Not really. If they would not act criminally they would not need diplomatic cover. Most of the "spies" there are actually agent handlers, i.e. handling native a

Not really. If they would not act criminally they would not need diplomatic cover. Most of the "spies" there are actually agent handlers, i.e. handling native agents, infiltrating unions, press, police, army, government. Spying is mostly not passively writing reports of intelligence matters, it's mostly actively pursuing criminal acts. Writing wrong press articles, social media posts, paying natives to do something illegal, killing union folks, torturing students. The passive agents writing the innocent intelligence reports are usually not under diplomatic cover. They are under some commercial cover mostly. As with Israel also arts and students. There are tons of CIA books.