The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

This was the code name of British Labour Party leader Michael Foot, who worked for the KGB on and off in the 1960s. Had he defeated Margaret Thatcher in the 1983 general election, he would have become prime minister of England.

This occurs when two people, often a spy and a handler, meet at a predetermined time and place to pass something like a message from one to the other. Pretending to be strangers, they “brush” by each other as they pass and surreptitiously hand over or drop into a pocket whatever is being transferred.

In spy lingo, this means low-level information that is real but not particularly useful or damaging. It’s often given to the enemy to prove that one is who one claims to be, and it can be a “good faith” gesture to indicate that one has access to (and can give) information that is more useful. For instance, an intelligence agent offering to spy for the enemy might provide a list of fellow agents already known to have been identified by the enemy.