Bothan Spynet

[Azaria]

Organization and role

This intelligence agency operated as an underground system that bought and sold information.[1] The Spynet worked to gather information from a wide variety of sources from agents, moles, surveillance and numerous other methods. It was claimed that any secret was capable of being discovered by the Bothan Spynet who would use it to find a way of gaining profit from the information. In terms of organization, it consisted of many clan groups that operated with relative autonomy. However, the nature of Bothan society meant that suspicion led to none of these groups actually trusting one another.[2]

Bothan Facilitator-BotF
An undercover Bothan agent
Not all agents of the Spynet were Bothans as the species found it a wise move to recruit members of other races into their ranks. This was because of the Bothan's negative reputation in certain parts of the galaxy. Such a reputation made cooperation and their covert operations difficult to accomplish which was why members of a native species were able to move where a Bothan could not. However, the loyalty of such agents was never guaranteed which was why the Spynet resorted to such acts as blackmail of unruly agents into ensuring their cooperation. Though not proud of such measures, they ensured the success of an operation but the truth of these unscrupulous practices were kept hidden.[2]

The Spynet operated agents and bases on many worlds where they maintained "op-fronts". These were businesses, homes, and other hideouts that were sites from where their intelligence operations were conducted. The majority of these op-fronts were legitimate establishments such as cantinas, factories, shipping concerns and warehouses. From these locations, operatives coordinated various activities that ranged from monitoring local newsnets for leads to slicing computers of local government or industrial networks. Many of these op-fronts helped transfer information and operatives across the web of the spynet.[2]

Dedicated bases and safehouses were maintained by the Bothan Spynet for its agents. As secrecy was important, most of these bases were stand-alone facilities that were concealed in small bunkers or even cleverly disguised as geological features. In some cases, they were masked as farms or sections of unused power generators. Rumors even spoke of the Bothans maintaining several mobile bases in the form of tramp and bulk freighters that moved across the space lanes.[2]

Being an espionage body, the operations of the Spynet at times led it to allying with criminal organizations, Imperials, Hutts and other unsavory groups in order to achieve their secret objectives. The Bothans labored hard to maintain the Spynet's integrity though this was partly compromised by enemy agents, moles, rival clans or factions that spy on one another. Counter-spies were thus able to gain access to a vast sum of information that they were able to pass to interested parties without Bothan operators being aware of this act.[2]