Glossary & Intelligence Terminology, Acronyms & Operational Crypts
Dealey Plaza
Mossaic
There are many ways to look at the assassination of
President Kennedy – as an unsolved homicide, as an historic event, as a random
act of a demented loner or as a covert intelligence operation.
The late Professor Phil Melanson wrote an important article
“Dallas Mosaic” and Peter Janney’s new book “Mary’s Mosaic” explores the
relationship between the assassination of the president and the murder of his
paramour Mary Pinchot Meyer, and the word Mosaic seems to work.
A mosaic is a pattern or picture put together from small
pieces of different colored broken glass or stone, which seems like what we
have to work with.
If you look at the assassination as a giant mural of Dealey
Plaza, we pretty much have a complete picture of what was there at the time,
and there are only a few missing pieces to the puzzle, so we can surmise what’s
there.
Some look at the assassination as a chess game, assigning
rank and power to different characters – Bishops and Knights, like David Atlee
Phillips and E. Howard Hunt, and Oswald, the accused assassin, is always a Pawn
in every game, yet manages to get close enough to kill the King, or at least
take the rap for or given the credit for killing the King.
The British developed the Modus Operandi – method of
detecting criminals from the patterns in their crimes, and whatever you believe
happened at Dealey Plaza, there’s no mistaking that the key characters clearly
fit the profile of covert operators and there are all the elements of a covert
intelligence operation, one that was specifically designed to protect those who
were actually responsible for the murder.
The idea that Castro was behind Oswald was built into the
plan as part of the cover-story, one that was originally discarded by LBJ and
the Lone Nut scenario adopted in its place, but after that too can be shown to
be untrue, the Mafia, the CIA and big oil
men are all lined up like layers of an onion, that protects the killers as the
core another analogy that seems to work.
Because of the clandestine and covert nature of the work,
some say it is like going through the Looking Glass, as Alice does, and then
goes down the rabbit’s hole, and isn’t it ironic that Lee Harvey Oswald’s
nickname in the Marines was “Ozzie Rabbit,” and he was just a Patsy we were
sent after?
It’s the Great Game – the Greatest Game of espionage, and
one that hasn’t changed much since the days of Sun Tzu, when inside, native,
double and expendable agents were used.
It’s not easily understandable but for those who want to learn
what really happened at Dealey Plaza
it is necessary to learn the lingo before venturing through the Looking Glass
and heading into the Rabbit’s Hole.
Towards that end I have compiled a makeshift and expanding
Glossary, beginning with Peter Dale’s definitions of words that he found best
to describe what can be found in Deep Politics when one ventures from the
Overworld and into the Underworld, where all the action is.
Glossary of Open Politics from The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and
the Future of
America by Peter
Dale Scott, (University of California Press in Berkeley, 2007, pp. 267-271
)
Archival history
A chronological record of events, as reconstructed by archival historians from
public records; as opposed to deep history, which is a chronology of
events concerning which the public records are often either falsified or
nonexistent.
Cabal - A network, often of cliques, operating
within or across a broad social and bureaucratic base with an agenda not widely
known or shared. According to many dictionary definitions, a cabal is a group
of persons secretly united to bring about a change or overthrow of government.
But in the deep state cabals can also operate within the status quo to sustain
top-down rule, including interventions from the overworld.
Clique - A
small group of like-minded people, operating independently within a larger
social organization. Before the
Iraq
war the neocons in the Bush administration represented a clique; the faction preparing
secretly for war (which included both neocons and veterans of the international
petroleum industry, like Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice) represented a larger
and more widespread cabal.
Closed power,
or
Top-Down Power derived
from the overworld, as opposed to democratically responsive open
power. See power.
Continuity of
government (COG) A term of art for secret arrangements
for command and control in the event of an emergency.
Deep politics
All those political practices and arrangements, deliberate or not, that are
usually repressed in public discourse rather than acknowledged.
Deep State A term from
Turkey,
[A] where it is used to refer to a closed network said to be more powerful than
the public state. The deep state engages in false-flag violence, is
organized by the military and intelligence apparatus, and involves their links
to organized crime.
Dual state A state in
which one can distinguish between a public state and
a top-down deep state. Most developed states exhibit this duality but
to varying degrees. In America
the duality of the state has become more and more acute since World War II.
Globalization The
trend toward a more unified world at two levels: (1) top-down globalization, a
system imposed from above on peoples and cultures; and (2) bottom-up
globalization, a geographic expansion of people-to-people contacts producing a
more international civil society and community. Top-down globalization, if not
balanced by bottom-up globalization, will result in increasing polarization.
Islamism A
political Muslim movement with origins in the late nineteenth century,
dedicated to jihad, or struggle for the political unification and purification
of Islam. Indian subcontinent.
Meta-group A
private group collaborating with and capable of modifying governmental policy,
particularly (but not exclusively) with respect to the international drug
traffic.
Milieu A
location (not necessarily geographical) where private deals can be made.
Relatively unimportant to proceedings and institutions of the public
state, restricted milieus are of greater relevance to operations of the deep
state.
Open Power,
public, cooperative, or participatory power.
Order There
are two clusters of dictionary definitions of order, both relevant:
(1)top-down or coercive order, meaning “a command or direction” (or
their results); and (2) public or participatory order, meaning
“a condition of arrangement among component parts, such that proper functioning
or appearance is achieved.”
Overworld
That realm of wealthy or privileged society that, although not formally
authorized or institutionalized, is the scene of successful influence of
government by private power. It includes both (1) those whose influence is
through their wealth, administered personally or more typically through
tax-free foundations and their sponsored projects, and (2) the first group's
representatives. The term should be distinguished from Frederick Lundberg's
“superrich,” the sixty wealthiest families that he wrongly predicted in his
1967 book Sixty Familieswould continue to dominate America both as a class
and as a “government of money.” The recent Forbes annual lists of the
four hundred richest Americans shows that Lundberg's prediction was wrong on
both counts: his richest inheritors of 1967 are mostly not the richest today,
and today's richest are not necessarily those projecting their wealth into
political power. The overworld is not a class but a category.
As a rule it is wrong to think
of overworld influence institutionally, as exercised through the Bilderberg
Society, the Trilateral Commission, or the Council on Foreign Relations.
However, there are less known, usually secret, cabals (such as
the Pinay Circle[B]
and
the Safari Club[C]) that flourish in these
overworld milieus.
Parallel Government (or shadow
government) A second government established in times of crisis to
override or even replace the official government of the public state.
Paranoia The
irrational drive toward dominance that is motivated not by rational
self-interest but by fear of being surpassed by a competitor. A paradox of
civilization is that, as relative power increases (along with expansion and
exposure), so does paranoia. The dominance over the public state by
the deep state is based on (and also generates) paranoia. The paradox
that power increases paranoia is seen within states as well
as between them. It is not restricted to so-called totalitarian
states.
Paranoia,
bureaucratic The dominance of bureaucratic policy planning by
worst-case scenarios, calling for maximized bureaucratic responses and budgets.
This leads to the paranoid style in bureaucratic politics.
Parapolitics This
term has two definitions:
(1) “a system or practice
of politics in which accountability is consciously diminished,”[1] and
(2) the intellectual study of parapolitical interactions
between public states and other forms of organized nonviolence (or parastates):
covert agencies, mafias, and so on.[2]
Parastates Structurally
organized violence (in the form of covert agencies, mafias, revolutionary
movements, and so on) with some but not all the recognizable features of a
state.
Power There
are two definitions of power, both relevant: (1) top-down,coercive,
or closed power, meaning “the ability or official capacity to exercise
control; authority”; and (2) public, cooperative, or open power,
meaning “the might of a nation, political organization, or similar
group.”
This notion of dual power is
reflected in Gandhi’s distinction between duragraha (“obtained by the
fear of punishment”) and satyagraha (obtained “by acts of love”).[3]
Jonathan Schell paraphrases this as the distinction between
coercive and cooperative power: “Power is cooperative when it springs from
action in concert of people who willingly agree with one another and is
coercive when it springs from the threat or use of force. Both kinds of power
are real. . . . Yet the two are antithetical.”[4 ] This antithesis is embodied
in the tension in the dual state between the deep state and
the public state.
The tension
between top-down and public power exists to some degree in
all developed states. It becomes more acute with increased income disparity:
polarization of wealth or economic power is inevitably accompanied by
polarization of political power. [D]
Prevailable Will
of the people. That potential for solidarity that, instead of being checked by
top-down repression, can actually be awakened and reinforced by it. It thus
becomes the emerging sanction for a generally accepted social or political
change. The more common term “will of the people,” a refurbishing of Rousseau's
“general will,” is often invoked as the ultimate sanction of a generally
accepted decision. However, even if not a total abstraction, the term has
little or no meaning at the time of a major controversy; the “public will” must
be established by events, not passively defined in advance of them. The “will
of the majority” is an even more dangerous phrase; the opinions of majorities
are often superficial and fickle, and destined not to prevail. (The Vietnam
and Iraq wars
are examples where the momentary will of the majority proved not to be the
prevailable will.) The prevailable will can be said to be latent in a political
crisis but not established or proven until its outcome. In the case of
abolishing slavery in America,
for example, the resolution took many decades, but it is hard to imagine any
other prevailable outcome.
Realism There
are two prevailing and conflicting notions of political realism: (1) realpolitik,
defined as “a usually expansionist national policy, having as its sole
principle the advancement of the national interest”; and (2) what I
call visionary realism, a vision of a public order conforming to
the prevailable will of the people. I consider the latter more realistic
than the former, because it can see more clearly the dialectical consequences
of expansion and overstretch.
Second-level Strategy.
A strategy of first strengthening civil society as a condition for social
change.
Soft Power versus open
power
Soft power, as defined by Joseph Nye,
works (in distinction to military and economic superiority) by persuasion; it
is an “ability . . . that shapes the preferences of others” that “tends to be
associated with intangible power resources such as an attractive culture,
ideology, and institutions.”[
5] Soft
power or soft politics puts more emphasis on the persuasive
technique; open power or open politics, on a participatory
process or result.
State. There
are two definitions, both relevant, both deriving ultimately from Machiavelli.
What is being discussed here are dictionary definitions, which I culled and
combined from a number of dictionaries: (1) a system of organized power
controlling a society; and (2) a politically organized body of people under a
single government. These correspond to two overlapping systems of statal
institutions: the deep state (or security state) and
the public state. The second interacts with and is responsive to civil
society, especially in a democracy; the first is immune to shifts in public
opinion.
Thus the deep state is expanded
by covert operations; the public state is reduced by them. Following the same
distinction as Hans Morgenthau in his discussion of the dual state, Ola
Tunander talks of a “democratic state” and a “security state.” His definitions
focus more on the respective institutions of thedual state; mine, on their
social grounding and relationship to the power of the overworld.
Deep
state and security state are not quite identical. By the deep
state I mean agencies like CIA, with
little or no significant public constituency outside of
Government. By
the security state, I mean above all the military, an organization large
enough to have a limited constituency and even in certain regions to constitute
an element of local civil society. The two respond to different segments of
the overworld and thus sometimes compete with each other.
GLOSSARY of
Intelligence Terminology
Agent – An
individual who acts under the direction of an intelligence agency or security
service to obtain, or assist in obtaining information for intelligence or
counter-intelligence purposes.
Agent of Influence
– An individual who can be used to covertly influence foreign officials,
opinion molders, organization or pressure groups in a way that will generally
advance objectives, or to undertake specific action in support of objectives.
Agent Provocateur –
An agent employed to stir up trouble, create chaos and generally make mischief
(primarily in the opposition camp).
Analysis – A
stage in the intelligence processing cycle when collected information is
reviewed to identify significant facts; the information is compared with and
collated with other data, and conclusions, which also incorporates the memory
and judgment of the intelligence analyst.
Asset – Any
resource – a person, group, relationship, instrument, installation or supply at
the disposition of an intelligence agency for use in an operational or support
role. The term is normally applied to a person who is contributing to a
clandestine mission, but is not a fully controlled agent.
Assessment – Part
of the intelligence process whereby an analyst determines the reliability or
validity of a piece of information. An assessment could also be a statement
resulting from this process.
Backstopping – A
team for providing appropriate verification and support of cover arrangements
for an agent or asset in anticipation of inquiries or other actions which might
test the credibility of his or its cover.
Basic Intelligence
– Factual, fundamental and generally permanent information about all aspects of
a nation, - physical, social, economic, political, biographical and cultural,
which is used as a base for intelligence products in support of planning, policy
making and military and covert operations.
Bigot List – A
restrictive list of person who have access to a particular and highly sensitive
class of information.
Biographical Leverage
– Blackmail
Biological Agent –
A micro-organism which causes disease in humans, plants or animals or causes
deterioration of material.
Biological Operation
– Employment of biological agents to produce casualties in humans or animals,
and damage to plants or material; or a defense against such an attack.
Black – A term
use to indicate reliance on illegal concealment of an activity rather than a
cover.
Black Bag Job –
Warrant less surreptitious entry, especially an entry conducted for purposes
other than microphone installation, such as physical search and seizure or photographing
documents.
Black List – A
counter-intelligence listing of actual or potential hostile collaborators,
sympathizers, intelligence suspects.
Black Propaganda
– Propaganda that purports to emanate from a source other than the true one.
Blow – To blow
the cover, expose, often unintentionally, personnel, installations, or other
elements of a clandestine activity or organization.
Bug – A concealed
listening device or microphone, or other audio surveillance device; also, to
install the means for audio surveillance of a target.
C – The initial
denotes the chief or head of the British Secret Service
Case – An
intelligence operation in its entirety; the term also refers to a record of the
development of an intelligence operation, how it will operate, and the
objectives of the operation.
Case Officer – A
staff employee responsible for handling agents.
Chemical Agents –
A chemical compound which, when disseminated, causes incapacitating, lethal or
damaging effects on humans, animals, plants or materials.
Chemical Operations –
Using chemical agents – excluding riot control, to kill or incapacitate for a
significant period.
Cipher – Any
cryptographic system in which arbitrary symbols or groups of symbols represent
units of plain text.
Clandestine Intelligence
– Intelligence information collected by clandestine sources.
Clandestine
Operations – Intelligence, counter-intelligence, or other information
collection activities and covert political, economic, propaganda or
paramilitary activities, conducted so as to assure the secrecy of the
operations.
Code – A system
of communication in which arbitrary groups of symbols represent units of plain
text.
Code Word – A
word which has been assigned a classification and a classified meaning to
safeguard intentions and information regarding a planned operation.
Collation – The
assembly of facts to determine the relationship among them in order to derive
intelligence and facilitate further processing of intelligence information.
Collection – The
acquisition of information by any means and its delivery to the proper
intelligence processing unit for use in the production of intelligence.
Communications –
A method or means of conveying information from one person or place to another,
not including direct unassisted conversation or correspondence.
COMIT-
Communications Intelligence – Technical and intelligence information derived
from communications by someone other than the intended recipient, not including
the press, propaganda or broadcasts.
Company –
Nickname for the CIA.
Compartmentation –
The practice of establishing special channels for handling sensitive
intelligence information, limited to individuals with a special need for that
information.
Concealment – A
provision of protection from observation only.
Confusion Agent –
An individual dispatched by his sponsor to confound the intelligence or
counter-intelligence apparatus of the opposition, rather than to collect or
transmit information.
Control –
Physical or psychological pressure exerted on an agent or group to ensure that
the agent or group responds to the direction of Case Officer, intelligence
agency or service.
Counterespionage
– Aggressive operations against another intelligence service to reduce its
effectiveness or to detect and neutralize espionage.
Counterinsurgency
– Military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological and civic action
taken by a government to defeat subversive insurgency within a country.
Counterspy – An
agent put into place where he can betray or mislead the opposition.
Courier – A
messenger responsible for the secure physical transmission and delivery of
documents and material.
Cousins – British
SIS nickname for the CIA.
Cover – A
protective guise used by a person, organization or installation to prevent
identification with clandestine activities and to conceal the true affiliation
of personnel and true sponsorship of activities.
Covert Action –
Any clandestine activity designed to influence governments, events,
organizations, or persons, including political and economic action, propaganda
and paramilitary activity.
Covert Operations
– Operations planned and executed against governments, installations, and
individuals so as to conceal the identity of the sponsor or else to permit the
sponsor’s plausible denial of the operation. They differ from clandestine
operations in that emphasis is placed on concealment of identity of sponsor
rather than on concealment of the operation.
Critical Intelligence
– Information of such urgent importance that it is transmitted at the highest
priority to the President and other decision makers before passing through
regular evaluation channels.
Cryptanalysis –
The breaking of codes and ciphers into plain text without initial knowledge of
the key employed in the encryption.
Cryptography –
The enciphering of plain text so that it will be unintelligible to an
unauthorized recipient.
Current Intelligence
– Summaries and analysis of recent events.
Cut-Out – A
person who is used to conceal contact between members of a clandestine activity
or organization.
Deception –
Measures designed to mislead a person or entity by manipulating, distorting or
falsifying evidence to induce a reaction.
Decrypt – To
convert encrypted text into plain text.
Defector – A
person who for political or other reasons, has repudiated his country and may
be in possession of information of interest.
Directive –
Basically any executive branch communication which initiates or governs
departmental or agency action, conduct or procedure.
Dirty Tricks –
Covert and Clandestine operations used in U.S.
politics.
Disinformation –
Deliberately placed information, often inaccurate, used to counteract or
support a covert intelligence operation.
Dissemination –
The distribution of information or intelligence products (in oral, written or
graphic form) to departmental or agency intelligence consumers.
Double-Agent – A
person engaged in clandestine activity for two or more intelligence or security
services who provides information to one service about the other, or about each
service to the other, who is wittingly or unwittingly manipulated by one
service against the other.
ELINT – Electronic Intelligence – Technical and
intelligence information derived from the collection (or interception) and
processing of electromagnetic radiations (noncommuncations) emanating from
sources such as radar.
Expendable Agent
– One that can be used and given up to the enemy or killed.
Fluttered – To be
examined by a polygraph lie-detector
Great Game – A
person who works in intelligence is said to be “in the game.”
Illegals –
Espionage agents sent under false passports into foreign countries and not
associated with the official embassy operations.
Legend – The
false biography of an agent to provide cover.
Measles – A
murder carried out so efficiently that death appears to be accidental or due to
natural causes.
MI5 – British
Counter-Intelligence Service.
MI6 – British
Secret Service, operating mainly overseas, with HQ at Century House, London.
MI8 – US
cryptographic service established after WWI by Herbert O. Yardley, precursor of
the NSA.
MI9 – WWII
organization established to set up escape routes for Allied prisoners of war.
Mole – An agent
ordered to infiltrate the opposition services in order to send back
information.
Music Box –
Wireless radio transmitter
Naked – Operating
without assistance
Neighbor - Another branch of the same intelligence
service.
One Man Bay of Pigs – A phase used to describe an incompetent agent who has
made a hash of things.
Orchestra – A
network of spies operating together, unknown to each other, but controlled by
the same operator.
Pavement Artist –
Surveillance team.
Plumbing – The
work undertaken to prepare for a major operation.
Propaganda – Any
communications supporting objectives which are designed to influence opinions,
emotions, attitudes or behavior of any group.
Proprietaries – A
term used to designate ostensibly private commercial entities capable of doing
business which are established and controlled by intelligence services to
conceal their affiliations in support of clandestine operations.
Psychological Warfare
– The planned use of propaganda and other actions to influence the opinions,
emotions, attitudes and behavior of groups so as to support the achievements of
policy objectives.
Reconnaissance –
A mission undertaken to obtain information by observation or other detection
methods.
Requirement – A
general or specific request for intelligence information.
Resident Director
– Head of the Russian Secret Service network.
Safe House –
Secure place for meetings and living during operations.
Sanction –
Intelligence agency approval for killing of agents.
Sanitize – The
deletion or revision of report or document so as to prevent identification of
the intelligence sources and methods.
Security Measure
– Special action taken to protect information or personnel.
Sensitive –
Something which requires special protection from disclosure.
Sheep Dipping –
The use of a military instrument or officer in a civilian capacity and cover.
Signals – As
applied to electronics, any transmitted electronic impulse.
SIGNIT – Signals
Intelligence – Interception, processing, analysis, and dissemination of
information derived from foreign electrical communications. It is composed of
three elements – COMIT, ELINT and TELINT.
Sleeper – A
deep-cover agent planted in opposition territory with orders to lie low and
work up contacts over a period of years before being introduced into the
network.
Source – A
person, thing or activity which provides intelligence information.
Special Projects
– Nickname for covert and clandestine operations.
Stroller – A
walking pedestrian equipped with walkie-talkie radio.
Sterilize – To
remove from material to be used in covert and clandestine operations, any marks
or devices which can identify it as originating with the sponsoring
organization.
Strategic
Intelligence – Intelligence required for the formation of policy and
military plans and operations at the national and international level.
Subversion –
Actions designed to undermine the military, economic, political, psychological
or moral strength of a nation.
Surreptitious Entry
– Black Bag Operation, breaking and entering to obtain information.
Surveillance - Systematic
observation of a target.
Tactical Intelligence
– Intelligence supporting plans and operations at the unit level.
Target – A
person, agency, facility, area or country against which intelligence operations
are directed.
Toxin – Chemicals
which are not living organisms, but which are produced by living organism that
are lethal.
Traffic –
Messages carried over a telecommunications network.
UNSUB – Unknown
Subject
Walk-In – An
agent who volunteers or offers his services.
Watch List – A
list of words, names, entities or phrases that can be employed by computer,
passenger manifests or boarder guards to select out required information from a
mass of data.
XX Committee –
the Double-Cross Committee set up during World War II to control and exploit
double and turned Nazi agents in
Britain.
FBI GLOSSARY By M. Wesley Swearington
ADD – Associate Deputy Director
ADDIC – Assistant Director in Charge
AG – Attorney General of the USA
AIRTEL – A written memorandum between FBI field offices or
Bureau headquarters. It is a 1950s acronym for a memo sent via air mail in
teletype format. Over the years it became bastardized into the usual verbose
bureaucratic memo as opposed to the short and abrupt teletype format. The
AIRTEL was originally created to save money; however, it still requires the immediate
handling of investigative leads and the immediate distribution by the clerical
staff to the intended receiver.
Apalachin – The turning point in the FBI’s investigation of
the American Mafia. The largest ever known meeting of mobsters took place in 1957
in Apalachin, New York,
which was discovered accidently by a New York State Trooper. This huge
discovery embarrassed Hover’s FBI into fully investigating organized crime.
ASAC – Assistant Special Agent in Charge of an FBI Field
Office.
AUSA – Assistant United
States Attorney.
Black Bag Job- The FBI’s term for an illegal search. The
term originated from the use of a black leather bag to carry lock picking
tools, cameras, steamers, letter openers, flashlights, and other equipment to
conduct an illegal search after picking a lock.
Brick Agent – Agents who work in the field offices
conducting investigations.
Bureau – The term used by FBI Field Agents when referring to
FBI headquarters in Washington , D.C.,
also known as FBIHQ
Bug – A hidden microphone placed in an office or private
residence, which is different from a wire tap on a telephone, often done
without a court order or Attorney General approval making the information
inadmissible in court.
C-1 –The FBI’s Criminal Squad Number One in Chicago,
which handled the investigation of organized crime, also known as the Top
Hoodlum Program (THP) squad.
CIA “asset” – An
informant, a source, or assassin used by the CIA,
but is not a government employee.
“Chop” – To kill.
“Clip” – To murder gangland style.
COINTELPRO – The FBI’s code word for the
counter-intelligence program, which was in operation from the mid-1950s until April 21, 1971. COINTELPRO continued
under individual case titles.
Consiglieri – A highly placed advisor or counselor in an
organized crime family.
DAD – Deputy Associate Director.
DCOS – Deputy Chief of Station
“Dry Clean” – To take evasive action to detect a physical
surveillance.
“ELSUR” – The FBI’s code word for electronic surveillance in
the form of a bug or wiretap.
FBIHQ – FBI Headquarters in Washington,
D.C.
“FISUR” – The FBI’s code word for physical surveillance.
“Hit” – To kill.
“Honey Trap” – Using a women to blackmail
La Cosa Nostra (LCN) – La Cosa Nostra was the term given to
organized crime families by law enforcement.
“Made Guy” – An actual member of the Chicago’s
LCN mob family.
“marked card” – “canary trap” (Tom Clancy
Patriot Games0 “barium meal” (Peter Wright, Spycather) was a practice in intelligence circles of
slightly altering items in Oswald's biography and using these items as
"marked cards" as they passed information back and forth with each
other. If an unauthorized person had access to a particular spelling of a name,
for example, that "marked card" indicated that there had been a leak.
A leaker might be a defector.
“MO” – The FBI’s bug placed in Sam Giancana’s office in Chicago.
SAC – Special Agent in Charge of a field office.
“Rub Out” – To kill
Tap – A wire tap usually placed on a telephone through the
telephone company with a court order, or with the approval of the Attorney
General.
THP – Top Hoodlum Program.
“Whack” – To kill.
ACRONYMS
ABC – American Broadcasting Corporation
ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union
AF1 – Air Force One
AFOSI – Air Force Office of Special Investigations
AFSC – Armed Forces Security Agency
AID – Agency for International Development
AIM – Accuracy In Media
AKA – Also Known As
AMBOT - Cuban Case Officers/Reports?
AP – Associated Press
API - Aerospace Industries Association
BNDD – Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
BNE – Board of National
Estimates
BNNMC – Bethesda
National Naval Medical Center, Maryland.
BTW – By The Way
CAC - Caribbean Action Center - Debriefed refugees
CAP – Civil Air Patrol
CAR – Cuban Aid Relief
CBS – Columbia
Broadcastings System
CDIP – Consolidated Defense Intelligence Budget
CFI – Committee on
Foreign Intelligence
CFR - Council on Foreign Relations
CIA – Central
Intelligence Agency
CI – Counter-Intelligence
CIC - Counterintelligence Corps (USA)
CIG – Central Intelligence Group (1946-47 predecessor of CIA)
CIS – Counter-Intelligence Staff (CIA)
CJCS – US Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (US
DOD)
CNN – US Cable News Network
COINTELPRO – FBI counter-intelligence program directed at US
domestic activities.
COMINT – Communications Intelligence – Technical and
intelligence information derived from communications by someone other than the
intended recipient, not including press, propaganda or public broadcasts.
COMIREX – Committee on Imagery Requirements and
Exploitation, established in 1967 to succeed COMOR as the USIB subcommittee responsible
for management and collection planning for U2 and satellite reconnaissance.
COMOR – Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance, a USIB
subcommittee established in 1960 to coordinate intelligence collection
requirements among the Departments for the development and operation of all
overhead reconnaissance systems.
COMPADRE – A CIA
operation in the Philippines.
COMSEC – Communications Security
CONDOR – A CIA operation
to replace the government in Chile
CONUS – Continental United States – U.S.
territory, including adjacent territorial waters located within the North
American continent between Canada
and Mexico.
COS – Chief of Station, CIA,
FBI or Secret Service in different cities.
CRC – Cuban Revolutionary Council – CIA
Cuban group established to replace the government of Cuba
after the overthrow of Castro.
CREEP – Committee to Re-Elect the President (Nixon)
CRF - Cuban Revolutionary Front
CSS – Central Security Service
CSIS – Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
CUI - Controlled Unclassified Information Office of ISSO
DAS – Defense Attache System
DCI – Director Central
Intelligence (CIA)
DCID – Director of Central Intelligence Directive – A
directive issued by the DCI which outlines
general policies and procedures to be followed by the intelligence community,
more specific than a NSID.
DCS – Domestic Contact Service – A component
of CIA CIG, responsible for domestic sources
for foreign intelligence information, renamed Domestic Contacts Division in
1951, became component of DDI in 1952, renamed DCS
in 1965; transferred to DDO in 1973 and renamed Domestic Collection Division
(DCD).
DDA – CIA Directorate of
Administration, established in 1950, responsible for personnel, budget,
security, medical services and logistical support for overseas operations.
DDCI – Deputy Director, Central Intelligence – Second person
in line of CIA command.
DDI – Directorate of Intelligence – CIA,
created in 1952, responsible for production of finished intelligence (excluding
scientific and technical intelligence since 1963)and for collection of overt
information.
DDO – Deputy Director of Operations or Directorate of Operations, CIA.
DDP – Directorate of Plans, created in 1952 from the
integration of OSO and OPC, also known as
the “Clandestine Service,” responsible for clandestine collection.
DDR – Directorate of
Research, created in 1962, predecessor to the Directorate of Science and
Technology.
DDS – Deputy Director for
Support, CIA
DDS&T – Directorate for Science and
Technology, organized in 1963, combining OSI,
the Data Processing staff, the Office of ELINT, the DPD and Office of Research
and Development.
DEA – Drug Enforcement Administration
DEFCON – Defense Condition 1 – 5 Military Alert status and
posture at any given time.
DGI – Direccion General de Intelligenca – Cuba’s
Secret Service
DGSE – Direccion General
de Securite Exterieure – French Secret Service
DIA – Defense
Intelligence Agency – created by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1961,
responsible for production of military intelligence.
DINA – Chilean Secret Police
DIOP – Defense Intelligence Objectives and Priorities.
DIRDIA – Director Defense Intelligence Agency
DIS – Defense
Investigative Services
DISCOVERER – First recon satellite, launched by Lockheed in
Calf. In Aug. 1960.
DISIP – Venezuelan Intelligence Service.
Division Five – FBI Counter-Intelligence
DKIQs - Defense Key
Intelligence Questions
DMA – Defense Mapping Agency
DNC – Democratic National Committee
DOD – Department of Defense
DOE – Department of Energy
DO J – Department of Justice
DPC- Dallas Petroleum Club
DPD – Dallas Police Department (Texas)
DRE – Directoate
Estudente Revolution – Anti-Bastista, Anti-Castro Cuban group.
ELINT – Electronic Intelligence – Technical and intelligence
information derived from the collection or interception and processing of
electromagnetic radiations (non-communications) emanting from sources such as
radar.
EXCOM – Executive Committee established in 1965 for the management of overhead
reconnaissance for CIA and DOD.
FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation
FFCGIJP – Fund For Constitutional Government Investigative
Journalism Project (DC)
FOIA – Freedom of Information Act.
FOIA/PA – Freedom of Information Act/ Privacy Act
FPCC – Fair Play for Cuba
Committee
FSO – Foreign Service Officer
FYDP – Fiscal Year Defense Plan
GAO – General Accounting Office
GCCS – Global Command and Control Stations
GRU – Soviet Military Intelligence Service
GSA – General Services Administration.
HUMINT – Human Intelligence
HUAC – House Unamerican Activities Commiteee
HSCA – House Select Committee on Assinations.
IAB – Intelligence Advisory Board to DCI.
IBM – International
Business Machines
IDC – Interagency Defector Committee -
INB – State Department
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
INCA – Information Council of the Americas
INS – US Immigration
Nationalization Service
INSCOM – US Army Intelligence & Security Command, Fort
Meade, Maryland.
IRR – Investigative Record Repository, Fort
Meade, Md.
IRS – Internal Revenue
Service
ISA – International
Security Affairs DOD
ISCAP - Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel
ISSO - Information Security Oversight Office
ITM – International Trade Mart (New
Orleans)
J-2 – Joint Staff for Intelligence DOD
JAG – Judge Advocate General USN -
JAG – Joint Analysis Group established in 1962 to provide
regular assessments of Soviet and Chinese military strengths.
JCS – Joint Chiefs of Staff
JEDBURGH – Scotland,
OSS-OSO training base during WWII and name given to commando teams parachuted
into Nazi occupied Europe before D-Day.
JFK Act – John F. Kennedy Records Act of 1992 established
the JFK Assassination Records Collection at the NARA
and the temporary Assassination Records Review Board.
JFK ARC – JFK Assassination Records Collection at Archives
II, College Park, Md.
JFK Library – Presidential Library, Boston,
Mass.
JMWAVE – CIA Cuban
operations base at University of Miami, Florida.
JRC – Joint
Reconnaissance Center
JURE – Anti-Castro Cuban group.
KGB – Soviet National Intelligence Service.
KYP – Greek Intelligence Service
LAN – Local Area Networks
LBJ Library – President LBJ Library, Austin,
Texas.
LI – CIA LI crypts refer
to Mexico City CIA station.
LSU –
Louisiana State
University,
New
Orleans
LTV - Ling-Tempo-Vought
MAW – Military Airlift Wing, Andrews AFB
MI5 – British Counter-Intelligence Service
MI6 – British Foreign Intelligence Service
MI8 – British Cryptography
MFF – Mary Farrell Foundation/Files –
MOSSAD – Mossad Le Aliya Beth – Israel’s
Intelligence and Security Service.
MRBM –
Medium Range
Ballistic Missile
MSCMS – Mystic Star Communications Systems
MVD – Soviet Russian era ministry of Internal Affairs.
NAA - National Aeronautic Association
NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People
NARA
– National Archives and Records Administration
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
NBC – National Broadcasting Company
NBR – Not Believed
Relevant – Excuse not to release FOIA or JFK Act records
NCA – National Command Authority
the nuclear “release authority,” as it is called, does not
follow the Constitution’s line of succession. The release authority passes from
a disabled or missing President to the Secretary of Defense, and then, if
necessary, to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
NCS – Net Control Station
Andrews
NEACAP – National Emergency Airborne Command Post
NFIP – National Foreign Intelligence Program
NIH – National Institute of Health (Bethesda,
Md.)
NINDB – National Institute of Neurological Diseases and
Blindness.
NKVD – Predecessor of the KGB in Soviet Russia.
NORORN – No Foreign Dissemination
NPIC – National Photo
Interpretation Center
(CIA) Established in 1961to analyze
photography derived from overhead reconnaissance.
NPR – National Public Radio
NRO – National Reconnaissance Office
NSA – US National Security Agency
NSAM – National Security Action Memorandum – issued by the
President
NSC – National Security Council
NSC – US National
Security Council, the senior decision making body of the Executive Branch,
established in 1947.
NSIA - National Security Industrial Association
OAS - Organization of American States
OCSA - Office of Censorship and Special Analysis
OEP - Office of Emergency Planning
OGIS - Officeof Government Information Services
OIP - Office of Information (DOJ)
OJCS – Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
OMB – Office of Management and Budget
ONI – US Office of Naval Intelligence
OO – Office of Operations, DDI, collected overt intelligence
until 1965.
OPC – Office of Policy
Coordination, a component of CIA established
in 1948 with responsibility of conducting covert operations. Merged with OSO in
1952 to form DDP.
OPEC – Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
OSD – Office of the Secretary of Defense
OSI – Office of
Scientific Intelligence, created in 1949, became component of DDI in 1952,
transferred to DDS&T in 1963.
OSO – Office of Special Operations, DOD.
OSS – Office of
Strategic Services – US
Army Intelligence Agency 1942-45.
PBCFIA – President Board of Consultants on Foreign
Intelligence Activities, created in 1956, renamed PFIAB in 1961.
PCG – Planning and
Coordinating Group of NSC.
PFIA – President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
PIDB - Public Interest Declassification Board
PLO – Palestine
Liberation Organization
POGP - Project On Government Oversight
POW – Prisoner of War.
PSB – Psychological
Strategy Board, established in 1951 under NSC,
charged with directing psychological warfare programs, replaced by OCB in
1953.
PZPR – Cold War era Polish Secret Police and Intelligence Agency
RCMP – Royal Canadian Mounted Police
R&D – Research and Development
RDT&E – Research, Development, Test and Evaluation
ROCKCOM – Rockefeller Commission – President’s Commission on
Central Intelligence Agency activities within the USA.
RYBAT – CIA crypt for
“secret”
SACSA - Office of the Special Assistant Counter-Insurgency and Special Affairs of the Joint Chiefs Staff
SALT – Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
SAM – Surface to Air
Missile
SAM – Special Air Mission
SAMOS – Satellite and Mission
Observation System – First US recon satellite, 1961
SDECE – French Intelligence Agency
SEC – Securities and
Exchange Commission
SHNS – Scripps-Howard News Service
SIC – Senate Intelligence Committee
SIGNIT – Signals Intelligence – Interception, processing,
analysis and dissemination of information derived from foreign electrical
communications. It is composed of three elements – COMIT, ELINT and TELINT.
SMERSH – Smyert Shpionam “Death to Spies” – Stalinist
military counter-intelligence unit made famous by Ian Fleming.
SOD – Special Operations Division, Fort Detrick, Maryland
SOE – Special Operations
Executive – British WWII program to develop covert operations against Nazi
Germany and occupied Europe.
Special Group (Augumented) a US National Security Council
subcommittee established in 1962 to oversee Operation MONGOOSE, a major CIA
covert action program designed to overthrow Cuban premier Fidel Castro.
SPG – Special Procedures
Group – est. 1947 to conduct covert psychological operations
SS – Secret Service
SSA – Social Security Administration
SSB – Single-Side-Band radio
SSCI – Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
STB – Czech Intelligence
Service
SUCCESS – Operation Success – Guatemala
Coup, 1954
TELINT – Telemetry Intelligence
TOA – Technical Services Division, CIA
TRAX – Camp Trax – Cuban training base in Guatemala, 1960-1961
TWA – Trans World
Airlines
U2 – US
high altitude photo recon plane
UFC – United Fruit
Company
UHF – Ultra High Frequency
UM – University of
Miami, home of JMWAVE.
UN – United Nations
UNSUB – Unknown Subject
UPI – United Press International news wire service
USIA – United States Information Agency
USIB – United States Intelligence Board, established 1958
USMC – United States Marine Corps
USPS – United States Postal Service
USSR
– Union of Soviet
Socialists Republics
VENONA – Coded Soviet Russian Communications Intercept.
WC – Warren
Commission
WHCA – White House Communications Agency
WACL – World Anti-Communism League
XX Committee – The British Double-Cross Committee set up
during World War II to control and exploit double and turned Nazi agents in Britain.
OPERATIONAL CRYPTS
Agent Orange – Chemical operation in Vietnam
Ajax – Iranian Coup
1958
ALES – Alger Hiss
Alpha 66 – anti-Castro Cuban group
AM – CIA crypt concerning
Cuba
AMBIDDY 1 - Manual Artime
AMBUD – Cordona
AMCLATTER – Barker
AMCONCERT – Verela
AMDENIM 1 – Fernandez
AMDENIM 14 – Cuesta
AMHAWK – Tony Varona
AMJAVEA 4 – Raphael “Chi Chi” Quintero
AMLASH – Rolando Cubela
AMLILAC – infiltrations operations
AMPATRIN – Michael “Jack” Malone
AMSCHROLL – Unidad
AMSHALE – Antonio Veciana
AMSERF – Bartes
AMSTRUT – on island (Cuban) asset
AM/THUG – Fidel Castro
AMTIKI – CRC
accountant/payroll
AMWHIP 1 – Tepedino
Bishop, Colonel – John Thomas O’Hare
BOB – Berlin
Operating Base
BLUEBELL – CIA
Korean war intelligence operation in China
BLUEBOOK – USAF UFO study out of Wright Pat AFB, Dayton
Carlos – Ruben Perez
CHAOS – Covert intelligence operation directed at US
citizens and domestic activities
Chester Dainold
– Desmond Fitzgerald
Choaden – David A. Phillips
COINTELPRO – FBI counterintelligence program directed at
domestic US
activities.
COMPADRE – CIA psychological
operation in Philippines
CONDOR – A CIA operation
to replace the government in Chile
DISCOVERER – First recon satellite, launched by Lockheed in
Calf. In Aug. 1960.
Fish, Joe – Joe Fischetti
Galbond – J.C. King
GEMSTONE – project, G. Gordon Liddy’s covert operational
plans for 1972 election; included
GFGESTETNER at The Mexico City CIA
station
DIAMOND, RUBY, COAl, EmERALD, SAPPHIRE, OPAL,
TOPAZ, GARNET, TURQUOISE, BRICK.
GOLD – CIA
Berlin Tunnel operation to tap East German phone lines.
GPFLOOR – CIA slugline
given to Lee Harvey Oswald during post assassination investigation.
HTLINGUAL – Crypt for CIA’s
mail opening and mail cover campaign which ran from 1953-1973, which led to
resignation of James J. Angleton, CIA head
of CIA.
HTLINGUAL records said to be destroyed in 1990.
JEDBURGH – Scotland,
OSS-OSO training base during WWII and name given to commando teams parachuted
into Nazi occupied Europe before D-Day.
JMWAVE – CIA Cuban
Operations base at University of Miami, Florida
KUBARK –
CIA
LADILLINGER a phone tap on the Soviet embassy in Mexico
City
LCIMPROVE is defined in two separate CIA
documents as "Counter-espionage involving Soviet intelligence services
worldwide".
LUCKY – Operation Lucky, WWII invasion of Sicily,
ostensibly named after Lucky Luciano.
MAGIC – U.S. Army Signal Corps operation that broke Japanese
codes during WWII.
MHCHAOS – Domestic CIA
operation.
MONGOOSE – A 1962 CIA
covert operation designed to overthrow Cuban premier Fidel Castro.
ODENVY – FBI
ODYOKE – US Government
OXCART - CIA-Lockhed
project to develop A 12 successor to the U2.
PAWNEE/3 and PAWNEE/5. The Helsinki CIA
station attracted to two female students taking notes for the CIA
in a "legal travelers" program known as REDSKIN.
PB/PRIME – United States
PB/SUCCESS – Guatemala
Project 1954 Coup
PLUTO – Eisenhower administration CIA
plan to remove Castro from power headed by Jacob Esterline.
RANCH HAND – Agent Orange
delivery operations in SE Asia.
REDCAP program to induce Soviets and Eastern
Europeans to defect to the West.
RYBAT – CIA crypt for
“secret”
SLOMAN – Tony Sforza
SUCCESS – Operation Success – Guatemala
Coup, 1954
TEAPOT DOME – US Navy oil reserve scandal of Harding
administration
TICK TALKS – Miami PD undercover Cuban narcotics
investigation
TRAX – CIA Cuban training
base in Guatemala
TOP HAT – CIA LSD program
TOP HOODLUM – FBI post-Appalachin anti-mob program
TRADEWINDS – 12 year IRS
investigation of Bahamian off-shore investors
TUBE ALLOYS – British code for nuclear bomb development
VENONA – Coded Soviet Russian Communications Intercept.
ZAPATA – CIA Bay of Pigs
invasion of Cuba.
Zamka – David Morales
ZR/RIFLE – Executive Action Project / William Harvey
(Thanks to Larry Hancock – (
“Someone Would Have Talked”) for
some of these)
For More, Go to Mary Ferrell:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/CIA_Cryptonyms.
For information on a given crypt, just type it into the
MFF's search engine. Note that these crypts appear with variations - the dash
before a number is sometimes a slash (AMBIDDY-1 = AMBIDDY/1), and also a slash
sometimes after the first two letters (AMLASH = AM/LASH). Also, sometimes a
crypt may appear with or without a following -1 (AMQUACK = AMQUACK-1) - though
be careful, sometimes there is an overall project name, with individual agents
assigned the project name plus -1, -2, etc.
