--- ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Brief History: Double Agents by [Claire Suddath](/author/claire-suddath/) Jan 25, 2010 5:00 AM CUT  From left: ABC News / AP; Dennis Brack / Corbis by [Claire Suddath](/author/claire-suddath/) Jan 25, 2010 5:00 AM CUT The CIA believed that Jordanian physician Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi would help it infiltrate Islamist extremist groups–even find Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s elusive No. 2\. But this informant, it turned out, was also an assassin, whose Dec. 30 suicide bombing of an Afghanistan CIA base killed seven agency employees. Officials are still trying to figure out how they were duped and why. The art of playing both sides is an ancient one. Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, in his 4th century B.C. classic The Art of War, mentions double agents as a source of useful information. In 1779 infamous turncoat Benedict Arnold offered to surrender the fort at West Point to the British for £20,000\. While his conspiracy was quickly discovered, that of Edward Bancroft, who spied both on and for Benjamin Franklin, didn’t come to light for more than 100 years. Espionage boomed during the 20th century, as World War II and the Cold War made invisible ink and encrypted messages more than just fodder for thrillers. Austro-Hungarian agent Dusko Popov, the reported inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond, gallivanted around Europe feeding false intelligence to the Nazis and sleeping with countless women. (His fondness for ménages à trois earned him the code name Tricycle.) British spymaster Kim Philby spent 30 years rising nearly to the top of MI6, only to be unmasked as a double agent in 1963–having sent decades of secrets to the Soviets. U.S. intelligence agencies have had their share of moles in recent years. Senior FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested in 2001 for turning over to Moscow the names of KGB assets working for the U.S.–information that led directly to many agents’ deaths. Still, al-Balawi may be the first double agent to kill his handlers and himself. In the business of secrets and spies, it’s hard to know who is the enemy. Brief History: Double Agents ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6690405/brief-history-double-agents/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6690405/brief-history-double-agents/"},"headline":"Brief History: Double Agents","datePublished":"2010-01-25T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-27T17:10:34.665Z","description":"The CIA believed that Jordanian physician Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi would help it infiltrate Islamist extremist groups--even find Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's elusive No. 2. But this...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6690405/brief-history-double-agents/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f35cfad3cf9566f/698a480786f68ee6ef6f39f6/360_cklein_0118.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Claire Suddath","url":"https://time.com/author/claire-suddath/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f35cfad3cf9566f/698a480786f68ee6ef6f39f6/360_cklein_0118.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"360_cklein_0118.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"From left: ABC News / AP; Dennis Brack / Corbis","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6690405/brief-history-double-agents/","name":"Brief History: Double Agents"}}]}] ```