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HOME EDUCATION & PROGRAMS NEWS, BOOKS, & BRIEFINGS LANGUAGE OF
ESPIONAGE

LANGUAGE OF
ESPIONAGE
If you expect to make it out there, youre going to need
to learn the lingo. Put in the work here and youll be
talking the talk in no time.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A
Agent
A person unofficially employed by an intelligence service, often as a source of
information
Agent-in-Place
A government employee who is influenced to cooperate with a foreign
government instead of defecting; now working for two employers instead of one

Agent-of-Influence
A person who works within the government or media of a target country to
influence national policy

Asset
A clandestine source or method, usually an agent

B
Babysitter
Bodyguard

Bagman
An agent who pays spies and bribes authorities

Bang and Burn

Demolition and sabotage operations

Birdwatcher
Slang used by British Intelligence for a spy

Black Bag Job

Secret entry into a home or office to steal or copy materials

Black Operations
Covert operations that are not attributable to the organization performing them

Black Propaganda
A disinformation that is deniable by (and not traceable to) its source

Blowback
A deception planted abroad by an intelligence agency to mislead another
country that returns to the originating nation with bad consequences

Blown
Discovery of an agent's true identity or a clandestine activity's real purpose

Bombe
Polish electro-magnetic device created to help decipher Enigma cipher machine
settings; early precursor to the modern computer

Bona Fides
Proof of a person's claimed identity

Bridge Agent
An agent who acts as a courier 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

C
Camp Swampy
CIA's secret domestic training base (also known as "The Farm")

Camp X
Canada's secret domestic training base during World War II

Carnivore
Computer program designed by the FBI to allow the FBI (in compliance with
court orders) to collect electronic communications from a specific user targeted
in an investigation (at the exclusion of all other users' transmissions)

Case Officer
A staff officer who manages agents and runs operations

Center
KGB headquarters in Moscow

Cheka
Russian secret police founded in 1917 to serve the Bolshevik party; one of the
many forerunners of the KGB

Chicken Feed
Genuine, but not seriously damaging, intelligence knowingly provided to an
enemy intelligence agency through an agent or a double agent to establish his
bona fides

Chief of Station
The officer in charge at a CIA station, usually in a foreign capital

CIA
Central Intelligence Agency; U.S.'s foreign intelligence gathering service
Cipher
A system for disguising a message by replacing its letters with other letters or
numbers or by shuffling them

Clandestine Operation
An intelligence operation designed to remain secret

Clean
Unknown to enemy intelligence

Cobbler
A spy who creates false passports, visas, diplomas and other documents

Code
A system for disguising a message by replacing its words with groups of letters
or numbers

Codebook
A list of plain language words opposite their codeword or codenumber

Colossus
An electronic device that helped solve German cryptograms; the worlds first
electronic computer

COMINT
All intelligence gathered from intercepted communications

Compromised
When an operation, asset, or agent is uncovered and cannot remain secret
Controller
Officer in charge of agents (a handler)

Counterintelligence
The business of thwarting the efforts of foreign intelligence agencies; includes
but is not limited to spy-catching

Cover
The purported occupation or purpose of an agent; it must be consistent with the
agent's background and presence in the target area

Covert Action Operation

An operation designed to affect foreign affairs; may be lethal or non-lethal

Cryptology
The science of secret writing in all its forms

Cut-out
A mechanism or person used to create a compartment between the members of
an operation to allow them to pass material or messages securely; also an agent
who functions as an intermediary between a spymaster and other subagents

D
Dangle
A person sent by the intelligence agency of his or her own country who
approaches an intelligence agency in the hope of being recruited as a spy so as
to allow a double agent operation for the purpose of intelligence collection or
disinformation

Dead Drop
A secret location where materials can be left for another party to retrieve
Dezinformatsiya [Disinformation]
The Soviet and Russian term for disinformation operations: operations designed
to pass false information to the enemy

Discard
An agent whom a service will permit to be detected and arrested so as to
protect more valuable agents

Double Agent
A spy who pretends to be working against one country but who is in fact working
for that countrys opponent; often a conduit for disinformation

Dry Clean
Actions agents take to determine if they are under surveillance

E
ELINT
Electronic intelligence; derived from the interception of radiation sources such
as radars

Enigma
A cipher machine used by the Germans to encode messages during WWII

Escort
The operations officer assigned to lead a defector along an escape route

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
Citizens of one country who live in another

Eyes Only
Documents that are intended for the eyes of one specified person only

F
FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation; U.S.'s domestic counterintelligence service and
federal law enforcement agency

Flaps and Seals

The tradecraft involved when making surreptitious openings and closings of
envelopes, seals, and secure pouches

Floater
A person used one time, occasionally, or even unknowingly for an intelligence
operation

Friends
General slang for members of an intelligence service; specifically British slang
for members of the Secret Intelligence Service

G
Ghoul
Agent who searches obituaries and graveyards for names of the deceased for
use by agents
H
Handler
A case officer who is responsible for handling agents in operations

Honey Trap
Slang for use of men or women in sexual situations to intimidate or snare others

Hospital
Russian slang for prison

HUMINT
Intelligence collected from human sources

I
Illegal
KGB/SVR operatives infiltrated into a target country without the protection of
diplomatic immunity, having assumed new identities and even new ethnicities

Illness
Russian slang for someone under arrest

IMINT
Imagery intelligence

Infiltration
The secret movement of an operative into a target area with the intent that his
or her presence will go undetected
Innocent Postcard
A postcard with an innocuous message sent to an address in a neutral country
to verify the continued security of an undercover operative

J
Jedburghs
OSS and SOE term for teams dropped into Europe before D-Day to help
resistance groups

K
KGB
The Soviet Union's all-powerful intelligence and security service during the Cold
War

L
L-Pill
A poison pill used by operatives to commit suicide

Legend
A spy's claimed background or biography, usually supported by documents and
memorized details

M
MASINT
Measurement and signature intelligence; a form of technical collection that uses
signatures that do not fit into the traditional scope of IMINT and SIGINT

MI5
The British domestic counterintelligence service; officially known as the Security
Service

MI6
The British foreign intelligence service; officially known as the Secret
Intelligence Service

Mole
An agent of one organization sent to penetrate a specific intelligence agency by
gaining employment; a term popularized by John Le Carre

Music Box
Slang for a clandestine radio

Musician
Slang for a clandestine radio operator

N
Naked
A spy operating without cover or backup

NSA
National Security Agency; branch of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible
for ensuring the security of American communications and for breaking into the
communications of other countries; "No Such Agency"

Nugget
British term for the bait (money, political asylum, sex, or career opportunity)
offered to a potential defector

Nursemaid
Russian term for the security service officer who accompanies delegations to
other countries to prevent anyone from defecting

O
Okhrana
Secret police under Russian tsars 1881-1917

One-time Pad
Strings of random numbers for singular use as a key in enciphering messages;
the proper use of a one-time pad renders a message mathematically
unbreakable

OSINT
Open source intelligence; intelligence information derived from publicly
available sources

OSS
Office of Strategic Services; U.S.'s WWII intelligence, sabotage, and subversion
organization; "Oh So Secret," "Oh Such Snobs," Oh So Social

P
Paroles
Passwords to identify intelligence personnel to each other

Pattern
The behavior and daily routine of an operative that makes his or her identity
unique

PHOTINT
Photographic intelligence, usually involving high-altitude reconnaissance using
spy satellites or aircraft

Pig
Russian intelligence term for traitor

Plaintext
The original message before encryption

Playback
To provide false information to the enemy while gaining accurate information
from him or her

Pocket Litter
Items in a spy's pocket (receipts, coins, theater tickets, etc.) that add
authenticity to his or her identity

Provocateur
An operative sent to incite a target group to action for purposes of entrapping or
embarrassing them

Purple
American name for the Japanese diplomatic cipher machine used from 1939-
1945

R
RADINT
Intelligence gathered from radar

Raven
A male agent employed to seduce people for intelligence purposes

Red
American name for an early Japanese diplomatic cipher machine

Rezident [Resident]
KGB or GRU (Soviet and Russian military intelligence) chief of station in any
foreign location

Rolled-up
When an operation goes bad and an agent is arrested

RQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

A medium-sized, long-endurance asset for reconnaissance, surveillance, and
target acquisition in moderate risk areas

S
Sanitize
To delete specific material or revise a report or other document to prevent the
identification of intelligence sources and collection methods

Shoe
A false passport or visa

SIGINT
Signals intelligence; consists of COMINT (communications intelligence) and
ELINT (electronic intelligence)
SIS
Secret Intelligence Service; the official name of Britain's MI6

Sleeper
Agent living as an ordinary citizen in a foreign country; acts only when a hostile
situation develops

SMERSH
Short for "Smert Shpionam" (Death to Spies); a Soviet counterintelligence
agency that existed from 1943 to 1946; made famous in the James Bond novels

SOE
Special Operations Executive; Britain's WWII sabotage and subversion
organization

Spymaster
The leader of espionage activities, and an agent handler extraordinaire

Stasi
The East German Ministry for State Security; East Germany's Cold War domestic
and foreign intelligence service

Station
Post from where espionage is conducted

Steganography
Techniques for concealing the very existence of a message (secret inks or
microdots)

SVR [Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki]

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki), formed
on December 18, 1991

Swallow
A female agent employed to seduce people for intelligence purposes

T
TECHINT
Technical intelligence; analysis of fielded equipment for training, research, and
the development of new weapons and equipment for eventual intelligence use

The Company
An unofficial term for the CIA popularized by fiction

The Take
Information gathered by intelligence collection operations

Throwaway
An agent considered expendable

Timed Drop
A dead drop that will be retrieved by a recipient after a set time period

Tradecraft
The methods developed by intelligence operatives to conduct their operations

Traffic Analysis
Methods for gaining intelligence from the patterns and volumes of messages of
communications intercepts
 U
U-2
The world's most famous spy plane, developed by the U.S. specifically for
intelligence collection in the thin atmosphere 55,000 feet above the Soviet
Union; it is still in use today

Ultra
Codename for intelligence derived from decryption of messages encrypted by
the German Enigma cipher machine during WWII

Uncle
Headquarters of any espionage service

W
Walk-in
A defector who declares his or her 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

SCHOOLS & EDUCATORS

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NEWS, BOOKS, & BRIEFINGS
o Recommended Reading
o Background Briefings
o Language of Espionage
o Top Ten Collection Highlights
o SpyCast
o Spypedia
o Bibliography
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