Spies, Lies and Secret Codes
Juan Pujol Garcia, alias "Garbo"
Garbo was Britain's top secret agent in the Second World War. His real name was Juan Pujol Garcia and he was from Barcelona, in Spain. He was strongly opposed to fascism and Nazism. He decided to help Britain to fight Nazi Germany and started working for MI5 in 1941. He was given the codename Garbo to keep his identity secret. He became a double agent, working for both the Germans and the British.
A double agent is someone who pretends to work for one side, but really works for the other side. During the Second World War, MI5 used many double agents to fool the Germans about what the Allies were doing. The Germans believed that the agents were working only for them and were sending them true and useful information. In fact, the agents were really working for the British. They were sending the Germans false and misleading information. This tricked the Germans into doing the wrong things, like sending soldiers to places where they weren't needed.
How a double agent works
A double agent is first given false information by the friendly side. He then passes that information on to the enemy, who think that he is working for them. If the enemy believes the double agent, the false information will be passed on to the enemy leadership. They will now have a false picture of what the friendly side is doing and may make bad decisions as a result.
The enemy then passes instructions back to the double agent. This will often give the friendly side a good idea of what the enemy is interested in. The double agent passes this information to the friendly side, and the whole cycle then repeats itself.
