Espionage or rather those who partake in it do so for 4 major reasons:
1. Money (I would also include sex, drugs, or some mood alerting activity in this category)
2. Ideology
3. Coercion/Compromise
4. Ego
The recent Russian spies deported to Russia in a spy exchange appear to have committed espionage for love of Mother Russia - ideology.
It is too early to determine why the US Army Analyst, Bradley Manning, who is allegedly responsible for leaking 90,000 classified documents to Wikileaks.org, perpetrated such an act. Did he do so for the challenge of it (ego), did his allegiance to his country change (ideology) or was he pressured to collect and leak the documents (coercion/compromise). Only time will tell what investigators discover as to the origins of Manning's actions.
Wikileaks.org owner Julian Assange did not commit espionage in the classical sense he just disseminated the raw intelligence allegedly provided him by Manning. Assange's website's sole purpose is to be a destination for people to expose secrets. Assange's website can definitely be considered a tool to be used in a number of espionage operations such as propaganda and disinformation campaigns or to undermine the integrity of ongoing private or government initiatives.
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