Mole (intelligence)
A mole is an individual recruited by one intelligence agency in order to clandestinely penetrate a rival intelligence agency. An alternate term is double agent.
Some moles are defectors, who already worked for one intelligence agency, who then clandestinely approach an intelligence agency from a rival country. Some times they have become disenchanted with the first country, and wish to defect. On other occasions they are motivated purely by greed.
Other moles are first clandestinely recruited, and then groomed by their handlers, so an unsuspecting rival agency will recruit them. Kim Philby, an agent of the old Soviet Union, was recruited first. His handlers sent him to Spain, to serve as a war correspondent sympathetic to the right-wing forces of Francisco Franco, to wash away the earlier taint of his youthful left-wing affiliations.
Since individuals who agree to be moles have relatively little contact with the agency that they believe recruited them face the possibility that their handlers are not who they said they were, and work for a completely different agency - possibly one they would be ideologically opposed to.
Agencies approached by defectors face the opposite difficulty. The defection might be a ploy to penetrate them, with the agent being a "triple agent", who remains loyal to their original agency.
