In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service, whose primary purpose is to spy on a different target organisation, but who, in fact, is a member of the target organization.
Double agentry may be practiced by spies of the target organisation who infiltrate the controlling organisation, or may result from the turning (switching sides) of previously loyal agents of the controlling organisation by the target.
The threat of execution is the most common method of turning a captured agent (working for an intelligence service) into a double agent (working for a foreign intelligence service) or a double agent into a re-doubled agent. It is unlike a defector, who is not considered an agent as agents are in place to function for an intelligence service and defectors are not, but some consider that defectors in place are agents until they have defected.
Double agents are often used to transmit disinformation or to identify other agents as part of counter-espionage operations. They are often very trusted by the controlling organisation since the target organisation will give them true, but useless or even counterproductive, information to pass along.
A re-doubled agent is an agent who gets caught as a double agent and is forced to mislead the foreign intelligence service. F.M. Begoum describes the redoubled agent as "one whose duplicity in doubling for another service has been detected by his original sponsor and who has been persuaded to reverse his affections again".
A triple agent is an agent who works for three intelligence services, but is usually truly loyal to only one of them.
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FTF: Gorbygorbachov
