Monday, 28 December 2020, 2:52 pm
Filling the espionage ranks with legions of the
non-belonging comes with its share of risk. The process is
counter-intuitive, putting stock in skill and aptitude above
the potential compromise of loyalty and divergence.
Eventually, such a recruit might find a set of closely
guarded principles.
The son of a Sephardic Jew and
Dutch Protestant might well count as excellent material for
British intelligence but George Behar ended up condemned in
Britain and the toast of the now defunct Soviet Union.
George Blake, as he came to be known, along with that other
great British export of betrayal, Kim Philby, was always