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The Stasi "romeo" network was the brainchild of Markus Wolf, the former head of East Germany's foreign intelligence service. "When it began," he writes in his autobiography, "I had no idea of the harvest it would bring." Early on in the cold war, the Russian KGB had perfected the art of sexual blackmail - usually one-off assignations with targeted foreign embassy staff in Moscow. But the Stasi operation was more extensive, with agents assigned to develop long-term relationships with their sources. Women were the principal targets - often secretaries in Bonn's many ministries and other government offices. Wolf believed that just one of these well-placed women could prove infinitely more valuable to the Stasi than five or even 10 male diplomats. They knew everything, and were often also responsible for their bosses' private correspondence.
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