly before they are selected to be the eyes and ears of the Kremlin. Once employed by the government they will use their assets and skills to seduce their targets.
College students are the most preferable due to their youth, and their studies offer insight into their ideology and aspirations for the future. A candidate following a career path that provides plausible deniability is a chief alibi in the event an agent is compromised and must be burned by the commanding intelligence agency. The agent is expected to fall gracefully on her sword, and the Russians will investigate everyone who fits this profile inside their borders or abroad.
"an expert at using her femininity to get information." - Dennis Hirdt
Maxim
The most famous example in recent history is Anna Chapman, a confirmed Russian Spy. Her blood ties to the former KGB via her father, Vasily Kushchenko, made her a prime, pedigree candidate. She was a college student at the time of her recruitment studying economics at Moscow University and was deployed went on vacation to London and married an Englishman named Alex Chapman. Her marriage granted her dual citizenship that allowed her to work for Barclay's Bank during her marriage. She traveled between Russia and England, informing the powers-that-be of our ally's economic strategies.
After her divorce, she moved to New York City and started a realty company called PropertyFinder Ltd. that served as her cover while developing ties into the upper echelons of policymakers. She was arrested in June 2010 in the United States by the FBI after attempting to forward a false U.S. Passport through her network to the Kremlin. This action, combined with the information of a U.S. double agent, resulted in her capture and nine others. The following month she was one of the spies exchanged in a deal between the U.S. and Russia.
She was rewarded with a medal from the Russian government, the October cover of the Russian edition of Maxim, became an adviser to FundServiceBank, and was gifted her own television show called Mysteries of the World with Anna Chapman.
War never changes.
1985 Associated Press
How to deal with this threat
Other than the fact that it is unlikely that you will become the target of a Sparrow, one must always exercise caution when handling sensitive information. OPSEC, especially in the bedroom, must be kept under vault like circumstances. Your captivating partner in the throes of passion may be after more than your BAH and Tri-Care.
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