potential spies

anono   Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:00 am GMT
What does "potential spies"mean? Can we use "potential" to describe "spies" (someone whose job is to find out secret informaiton about another country, organization, or group.)?
Uriel   Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:36 am GMT
What is your question? What "potential" means?
Guest   Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:43 pm GMT
Potential spies: the possibility that such people are capable of carrying out espionage acitivities.

e.g.
"There are about 300000 Chinese visitors annually and 15000 delegations touring the U.S. every year." Many of these people are potential spies, "

http://lists.jammed.com/ISN/2005/07/0064.html
Robin   Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:30 am GMT
There used to be an expression: 'Sleepers'.

People planted in foreign counties, that could be used as spies at some future date.