Deeper Shade Of Seoul

I Have a New Job

I wanna tell you guys more about it, but first you'll have to become familiar with the following terms. Also, from now on please refrain from using my real name when calling me on my cell phone. See entry under "SIGINT" for details.

Agent (Asset): Foreigner recruited by a CIA case officer.

Base: CIA post that is smaller than a station.

Case Officer: A member of the Directorate of Operations (DO) who recruits and directs agents.

CI (Counterintelligence): Information and action against foreign espionage.

Clandestine Service: The same thing as the Directorate of Operations.

Collection: The gathering of raw intelligence info.

Cover: Official or unofficial position held by a member of the Directorate of Operations.

Covert Operation: Secret operation often done at the direction of the President. The Bay of Pigs invasion, for example.

Dead Drop: Secret location for agents and case officers to exchange information. The KGB used to use a hollow tree trunk in Washington, D.C.

Defector: Someone of interest to the CIA who has left his or her country of citizenship.

Denied Area: Country where the US has no diplomatic or military presence.

Developmental: A potential agent courted by a case officer.

Diplomatic Cover: A fake diplomatic position that protects a case officer from prosecution.

Dissemination: Distribution of intelligence.

Double Agent: Agent who is actually working for another government, normally feeding misinformation to the CIA. In the late 1980s, it was discovered that nearly all Cuban agents were working for Castro and passing on misinformation to the CIA.

False Flag: Agent, officer, or operation disguised to appear as if run by another country.

Handle (also called a vulnerability): Information, money, or other means for a case officer to exert control over an agent.

Hard-Target Country: Nation that the CIA considers to be difficult for spying, such as North Korea, China, France, Iran, and Russia.

HUMINT (human intelligence): Intelligence collected by the Directorate of Operations.

IMINT (imagery intelligence): Satellite imagery from spy satellites costing over $1 billion each, so exceptionally detailed that the numbers on license plates are visible.

Institutional Recruitment: Agent who can be passed down from case officer to case officer.

Legend: False identity of a case officer, often that of a real person, albeit a dead one.

Nonofficial Cover (NOC): A fake or real private sector job used by a case officer as a cover.

PNG: Eviction of a diplomat by declaring him or her a persona non grata, usually for spying. The benefit of official cover is that case officers are kicked out of a country instead of being thrown in jail.

SIGINT (signals intelligence): Intelligence gained by intercepting electronic communications.

Station: A major CIA post.

Takedown: Destruction of a network of foreign agents.

Walk-ins: Agents who are not recruited but instead offer their services.

posted by Jes @ 23:57