Type of intelligence produced by spies in mischievous airlift (10)
I believe the answer is:
artificial
'type of intelligence produced' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'spies in mischievous airlift' is the wordplay.
'spies' becomes 'cia'.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'mischievous' is an anagram indicator.
'airlift' anagrammed gives 'artifil'.
'cia' inserted inside 'artifil' is 'ARTIFICIAL'.
'by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for artificial that I've seen before include "Assumed" , "Kiss of life" , "Bogus" , "Contrived, false" .)