covert communications (COVCOM) An agent’s spy gear for communicating with his case officer. It may include secret writing, radio, microdot, or other means of secret communication.
cryptonym A false name used in official correspondence to hide the real identity of the agent, officer, or operation.
dead drop A concealed location used as a communications cutout between an agent and a courier, case officer, or other agent in the network.
deception Measures designed to mislead a foreign power, organization, or persons by manipulation, distortion, or falsification of evidence to induce them to react in a manner prejudicial to their interests.
defector A disaffected individual who renounces his citizenship and requests political asylum from another government. Generally, it is assumed the defector has some intelligence value regarding the country or activities of the country that he seeks to leave. Many defectors are persuaded to delay their departure in order to work in place.
denied area Intelligence jargon for countries considered hostile to the U.S. government and which have consequently mounted huge counterintelligence efforts against CIA personnel stationed on their soil. In other words, they denied us the ability to work safely in their countries. During the Cold War, this term was used for our operations against the Soviet Union and East Bloc, China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba.
Deputy Chief of Station (DCOS) Second in command to the COS.
Deputy Director for Administration (DDA) One of the four CIA directorates, responsible for administrative matters.
Deputy Director for Intelligence (DDI) One of the four CIA Directorates, responsible for the production of all-source analysis for the U.S. government.
Deputy Director for Operations (DDO) One of the four chiefs of the CIA directorates, the DDO is in charge of the espionage directorate, and is the chief spymaster for the United States government.
Deputy Director for Science and Technology (DDS&T) The fourth CIA directorate, responsible for all high-tech development and work. This directorate was also reorganized in 2001.
Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) The president’s personal head of the intelligence community.
disinformation Any information fabricated or distorted by one government on a non-attributable or falsely attributable basis for the purpose of influencing the actions of one or more government organizations.
double agent Also known as a controlled foreign agent; an agent who is recruited to work against his original service or community, either through coercion, disaffection, or defection.
espionage Intelligence activity directed toward the acquisition of information through clandestine means and proscribed by the laws of the country against which it is committed.
executive orders Directives issued by the president of the United States that spell out the parameters of a certain type of action.
exfiltration The removal of an agent or officer to safety.
fabricator/fabrication An agent who furnishes false information for financial gain.
false flag The use of a third country’s nationality to effect the recruitment of an agent so they do not know an activity’s true country of origin.
flap The political uproar over an operation that has become public.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) The CIA arm responsible for receiving and interpreting the overt broadcast literature coming from all over the world.
foreign intelligence Information relating to the capabilities, intentions, and activities of foreign powers, organizations, or persons.
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSI) The House of Representatives’ intelligence oversight committee.
HUMINT Intelligence coming from a human source.
Illegal A deep-covered officer or agent in a foreign country who is usually, but not always, working independently of the local resident intelligence service. He may have a third country nationality, but the country that employs him will not acknowledge him.
IMINT Imagery intelligence, the product from photography by agents or satellites.
intelligence Both a product and a process; it can be as simple as knowledge of something. It is the product resulting from the collection and processing of information concerning actual or potential situations and conditions pertaining to foreign and domestic situations. Intelligence is generally, but not always, acquired clandestinely and is generally information the enemy wishes to keep secret and information that the original source does not wish you to have.
liaison General term applied to formal relationships established with other countries’ intelligence services.
mole A literary and media term for a penetration agent infiltrated into an opposition intelligence service or other opposition government agency.
need-to-know The most basic element of security: unless someone has an official need to know classified information, they are not to receive it.
non-official cover A cover other than that of an official government organization, such as private business.
officer in residence (OIR) A CIA officer serving overtly in an official academic position for the purpose of teaching intelligence-related subjects.
overt A known public ally used as an intelligence officer.
penetration The recruitment of agents within or the infiltration of agents into a foreign organization for the purpose of collecting intelligence against that country or to influence its actions.
permanent change of station (PCS) Government terminology for movement from one official post to another.
persona non grata (PNG) The official designation that an official of a foreign country is to leave a host country, generally for reasons incompatible with their diplomatic standing; being thrown out.
President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) An officially appointed blue-ribbon panel of experts from all walks of life that advises the president on intelligence matters.
recruitment The tradecraft process of enlisting a target individual to work for an intelligence service—in most cases against his own country. The process includes spotting, assessing, developing, and recruitment. Motivation may be ideological, financial, or other, such as revenge.
running an agent (or handling an agent) Spy terminology for the process of meeting with the recruited agent (spy). It involves all aspects of spying, such as teaching the agent how to communicate with secret writing or microdots; teaching the agent how to avoid detection; guiding the agent on what secrets to steal and how; paying the agent; how to meet safely and securely. All done under CLANDESTINE circumstances.
safehouse A sterile location, normally a house or apartment—but could be a hotel room as well—used to meet agents securely.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) The U.S. Senate’s intelligence oversight committee.
Senior Intelligence Service (SIS) The CIA’s equivalent of the government’s senior executive service—a cadre of top CIA intelligence business executives.
SIGINT Signals intelligence, the interception of communications for intelligence purposes.
sources and methods The basis for the security classification of intelligence, that is, by how and with whom you do your espionage. It refers generally to the names of agents and organizational specifics on how the intelligence is acquired.
station Designation of the official location of the CIA’s main operating components overseas.
support agent An agent recruited to do support work, such as finding and living in safehouses, serving as a courier, or any of the other activities required to support a spy in place. In many cases, this support agent is a local citizen of the country in which the CIA operates.
surveillance The tradecraft of undetected observation. Surveillance can be physical, electronic, or acoustic. It may include audio or photographic observation and includes mail opening.
surveillance detection route (SDR) A detailed and pre-planned route an agent or case officer takes en route to and from a clandestine meeti
ng or activity. It may involve countersurveillance, and may include photographic countersurveillance.
temporary duty (TDY) Official government terminology that someone is only temporarily in a location for a specific time and specific reason.
tradecraft The art, methodology, and know-how of conducting clandestine operations and intelligence collection techniques. Includes such things as dead drops, covert communications, how to recruit agents, secret writing and photography, surveillance, and surveillance detection.
turnover The official changing of an agent from one case officer to the other—i.e., turning him over to another.
walk-in Someone who has something to offer or sell to the intelligence service he is approaching: a volunteer spy.
RECOMMENDED READING
For those who may be interested in additional readings on the subject of intelligence, intelligence and foreign policy, and terrorism, I have compiled a recommended bibliography, which I have culled from hundreds of books in preparing my courses on intelligence. I have broken it down into categories that I hope are useful in selecting readings.
Intelligence: Memoirs
Clarridge, Duane R., with Digby Diehl. A Spy for All Seasons: My Life in the CIA. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997.
Colby, William E., and Peter Forbath. Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978.
Gordievsky, Oleg. Next Stop: Execution. London: Macmillan, 1995.
Helms, Richard, with William Hood. A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency. New York: Random House, 2003.
Holm, Richard L. The American Agent: My Life in the CIA. London: St. Ermin’s Press, 2003.
Shevchenko, Arkady N. Breaking With Moscow. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Smith, Joseph B. Portrait of a Cold Warrior: Second Thoughts of a Top CIA Agent. New York: Ballentine Books, 1976.
Stevenson, William. A Man Called Intrepid: The Secret War. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.
Turner, Stansfield. Secrecy and Democracy: The CIA in Transition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
Wolf, Markus. Man Without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism’s Great Spymaster. New York: Random House, 1997.
Wright, Peter. Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer. New York: Viking Press, 1987.
Biography
Brand, Clare. The Man in the Mirror: A Life of Benedict Arnold. New York: Random House, 1994.
Brown, Anthony Cave. Treason in the Blood: H. St. John Philby, Kim Philby, and the Spy Case of the Century. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
Coulson, Major Thomas. Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy. New York: Harper Brothers, 1930.
Dawidoff, Nicholas. The Catcher Was A Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg. New York: Pantheon, 1994.
Deakin, F. W., and G. R. Storry. The Case of Richard Sorge. New York: Harper and Row, 1966.
Grose, Peter. Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
Hatch, Robert McConnell. Major John André: A Gallant in Spy’s Clothing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
Hood, William. Mole: The True Story of the First Russian Intelligence Officer Recruited by the CIA. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1982.
Korn, David. Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA’s Crusades. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Maas, Peter. Killer Spy: The Inside Story of the FBI’s Pursuit and Capture of Aldrich Ames, America’s Deadliest Spy. New York: Warner Books, 1995.
———. Wild Bill Donovan: The Last Hero. New York: Times Books, 1982.
Mangold, Tomas. Cold Warrior: James Jesus Angleton—The CIA’s Master Spy Hunter. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
Mitchell, Marcia and Thomas. The Spy Who Seduced America: The Judith Coplon Story. Montpelier, Vermont: Invisible Cities Press, 2002.
Persico, Joseph E. Casey: The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey—From the OSS to the CIA. New York: Viking Penguin Books, 1990.
———. Roosevelt’s Secret War. New York: Random House, 2001.
Tanenhaus, Sam. Whittaker Chambers. New York: Random House, 1997.
Thomas, Evan. The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
Weiner, Tim, David Johnson and Neil A. Lewis. Betrayal. The Story of Aldrich Ames—An American Spy. New York: Random House, 1995.
General History
Ambrose, Stephen E. Ike’s Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment. New York: Doubleday, 1981.
Andrew, Christopher. For the President’s Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Axelrod, Alan. The War Between the Spies: A History of Espionage During the American Civil War. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992.
Baer, Robert. See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism. New York: Crown Publishers, 2002.
Barron, John. Operation Solo: The FBI’s Man in the Kremlin. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1996.
Bearden, Milt, and James Risen. The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB. New York: Random House, 2003.
Bearse, Ray, and Anthony Read. Conspirator: The Untold Story of Tyler Kent. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
Berkowitz, Bruce D., and Allan E. Goodman. Strategic Intelligence for American National Security. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989.
———. Best Truth: Intelligence in the Information Age. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Breitman, Richard. Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998.
Breuer, William B. Shadow Warriors: The Covert War in Korea. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.
Carter, John J. Covert Operations as a Tool of Presidential Foreign Policy in American History from 1800 to 1920. Lewiston, Maine: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.
Cockburn, Andrew and Leslie. Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.–Israeli Covert Relationship. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Colby, William E., with James McCargar. Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of America’s Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam. Chicago: Contemporary Press, 1989.
Conboy, Kenneth, and James Morrison. Feet to the Fire: CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 1957–58. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999.
Crile, George. Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003.
DeForrest, Orrin, and David Chanoff. Slow Burn: The Rise and Bitter Fall of American Intelligence in Vietnam. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
Dulles, Allen. The Craft of Intelligence. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1992.
———, ed. Great True Spy Stories: 39 True Accounts from Greek Antiquity to the Cold War. Secaucus, N.J.: Castle, 1968.
Dvornik, Francis. Origins of Intelligence Services: The Ancient Near East, Persia, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Arab Muslim Empires, the Mongol Empire, China, Muscovy. N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1974.
Epstein, Edward Jay. Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Felix, Christopher. A Short Course in the Secret War. New York: Madison Books, 1992.
Fishel, Edwin C. The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
Frank, Richard B. Downfall: The End of the Japanese Imperial Empire. New York: Random House, 1999.
Gates, Robert. From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Gelfand, Lawrence E. The Inquiry: American Preparations for Peace—1917–19. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963. Reprinted. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1976.
Godson, Roy, Earnest R. May, and Gary Schmitt. U.S. Intelligence at the Crossroads: Agendas for Reform. Washi
ngton, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1995.
Gollomb, Joseph. Spies. New York: Macmillan, 1928.
Grant, Zalin. Facing the Phoenix: The CIA and the Political Defeat of the United States in Vietnam. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.
Gup, Ted. The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
Haswell, Jock. Spies and Spymasters: A Concise History of Intelligence. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977.
Herrington, Stuart A. Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix, A Personal Account. Novato, California: Presidio Press, 1997.
Hersch, Burton. The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1992.
Heuer, Richards J. Jr. Psychology of Intelligence Analysis. Washington D.C.: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1999.
Holober, Frank. Raiders of the China Coast: CIA Covert Operations During the Korean War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999.
Hulnick, Arthur S., and Richard R. Valcourt. Fixing the Spy Machine. Washington, D.C.: Praeger Publishers, 1999.
Jakub, Jay. Spies and Saboteurs: Anglo-American Collaboration and Rivalry in Human Intelligence Collection and Special Operations, 1940–45. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri and Andrew Lownie, eds. North American Spies. New Revisionist Essays. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1991.
Johnson, Loch K. America’s Secret Power: The CIA in a Democratic Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
———. A Season of Inquiry: The Senate Intelligence Investigation. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1985.
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