An Agent Provocateur (Fr. n. provocative agent) is a specialist in infiltration and an expert in the strategic inciting of violence for an ends to a means.  Typically an agent provocateur is employed by law enforcement agencies to infiltrate political extremist groups and to provoke them into committing illegal actions.  They are trained to incite violence to provoke a response from the authorities, this response will then in effect serve to disrupt the group.

The agent provocateur is a secret weapon and is often used in conjunction with false flag operations and other deceptions that the government utilise to gain the upper hand in any given situation.  Agent provocateurs are very hard to detect once deployed in the field, as they blend in perfectly with the group and indulge in the same activities.

They are not classed as spies though, as spies usually gather intelligence and report back  to the base, whilst the agent provocateur provokes a response from  the base.  The response will always be a violent one too, destined to smash the groups infrastructure and render it as inoperable as possible.

An agent provocateur will generally be an undercover police officer, an FBI or CIA special agent or military elite special forces and authorized covert personnel.  They will infiltrate a specific group of extremists, such as but not limited to: protesters, workforce strikers, football hooligans, right wing political organizations or even terrorist cells.  When they are successfully installed, they then presume to incite criminal actions with their suspects.

Evidence can then be obtained first hand or a crime can be encouraged with entrapment to get the suspect to incriminate himself and eventually be convicted of the crime.  It is all cleverly carried out by the agent provocateur, all in the best interests of the authorities who sent him in.

Political opponents in government campaigns can also be on the receiving end of an agent provocateurs covert operation, usually to get them to invalidate themselves.  They would invalidate or distain themselves in some manner that the agent provocateur instigates with them. An agent provocateur is definitely consigned to the dirty tricks department and is very ungentlemanly and underhand in all that he does...expressly and specifically stitching someone up for the final back stab.

Agent provocateurs are therefore excellent for abrogation, extirpation, subversion, disruption and the close inspection of the enemy at hand.  The use of an agent provocateur does have a lot of ethical issues associated with it though, due to the obvious underhand tactics that are often illegally employed.

The agent provocateur is obliged to get involved in heavy duty criminal activities...to a certain degree.  This may involve him infiltrating a group of protesters for example and then to throw bricks, bottles and other missiles at the police to incite them to attack the protesters.  The agent provocateur could be deemed by law to have committed common assault even though it was technically his job  to do so.

Attacking or sticking the boot in  on a police officer is a serious crime whichever way you look at it, especially from the police officers point of view!  The agent provocateur may be so deeply undercover though, as even the front line police officers are unaware of his presence.

Entrapment is a legal concept that the suspect who is setup by the agent provocateur could use for legal leverage in a court of law to get off with the charges. So it is imperative that the agent provocateur persuades the target to commit the crimes with as much guile and as little encouragement as possible.

An agent provocateur is therefore a highly trained individual and truly quite an expert in his field of operations.  He must have an acute understanding of human psychology and to be able to play  the group or individual with his charms and persuasion.

EXAMPLES OF PROVOKED RESPONCE

The Soviet State Political Directorate OGPU utilized agent provocateurs in the Trust Operation during 1921-1926 when they set up a bogus anti Bolshevik underground movement called the Monarchist Union of Central Russia.

The agent provocateurs mission was to coerce two spies; Boris Savinkov and ace of spies  Sidney Reilly into the heart of Bolshevik Russia with a view to overthrow Lenin.  They indeed went to Russia, Boris first and some time later Reilly, they were both captured and were consequently executed.

Ace of Spies: Sydney George Reilly 1874 - 1925

Sydney George Reilly lead such an interesting life as a spy, that it is worth mentioning a little more about him here...

Reilly was not an agent provocateur as such, his time was spent as a spy in deep undercover work, gathering intelligence and duping the enemy.  Amongst Reilly's exploits, were to disguise himself as a Russian arms merchant during the Second Boer War, this so that he could spy on Dutch arms trafficking to the Boers.  This information helped to build a better picture of their strengths and capabilities.

In the so called D'Arcy Affair, Reilly procured important Persian oil concessions for the British Admiralty.  Without Reilly's influences this would not have come about and much needed oil for Britain's war effort would have been lost.

Reilly once made himself out to be  large timber company owner to gather intelligence about the Russian military presence in Port Arthur, Manchuria.  During this time Reilly was working with the notorious and exceedingly dangerous Japanese secret police...the Kempeitai.  The Japanese were actually one of Britain's allies at that time and Reilly helped them by supplying shipping information about Russian ship movements.