Excerpt From James Bamford's A New Style of Turncoat

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But the biggest change in espionage is in the motivation to commit the act in the first place. The multinational, globalized spy of 2008 is less tempted by money than by ideology and "divided loyalty" -- loyalty to both the U.S. and another country. "Spying for divided loyalties is the motive that demonstrates the most significant change of all motives since 1990," the study notes, "with 57% spying solely as a result of divided loyalties."

Among the most recent cases cited in the study was that of Lawrence Franklin, a South Asia specialist with a top-secret/sensitive compartmented information clearance who worked from 2002 to 2003in the Pentagon for Douglas Feith, one of the key neoconservative architects of the Iraq war. Franklin fit the profile of the 21st century spy. He was well-educated, earning a doctorate in Asian studies, and was uninterested in making money from spying. Instead, he represents a dangerous new type of spy -- someone who uses espionage to try to change U.S. foreign policy for his own purposes.

"In the 1990s, he developed a strong disagreement with the trend of American foreign policy toward Iran," says the study. "Starting in April 1999 and continuing until August 2004, Franklin tried to manipulate foreign policy by sharing classified information with various Israeli contacts, including Naor Gilon, the political officer in the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and two lobbyists for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman." Both Franklin, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison, and the Israeli lobbyists, who are awaiting trial, wanted the U.S. to adopt a much more aggressive policy toward Iran. To help accomplish this, the two senior AIPAC officials allegedly hoped to turn Franklin, who had taken up Israel's cause after spending some time in the country, into an Israeli agent-of-influence by placing him "by the elbow of the president" in the National Security Council, according to an FBI wiretap.

And that was also what Franklin wanted. According to the report, "his self-importance, taking American foreign policy into his own hands by leaking classified information to the Israelis in hopes they, in turn, would influence the NSC, was bolstered by other motives, including his ambition to get a job with the NSC."

When spies attempt to secretly manipulate U.S. foreign policy to benefit another nation in the most dangerous part of the world, the Middle East, actions that could easily trigger a nuclear war, the old days of dead drops and microdots don't seem so bad.

James Bamford is the author of two books on the National Security Agency, "The Puzzle Palace" and "Body of Secrets." His most recent book is "A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies."