Blurs

How Intelligence Agencies Procure Spies: Recruitment, Handling, and the Making of Human Intelligence Assets Intelligence services don’t “buy spies” in the way fiction often suggests. Instead, agencies cultivate, recruit, and manage individuals who provide information over time—sometimes willingly, sometimes under pressure, and sometimes through carefully constructed relationships that evolve over years. The process used by organisations such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) is a structured discipline known as human intelligence (HUMINT) recruitment and handling. This article explains how it works in practice, based on declassified material, intelligence studies, and investigative reporting. What “recruiting a spy” actually means In intelligence terminology, a “spy” is usually called a: • Source • Asset • Agent • Informant These individuals may: • provide documents or access to information • report on political or military developments • enabl...