TO BE AN intelligence officer is to make sacrifices: to wear a mask, to deceive even those close to you, to persuade others to betray their countries. When answering the call of duty, some have to make greater sacrifices than others. In the early 1970s Yury Linov reported to a KGB clinic in Moscow, where he was circumcised. Mr Linov then headed for Israel, where he introduced himself as Karl-Bernd Motl, an Austrian Jew. The real Mr Motl was alive and well, living in East Germany. Mr Linov was a KGB “illegal”—an intelligence officer operating not only under a false name, but also a false nationality.