The most complicated intelligence deception operation in history was run in the last century as Operation Fortitude during WWII. The Nazis were sending spies by the dozens into Great Britain by sea and air to gain war-time intelligence about potential military operations, weapons development, and general public sentiment towards the war. Within weeks of landing in Great Britain, the German agents were instructed to begin using their wireless radios and letters to transmit intelligence about the actions taking place on the island nation. The Nazis believed they were running a successful ring of spies; unbeknownst to them was the reality that every one of their spies had been captured and many of the captive Nazi agents were doubled by the British counter-intelligence agency MI5. MI5 did not know with certainty until midway through the war that they had captured all the Nazi spies; realization of this human intelligence operations counter-intelligence coup was staggering to the
m. MI5 recognized an invaluable opportunity to feed the Nazis deceptive information through HUMINT using radio transmissions and letters written in secret ink from these double agents that the Germans believed to be loyal Nazi spies. Through a massive, coordinated effort between MI5 and other British intelligence agencies, the now British double-agents helped successfully to deceive the Nazis into thinking that the Allied invasion would occur at Pas de Calais in late summer; this deception caused the Nazis to keep a majority of their forces deployed near Pas de Calais while the actual Allied invasion took take place at Normandy in June.
Even as MI5 realized they had an unprecedented opportunity for deceiving the Nazis on a grand scale, MI5 also appreciated the risks being taken. The advantage that they had in doubling spies was also problematic; there had never been in the history of deception human intelligence operations an effort that matched the breadth and scope of what they planned. Their planning was meticulous, but they were working without a precedent. The HUMINT that was funneled through one double-agent had to be coordinated with what was given to another double-agent. The content of the information had to be both realistic, credible and yet delivered timely enough so that it would be of little use to the Nazis, except to verify that their spies were reliable and had access to good information. For example, it was accepted that the mail system experienced delays in times of war; letters carrying coded information would be mailed just in time to be late upon arrival voiding the use of the informati
on. Radio transmissions could be delayed but this posed problems despite explanations, such as clandestine meetings with sub-agents or bombings. Thus radio transmissions tended to contain a mix of deception and true information that would limit risks to Britain but would reinforce the double agents as effective Nazi sources.
The advent of the Internet poses new challenges and opportunities for large-scale deception operations. The vast amount of data on the Internet has spawned a new intelligence discipline, open source intelligence (OSINT). The Internet also presents opportunities for various human intelligence operations to be run simultaneously; though conflicting reports may not be deemed trustworthy, and the end results can vary from confusion, to second-guessing plots against the U.S., or Internet data can be used as precursors to U.S. intelligence operations. U.S. intelligence agencies, such as the NSA and CIA, can actively plant misleading and outright false information in websites that front as other entities, or utilize existing websites to troll for potential suspects that they can track and capture. Like Operation Fortitude, 'on-the-job training' in deception remains a major challenge: however, private universities and online schools have risen to this challenge by offering both basic
and advanced courses in deception, taught by instructors that are experienced in this 'smoke and mirrors' HUMINT craft.
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Dan Sommer works for Henley-Putnam University, a leading educational institution in the field of Strategic Security. For more info on Henley-Putnam University, HUMINT, human intelligence operations, call 888-852-8746 or visit us online at http://www.Henley-Putnam.edu
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