Sleeper cells are groups of covert operatives who are staying in a target country as regular citizens. They do not have any active or assigned mission. They live a normal life and work in regular jobs. They hide in plain sight until they are activated. In other words, they are sleeping until they “wake up” and hence the term sleeper cells. Most operatives are not even aware of each other until they are activated.
Many countries install sleeper cells in other countries. Their history dates back to before World War 2. They were meant to serve the parent nation’s requirements of counter insurgency. However, over time, different countries have been figuring out different ways of indirectly using these cells. Among the most used activities are assassinations and terrorism.
More recent times have seen quite an evolution of these sleeper cells. These include sharing of operatives across friendly countries. Some agents work as single operatives while some in teams. They also work on recruiting other potential operatives, many times locals to their teams. They are tightly controlled by their controllers, and use different ways of communication to avoid detection. Only a small group, if any, is aware of each other to avoid detection and loss of operatives.
Many terror organizations such as the Al-Qaeda also use these cells. Organizations such as Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda often come together to help each other which has always been an additional concern.
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