Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 19
Commercial
Espionage
ESPIONAGE, COMMONLY KNOWN AS SPYING, dates back to pre-
history. Ever since the first primitive clans competed against one
another for survival and primacy in the ancient world, the value of collected
intelligence has been recognized as having supreme importance. Before
Moses led the Israelites into the land of Canaan over 3,000 years ago, he
sent out 12 spies to scout the land and the opposition. More than 2,000
years ago, the Chinese warrior Sun Tzu penned The Art of War. In it, he dis-
cusses every aspect of preparedness for a successful military campaign:
when to fight and when to withdraw, how to choose terrain to your advan-
tage, how to lead, and how to feint. The work, still relevant after more than
two millennia, values one thing above all else: intelligence, or information
gathered from spies. In Chapter XIII, “The Use of Spies,” Sun Tzu says:
Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and con-
quer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge. Now
this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained induc-
tively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation. Knowledge of the enemy's
dispositions can only be obtained from other men.
Spies, he notes in paragraph 14, have a value beyond all others and war-
rant special treatment:
Hence it is that which none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be
maintained than with spies. None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other
business should greater secrecy be preserved.
231
Search WWH ::




Custom Search