mole; dressage

[Garson O'Toole]

Below is a snippet in which "mole" is used to describe Mark Whitacre.
I do not think Whitacre was planted in ADM by the FBI. I also do not
think he was actively recruited by the FBI after he joined ADM. (But I
am not sure about this. I did not follow this case carefully.)

Management and organizational behavior
Curtis W. Cook, Phillip L. Hunsaker, Robert E. Coffey - 1997 - 642
pages - Snippet view
Bothered by the apparent price-fixing implications of how ADM
conducted business, Mark Whitacre became a mole for the FBI, later
blowing the whistle on ADM. Embittered by the experience, he told
Fortune: For 2 1/2 years I worked ...

Whitacre may have simply volunteered to give information to the FBI
because he was unhappy with some activities at ADM and viewed himself
as a whistleblower. It is possible that the individual at Fox News
held an analogous view of himself as a whistleblower. So this example
might be evidence of "mole" being used with a meaning similar to that
identified by Jon. To complete the analogy Gawker would be viewed as
an "enemy" or "adversary" of Fox News.


Below is an example of a "mole" who was not deliberately planted in
advance. Instead, Boesky was recruited with legal pressure. But one
might say Boesky was "planted" when he started to cooperate with the
Feds.

New York Magazine - Dec 4, 1989 - Page 54
Vol. 22, No. 48 - 240 pages - Magazine - Full view
When the Feds told Boesky they'd go easy on him if he became a mole,
he started telling them everything he could think of about Drexel, the
firm whose deals had made him rich. Last December, Drexel caved in to
threats of a racketeering


Below are two "moles" that I do not think were deliberately planted by
the Soviets. (Admittedly, my memory is hazy about these events.) I
think they volunteered information to the Soviets to gain money and
maybe experience excitement.

The Ghost War
Alex Berenson - 2009 - 561 pages - Google eBook - Preview
Both Ames and Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent who became a mole in the
mid-1980s, worked with impunity until their Soviet handlers betrayed
them—and Ames and Hanssen had been far less cautious than ...

Garson

On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 10:38 PM, Dave Hause <dwhause at jobe.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at JOBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: mole; dressage
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Most anything on the intelligence community would use this definition.
> "Kim" Philby is probably one of the classic examples.
> Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
> Waynesville, MO 65583
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Goncharoff" <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2012 8:40 PM
> Subject: Re: mole; dressage
>
>
> Where does your definition of "mole" come from. Most "moles" in literature
> have been agents of one side turned by the other. Planting a "mole" takes
> decades; turning an agent can just be a question of money.
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 12:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      mole; dressage
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> A disgruntled former Fox News employee has been revealing hideous network
>> secrets on the Net. The media call him a "mole":
>>
>>  http://news.yahoo.com/fox-news-digs-mole-suspends-him-022042144.html
>>
>> A "mole," however, is a spy planted by the enemy.  In this case, there is
>> no enemy. The word they want is "turncoat" or "rat" or, for those of a
>> certain age, "fink."
>>
>> The same article tells how Gov. Romney inadvertently broke a verbal taboo
>> opening him to further ridicule.  The "mole" exposed him.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>
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