Sexpionage is the involvement of sexual activity, or the possibility of sexual activity, intimacy, romance, or seduction to conduct espionage. Sex or the possibility of sex can function as a distraction , incentive, cover story, or unintended part of any intelligence operation. Sexpionage is a historically documented phenomenon and even the CIA has previously added Nigel West's work Historical Dictionary of Sexspionage to its proposed intelligence officer's bookshelf.
A commonly known type of sexpionage is a honey trap operation, which is designed to compromise an opponent sexually [2] : to elicit information from that person. A "swallow's nest" was the name given for the double-apartments in which the target would be seduced in one room while next door KGB technicians filmed or taped the entire affair. Discrimination and cultural attitudes toward homosexuals have pressured them into spying or not spying for a certain entity, sometimes with drastic consequences.
For example, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman , former director of the NSA , decided to not fire openly gay employees in exchange for each employee's written promise not to give in to blackmail and that each gay employee would inform his family, eliminating any further potential for blackmail. This school trained agents to be swallows. Matthews believes the school has been closed, but that Russia now uses independent contractors. Mendez stated that other countries like China had such programs.
In the playwright and screenwriter Yuri Krotkov defected to the West. He revealed that he had been told by the KGB to seek out [ clarification needed ] attractive young women who could be used to seduce men. He would recruit actresses while doing film work, promising better film roles, money and clothes. All of the swallows had numbers instead of names.
The Washington Post reported in that "Most westerners who have spent any length of time in Moscow have their favorite tale of an attempted seduction by a KGB swallow or raven.
