LIST 25

10 CIA Front Companies

1. Gibraltar Steamship Company

Used to cover activities related to the Bay of Pigs invasion.

2. Air America

Supposedly a civilian air service whose planes were allowed to buzz all over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, this was a huge CIA operation that shuttled spooks, military brass, arms, drugs, and other people and contraband.

3. Brewster Jennings & Associates

CIA operative Valerie Plame—whose cover was blown by two senior Bush Administration officials and conservative columnist Robert Novak—listed this nonexistent company on a public form. Its address is supposedly 101 Arch Street, Boston, Massachusetts, even though the office tower there has no such tenant. The Boston Globe reports:

A spokeswoman for Dun & Bradstreet Inc., a New Jersey operator of commercial databases, said Brewster Jennings was first entered into its records on May 22, 1994, but wouldn't discuss the source of the filing. Its records list the company at 101 Arch St. as a “legal services office,” which could mean a law firm, with annual sales of $60,000, one employee, and a chief executive identified as “Victor Brewster, Partner.” That person isn't listed elsewhere.

4. Aroundworld Shipping, Inc.

This and the following companies were created for gun-running by Edwin Wilson, a former CIA officer who supposedly was kicked out of the Agency and then supplied arms to Libya.

5. Consultants International, Inc.

6. Delex International Corporations

7. Egyptian-American Transport Service Company

8. Inter-Technology, Inc.

9. Scientific Communications, Inc.

10. Systems Services International

Note: Some legitimate companies may also be using these names, so don't assume that any company with one of the names is a spook operation.