Is this just a cover?

They report that old spies are gone, but are they really? Maybe this is just a clever ruse. Hmmm.

Soviet spy, military analyst and Kremlin adviser Vitaly Shlykov has died. He is best known for the espionage charge that landed him in a Swiss prison, i.e. tracking British warships during the Falklands War.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8913985/Vitaly-Sh...

It does seem that if they survive their chosen profession they manage to live a long, long time.

British Cold War gentleman spy Peter Lunn has died at the age of 97. Of his activities that we know of, he came up with the idea of tunneling under Soviet zones to facilitate wire tapping. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-ob...

We, on the western side of the Iron Curtain, didn't often hear good things about Soviet spies. Soviet spy Gevork Vartanyan has passed away at the age of 87. He's best known in the west for helping thwart a Nazi plot to assasinate Churchill, Stalin & Roosevelt at the Tehran Conference in 1943. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9008287/Gevork-Vartanyan.html

What a life! Israeli spies Zvi Aharoni and Yaakov Meidad recently died within a month of each other. They were responsible for kidnapping Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and bringing him back to Israel for trial. Aharoni wrote a book about it called Operation Eichmann http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-ob...

Very interesting links, thanks varielle.

American spy Edwin Wilson served time for running weapons and explosives to Libya in the years before the Lockerbie bombing. He claimed the government knew what he was doing and that he was left out to dry. His story is told in Trail of the Octopus. Mr. Wilson died September 10. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/9574988/Edwin-Wil...

Jeanne Vertefeuille, the C.I.A. operative who rose from the typing pool to catch the double agent Aldrich Ames, died on December 29 at the age of 80. Read Circle of Treason for more details. I mentioned this over in the Written in Stone group, but the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., has a great presentation on how the vastly underestimated Miss Vertefeuille caught up to Ames.

Zane Todd has died at 89. He was the post-war special agent in Vienna who inspired The Third Man. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10452729/Zane-Todd-Obituary.html

Famed mole hunter Chapman Pincher has died at the age of 100. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11016167/Chapman-Pincher-obituary.htm...

Israeli agent Michael Harari has died. He led the revenge raid after the death of the Israeli Olympians at Munich and has been compared to James Bond. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/world/middleeast/michael-harari-israeli-agent-...

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. David Chavchavadze was a descendant of Czar Nicholas I, and served as a spy during the Cold War with the CIA. His memoir is Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11219248/Prince-David-Chavchavadze-ob...

Considering the present state of affairs between Sweden and Russia this is interesting. Cold War spy Stig Bergling has died. He spied for the Soviets, escaped prison and went on the lam for a number of years before finally returning to surrender because he was homesick. It appears he also wrote a book Aldrig mera fri. If someone could help translate the title, I think it's Never Free or something of that nature. http://www.juno-news.com/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/the_associated_pr...

I read the title as 'No longer free' or 'Free no more'.

Former OSS operative Elizabeth P. McIntosh aka Elizabeth P. Heppner died June 8 at the age of 100. A journalist and fluent in Japanese she joined the OSS in 1943, planting false intelligence, smuggling bombs disguised as lumps of coal to operatives, generating propaganda and providing misinformation through a radio fortune teller who was popular with Japanese troops. She wrote a number of books The Role of Women in Intelligence, Undercover Girl, Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS and several children's books Inky and Palace Under the Sea. What a gal. Check out her obit from the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/elizabeth-mcintosh-spy-whose-lies-helped-...

Super spook Duane R. Clarridge died April 9 at the age of 83. He wrote A Spy for All Seasons: My Life in the CIA. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/11/us/duane-r-clarridge-brash-spy-who-fought-terr...

Physicist, spy and noted East German defector, Werner Stiller died December 20, 2016 at the age of 69. He wrote Beyond the Wall: Memoirs of an East and west German Spy. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/werner-stiller-east-german-spy-and-defector...

One of the most celebrated spies of WWII, Jeannie Rousseau de Clarens died August 25 at the age of 98. She uncovered the information on Hitler's V-1 and V-2 programs and unfortunately spent time in three concentration camps after her capture. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-diminutive-woman--and-a-spy-who-define...

Cross-posted from the Literary Cemetery. Retired CIA agent and founder of one of the coolest places ever, the International Spy Museum, Peter Earnest died February 13 at the age of 88. His books include Business Confidential, Harry Potter and the Art of Spying, and The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming a Spy.