A person deliberately put in the path of a foreign intelligence service to be recruited, so that they can then work as a double agent for their own country.
The CIA glossary uses the term dangle: a person deliberately made accessible to a foreign service in the hope that it will recruit them, so that they can then work as a double agent for their own country. The International Spy Museum adds that such an operation can serve both to gather information and to spread disinformation.1,2
The fear of a dangle shapes how services treat volunteers. According to B. G. Royden’s article in Studies in Intelligence, CIA headquarters for a long time did not respond to the attempts of the Soviet engineer Adolf Tolkachev to make contact in 1977, because it suspected a KGB provocation; Tolkachev later proved to be one of the CIA’s most valuable sources in the USSR.3
Sources
- CIA, Spy Speak Glossary
- International Spy Museum (Washington, DC), Language of Espionage (glossary)
- Barry G. Royden, ‘Studies in Intelligence’ 47 (3), 2003 (CIA), Tolkachev, A Worthy Successor to Penkovsky: An Exceptional Espionage Operation
Checked: 4 November 2026