Abwehr—The German intelligence service from the 1920s until 1944.
Action officer—The case officer designated to perform an operational act during a clandestine operation especially in a hostile area.
Agent—A person, usually a foreign national, who has been recruited by a staff officer from an intelligence service to perform clandestine missions.
Agent-in-place—An agent serving as a penetration into an intelligence target.
Air America—A CIA proprietary company that provided air support during the secret war in Laos. It has since been sold.
Artist/Validator—An artist trained in forgery working for the CIA’s Technical Service.
ARVN—The army of the Republic of South Vietnam.
Asset—A clandestine source or method, usually an agent.
Audio surveillance operation—A clandestine eavesdropping procedure, usually with electronic devices.
Bang and burn—Demolition and sabotage operations.
Black operations—Clandestine or covert operations not attributable to the organization carrying them out.
BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst)—The West German foreign intelligence service established in 1956.
Bona fides—An operative’s true identity, affiliation, or intentions. His authenticity.
Bridge agent—An agent who acts as a courier or go-between from a case officer to an agent in a denied area.
Brush pass—A brief encounter where something is passed between case officer and agent.
Burned—When a case officer or agent is compromised.
Cachet—An official mark or wet seal impression made on a document, usually with a rubber stamp or carved seal.
Camp Swampy—A euphemism for the CIA’s secret domestic training base, also known as the Farm.
Case officer—A staff officer who runs operations.
Center (Moscow)—KGB headquarters in Moscow.
CHAOS—An ill-advised surveillance operation run by the FBI and the CIA. U.S. antiwar movements during the Vietnam era were suspected of being Communist-inspired.
Cheka—Russian secret police founded in 1917 to serve the Bolshevik party; one of the many forerunners of the KGB.
Chief of Station (COS)—The officer in charge at a CIA station, usually in a foreign capital.
Chieu Hoi—The “Open Arms” rallier program in Indochina used to encourage Communist troops to defect.
Chops—Cachets carved in wood or soapstone.
Cipher—A code wherein numbers or letters are systematically substituted for open text.
Clandestine operation—An intelligence operation designed to remain secret as long as possible.
Clandestine Service(s)—The operational arm of the CIA responsible for classic espionage operations, usually with human assets. Also known as the Directorate of Operations (DO), formerly the Directorate of Plans (DP).
CLOAK—A sensitive disguise and deception illusionary technique first deployed by the CIA in Moscow during the mid 1970s.
Code—A system used to obscure a message by use of a cipher or by using a mark, symbol, sound, or any innocuous verse or piece of music. (Two lanterns in the church tower…)
COMINT—Communications intelligence, usually gathered by technical interception and code breaking but also by use of human agents and surreptitious entry.
Commo plan—The various secret communications methods employed with a particular agent.
Compromised—When an operation, asset, or agent is uncovered and cannot remain secret.
Concealment device—Any one of a variety of devices used to secretly store and transport materials relating to an operation.
Controller—Often used interchangeably with handler but usually means a hostile force is involved, i.e., the agent has come under control of the opposition.
Covert Action (CA) operation—An operation kept secret for a finite period of time. Also when the real source remains secret because the operation is attributed to another service.
Cut-out—A mechanism or person used to create a compartment between the members of an operation but allow them to pass material or messages securely.
DAGGER—A sophisticated disguise first used in the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
DCI—The Director of Central Intelligence.
DDO—The Deputy Director of Operations of the CIA, the head of all HUMINT operations, formerly the DDP.
DDP—The Deputy Director of Plans (see DDO).
DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik)—Communist East Germany.
Dead drop—A secret location where materials can be left in a “concealment” for another party to retrieve. This eliminates the need for personal contact in hostile situations.
Dead telephone—A signal or code passed with the telephone without speaking.
Defector—A person of intelligence value who volunteers to work for another intelligence service. The person may be requesting asylum or can remain in place.
DGI (Dirección General de Inteligencia)—Cuban intelligence service.
DIRECTOR—The cable address of CIA Headquarters.
DIRTECH—The Headquarters cable address of the Office of Technical Service.
DMZ—Demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam.
Double agent—An agent who has come under the control of another intelligence service and is being used against his original handlers.
Dzerzhinsky Square—Historic site of Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, longtime headquarters of the Soviet security organs including the NKVD and KGB.
EEI (Essential Elements of Information)—An outline to be used for collecting intelligence on a particular topic.
ELINT—Electronic intelligence usually collected by technical interception such as telemetry from a rocket launch collected at a distance.
Escort—The operations officer assigned to lead a defector along an exfiltration route.
EXCOM—The Executive Committee of the CIA made up of the deputy directors and chaired by the Executive Director.
Exfiltration operation—A clandestine rescue operation designed to bring a defector, refugee, or an operative and his or her family out of harm’s way.
Expats—Expatriates taking up residence in another land and helping to define its culture.
Family Jewels—The list of “Questionable Activities” that came to light during the Senate investigations of the CIA during the 1970s.
FINESSE—Sensitive disguise developed by the CIA using a Hollywood consultant and contractors.
First Chief Directorate—The foreign intelligence arm of the KGB.
Flaps and Seals—The tradecraft involved when making surreptitious openings and closings of envelopes, seals, and secure pouches.
FLASH—The highest precedence for CIA cable communications.
Foots—Members of a surveillance team who are working on foot.
FSB—Internal security service in Russia, successor to the KGB’s Second Chief Directorate (counterintelligence).
GAMBIT—A disguise technique first deployed by the CIA in Southeast Asia in the early 1970s with the help of a Hollywood consultant. It made a quick ethnic change possible.
GRU—Soviet Military Intelligence Service.
Handler—A case officer who is responsible for handling an agent in an operation.
Hmong (the People)—Members of the hill tribes in Southeast Asia.
Ho Chi Minh Trail—Route used by the Communist forces to more or less securely move men and materiel from North to South Vietnam during the war.
Hostile (service, surveillance, etc.)—Term used to describe the organizations and activities of the opposition services.
HUMINT—Human intelligence, collected by human sources such as agents.
ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile)—Long-range rocket, usually highly accurate and carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
Illegal—A KGB or SVR operative infiltrated into a target country and operating without the protection of diplomatic immunity.
IMMEDIATE—The second highest precedence for CIA cable communications.
Impersonal communications—Secret communication techniques used between a case officer and an agent when no physical contact is possible or desired.
Infiltration—Secretly or covertly moving an operative into a target area with the intent that their presence will go undetected for an appropriate amount of time.
Intelligence Star for Valor—The second highest award for valor given by the CIA.
Internal Operations—CIA operations inside the Soviet bloc during the Cold War.
IO (International Operations) Course—A special training course developed for officers being assigned to the Soviet bloc.
JEDBURGHS—OSS and SOE teams dropped into Fortress Europe after D-Day to help resistance organizations.
KGB—All-powerful intelligence and security service of the USSR during the Cold War. Ultimate successor of Cheka. Disbanded into the SVR and the FSB in 1991.
Kometeh—The Committee of the Islamic Revolution in Iran under Khomeini.
Legend—The complete cover story developed for an operative.
Lima sites—Landing sites built by the CIA on mountain tops in Laos during the secret war. These were the bases of operations behind enemy lines.
“L”-Pill—A lethal cyanide capsule issued to intelligence operatives who would prefer to take their own life rather than be caught and tortured.
MACV—The U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam.
Major docs—The principal identity documents used to authenticate an alias identity.
MI5—The British domestic counterintelligence service.
MI6—The British foreign intelligence service.
Microdot—A photographic reduction of a secret message so small it can be hidden in plain sight or buried under the period at the end of this sentence.
Mili-man—A militia man, a member of the national police force under the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Mole—A human penetration into an intelligence service or other highly sensitive organization. Quite often a mole is a defector who agrees to work in place.
Moscow rules—The ultimate tradecraft methods developed for use in the most hostile operational environments. During the Cold War, Moscow was considered the most difficult of the operating environments.
Mossad—Israel’s foreign intelligence service.
NE Division—The Near East Division of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations.
NIACT—The CIA cable slug that indicates “night action” is necessary.
NKVD—Soviet security and intelligence organization 1934-46.
NOC—A CIA case officer operating under nonofficial cover similar to the KGB illegal.
NVA—North Vietnamese Army.
OGPU—Soviet intelligence and security organization from 1923 until 1934.
Okhrana—Secret police under the Russian tsars 1881-1917.
One-time pad (OTP)—Sheets of paper or silk printed with random five-number group ciphers to be used to encode and decode enciphered messages.
OPS Course (Operations Course)—The elite eighteen-week course all CIA case officers take at the beginning of their careers.
OPS FAM Course (Operations Familiarization Course)—A six-week course for CIA staffers who work with case officers in the field.
OSS—The Office of Strategic Service; forerunner of the CIA, 1942-45.
OTS—The Office of Technical Service, formerly the Technical Services Division, the CIA’s technical arm for the Clandestine Service. Develops and deploys technical tradecraft needed for clandestine and covert operations.
OWVL—One-way voice link; shortwave radio link used to transmit prerecorded enciphered messages to an operative.
Pathet Lao—The Communist forces in Laos that joined with the invading North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War.
Pattern—The behavior and daily routine of an operative that makes his identity unique.
PHOTINT—Photographic intelligence; renamed IMINT, image intelligence. Usually involving high-altitude reconnaissance using spy satellites or aircraft.
Pipeliner—A case officer or other staff officer who has been designated for an assignment in the Soviet bloc and is undergoing specialized tradecraft training.
Prober—An operative assigned to test border controls before an exfiltration is mounted.
Provocateur—An operative sent to incite a target group to action for purposes of entrapping or embarrassing them.
Q Branch—The fictional part of MI6 that provided spy gadgetry to James Bond. OTS is the CIA’s true life “Q.”
Questionable Activities—The list of possibly illegal or embarrassing activities compiled throughout CIA during the Senate investigations. These were delivered to Congress by DCI Colby.
Repro—Making a false document.
Resident—The KGB chief of station in any foreign location.
Residentura—The KGB station usually located in the Soviet embassy in a foreign capital.
Revolutionary Guards—The paramilitary security forces serving the Kometeh in Iran.
Road watch teams—Lao irregulars led by CIA officers watching and reporting the enemy’s movements.
Rolled up—When the operation goes bad and the agent is arrested.
Roll-out—A surreptitious technique of rolling out the contents of a letter without opening it. It can be done with two knitting needles or a split chopstick.
Safe house—A building or apartment considered safe for use by operatives as a base of operations or for a personal meeting.
SB—Special Branch; usually the national internal security and counterintelligence service.
SDR—Surveillance detection run; a route designed to erode or flush out surveillance without alerting them to the operative’s purpose.
Second Chief Directorate—The counterintelligence arm of the KGB responsible for domestic security.
Security service—Usually an internal counterintelligence service, but some have foreign intelligence gathering responsibility such as the Stasi.
SE Division—The Soviet-East European Division of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations during the Cold War.
Seventh Chief Directorate—The internal surveillance arm of the KGB. These are the watchers that include the mobile surveillance teams and the technical eavesdroppers.
SIGINT—Signals intelligence; the amalgamation of COMINT and ELINT into one unit of intelligence gathering dealing with all electronic data transmissions.
Silver Bullet—The special disguise and deception tradecraft techniques developed under Moscow rules to help the CIA penetrate the KGB’s security perimeter in Moscow.
SITREP—Situation report sent in to Headquarters during an operation or crisis.
SOG (Special Operations Group)—The CIA/SOG was in the Directorate of Operations. The Special Operations Group (c. 1964) of the Department of Defense had a similar paramilitary mission, but there was no connection between the two.
Staff agent—A CIA staff officer without access to CIA secure facilities or classified communications.
Stage management—A vital component to a deception operation: managing the operational stage so all conditions and contingencies are considered—the point of view of the hostile forces, casual observers, physical and cultural environment, etc.
Stasi—East German State Security, including internal security and foreign intelligence.
Station—A CIA office for field operations, usually in a foreign location.
Striker teams—Teams of Lao irregulars led by CIA case officers whose mission was hit-and-run operations against the Communist forces in Laos.
Surreptitious Entry Unit—Unit in the CIA’s Technical Service Division whose specialty was opening locks and gaining access to secure facilities in support of audio operations.
SVR—Russian foreign intelligence service succeeding the KGB’s First Chief Directorate.
TDY—Temporary Duty Assignment.
Techs—A term used to refer to the technical officers from OTS.
Timed drop—A dead drop that will be retrieved if not picked up by the recipient after a set time period.
Tosses (hand, vehicular)—Tradecraft techniques for emplacing drops by tossing them while on the move.
Tradecraft—The methods developed by intelligence operatives to conduct their operations.
TSD—(see OTS)
Walk-in—A defector who declares his intentions by walking into an official installation and asking for political asylum or volunteering to work in place.
Window dressing—Ancillary materials that are included in a cover story or deception operation to help convince the opposition or other casual observers that what they are observing is genuine.