Honey Trapping...cases from History....

Honey Trapping...the often investigative (and perhaps seductive) practice involving the use of romantic or sexual relationships for interpersonal, political, or monetary purpose.... In this story, I will note 3 such prominent cases from History.

1. One of the best-known honey traps in spy history involves Mata Hari, a Dutch woman who had spent some years as an erotic dancer in Java. During World War I, the French arrested her on charges of spying for the Germans, based on their discovery through intercepted telegrams that the German military attaché in Spain was sending her money. During the trial, Mata Hari defended herself vigorously, claiming that she was the attaché’s mistress and he was sending her gifts. But her arguments did not convince her judges. She died by firing squad on Oct. 15, 1917, refusing a blindfold!

2. Yevgeny Ivanov was a Soviet attaché in London in the early 1960s. He was a handsome, personable officer and a popular figure on the British diplomatic and social scene, a frequent guest at parties given by society osteopath Stephen Ward.

Stephen Ward was famous for inviting the pick of London’s beautiful young women to his gatherings. One of them was Christine Keeler, a scatterbrained ’60s “good-time girl” who supposedly became Ivanov’s mistress.

Keeler was the lover of the married British MP and Secretary of State for War John Profumo. The press soon exposed that in 1963, which effectively meant that Profumo's career was essentially over, as he was forced to resign because of lying to the House of Commons.

3. Here's a deadly honey trap, in-fact a homosexual and unfortunate one! Jeremy Wolfenden was the London Daily Telegraph‘s correspondent in Moscow in the early 1960s. He spoke Russian, and he was gay. Seizing its opportunity, the KGB ordered the Ministry of Foreign Trade’s barber to seduce him and put a man with a camera in Wolfenden’s closet to take compromising photos. Long story short, he was forced to spy on behalf of the KGB in the west.

However, he later informed it to the British embassy in Moscow, after which the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) instructed him to be a double agent and return information of the USSR to them and vice versa. The stress led Wolfenden into alcoholism.

He tried to end his career as a spy, marrying a British woman he had met in Moscow, arranging a transfer from Moscow to the Daily Telegraph‘s Washington bureau.

However, through extreme bad luck, his old SIS handler was in Washington, where Wolfenden was again pulled back into the association. On Dec. 28, 1965, at just the age of 31, he died, with the official cause of death being 'cerebral hemorrage.' Dodgy to say the least!