Agent of influence

Agent of influence is a controversial term used to describe people of some stature who are said to use their position to influence public opinion in one country or decision making to produce results beneficial to another.^[1]

The term is used both to describe conscious agents operating under the control of an intelligence service and political opponents who may be classed as a "useful idiot" that is, someone, completely unaware of how their actions further the interests of a foreign power.

A related concept is that of a front organization

Critics have argued that the term can be applied to anyone whose political views are disliked by the user.^[2]

An agent of some stature who uses their position to influence public opinion or decision making to produce results beneficial to the country whose intelligence service operates the agent (Air Force Office of Special Investigations Manual 71-142).

[3]

A person who is directed by an intelligence organization to use his or her position to influence public opinion or decision-making in a manner that will advance the objective of the country for which that organization operates (Counterintelligence Glossary—Terms & Definitions of Interest for Department of Defense Counterintelligence Professionals).

[3]

An individual who acts in the interest of an adversary without an open declaration of allegiance and attempts to exercise influence covertly, but is not necessarily gathering intelligence or compromising classified material, is known as an agent of influence (Historical Dictionary of Cold War Counterintelligence).

[3]

An agent operating under intelligence instructions who uses his or her officialdom or public position, and other means, to exert influence on policy, public opinion, the course of particular events, the activity of political organizations and state agencies in target countries (KGB Lexicon: The Soviet Intelligence Officer's Handbook, edited by KGB archivist Vasiliy Mitrokhin).

[3]

The (FARA) was enacted in 1938, and 22 U.S.Code § 611 et seq provides detailed definitions of what constitutes an agent of influence.^[4]

Foreign Agents Registration Act

Criticism[edit]

Criticising the concept, John Girling writes^[2]

'Agents of Influence'is an intriguing conception, whose meaning is as mysterious as its origins, and whose attribution reflects as much on the user as on the 'used*. With its vague and rather sinister undertones of manipulation and deceit such a hybrid expression lends itself easily to innuendo and abuse. It is not surprising, therefore, that the prejudiced or the merely careless should characterise those whose political views they dislike, not as agents of a foreign power (for the allegation lacks any concrete proof), but as 'agents of influence' working *wittingly or unwittingly* either for the American CIA or the Soviet KGB

: an agent of influence and spy.^[11] At the time of his exposure he had significant support among US politicians and only went to jail for lying under oath about passing documents to the Soviet Union.^[11]

Alger Hiss

Arne Herløv Petersen: used as a Soviet agent of influence in Norway for over 10 years, he mainly focused on various means of manipulating Danish public opinion.

[12]

: he was exposed as a result of overuse as an agent of influence in taking blatantly one-sided arguments over Norway's northern border.^[8]

Arne Treholt

: Guardian journalist who took money from the KGB.

Richard Gott

Links between Trump associates and Russian officials

McCarthyism

Mole (espionage)

Red Scare

Sleeper agent

Useful idiot

Ralph de Toledano

Interview with

Van Hook, James C. (2005). . Studies in Intelligence. 49 (1). ISSN 1527-0874. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007.