Sleeper agent

A sleeper agent is a spy or operative who is placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but instead to act as a potential asset on short notice if activated in the future.{{citation needed lead|date=November 2020}} Even if not activated, the "sleeper agent" is still an asset and can still play an active role in sabotage, sedition, espionage, or possibly treason (if enlisted to act against their own country), by virtue of agreeing to act if activated.{{citation needed lead|date=November 2020}} A team of sleeper agents may be referred to as a sleeper cell, possibly working with others in a clandestine cell system.{{citation needed lead|date=November 2020}}

Description

In espionage, a sleeper agent is one that has infiltrated a target country and "gone to sleep", sometimes for many years, making no attempt to communicate with the sponsor or their agents (or to obtain information beyond what is public{{dubious discuss|date=May 2025}})—then becoming active upon receiving a pre-arranged signal from the sponsor or a fellow agent.{{says who|date=May 2025}}

Documented examples

=Real world=

Jack Barsky was planted as a sleeper agent in the United States by the Soviet KGB. He was an active sleeper agent between 1978 and 1988. He was located by US authorities in 1994 and then arrested in 1997. Barsky quickly confessed after being arrested and became a useful source of information about spy techniques.{{cite news |

author = Wheeler, Brian | date = 23 February 2017 | title = Jack Barsky: The KGB Spy Who Lived the American Dream | work = BBC.com | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38846022| access-date = 21 May 2025}}

=Fictional=

Sleeper agents are popular plot devices in fiction, particularly in espionage fiction and science fiction.{{cn|date=May 2025}} This common use is directly related to and results from repeated instances of real-life "sleeper agents" participating in spying, espionage, sedition, treason, and assassinations.{{cn|date=May 2025}} Moreover, in fictional portrayals, sleeper agents are sometimes unaware that they are sleepers—they might be brainwashed, hypnotized, or otherwise conditioned to be unaware of their secret mission until activated.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

==Books and films==

Gustaf Skördeman's 2020 book Geiger shows a sleeper agent being activated in Sweden during the Cold War.{{Cite web |author = Anon. | date=2024-04-25 | title=Geiger | work = Goodreads.com | url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51483947-geiger |access-date=2024-04-25 | language=en}}{{better source|date=May 2025}}{{better source|date=May 2025}}