The First and Second Oldest Professions
Thoughts in and around geopolitics.
It’s been reported that Russian operatives penetrated the files of several U.S. companies and government agencies, potentially compromising vital American secrets. I use the word “operatives” because what used to be called spies are now called operatives, and an operative working as a spy in the digital world is increasingly referred to as a hacker. In honor of John le Carre, who recently passed on to the safe house of eternity, we should think a bit about espionage, a trade that creates far fewer suave martini drinkers than it creates, in the words of Len Deighton, seedy civil servants hanging on for their pensions. Spying has an ancient and even holy origin. In the book of Joshua, the eponymous protagonist is planning to assault Jericho. He needs more information on Jericho’s military capabilities and preparedness. He orders two men – I will assume they were well trained and suited for the mission – to infiltrate the city, collect information and provide information on its order of battle. Their first task is to get into Jericho, then find people who can pass unobserved inside the city. On the city wall they find a woman named Rahab, a prostitute who presumably lives […]