The United States Central Intelligence Agency (1947 - today)

Now I'm sure you have all heard of the CIA, or Central Intelligence Agency. Here's a bit of information on how it was started. Of course, I can't tell you everything. After all, the agency will always have its secrets...

Ever since the days of George Washington, the United States has carried out several intelligence activities. However, it was not until World War II that they have been coordinated on a government-wide basis. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed William J. Donovan, a war hero as well as a lawyer from New York, to be the Coordinator of Information, and later the head of the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner to the CIA. The OSS had authorization to collect and analyze strategic information. However, after World War II, the OSS was disbanded along with several other war agencies. Its functions were then transferred to the State and War Departments. President Truman soon realized the need for a postwar, centralized intelligence agency. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 to create a fully functional intelligence office. This established the CIA - the well-known organization which coordinates the nation's intelligence activities and associates, evaluates, and distributes intelligence affecting national security.

For more information, see https://www.cia.gov/.

Cheka

Facts about the Cheka...

Cheka: the Soviet agency responsible for state security
Full Name: The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (Russian: Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия по борьбе с контрреволюцией и саботажем; Vserossijskaya Chrezvychajnaya Komissiya). Quite a mouthful, isn't it?
When: 1917 - 1922
More: The Cheka was the first of a string of Soviet State Security agencies. It soon became an important military force, crucial to the Soviet government's survival. In 1954, it became the KGB.

For more information on the Cheka, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheka, and if that bores you, check out http://vip.latnet.lv/LPRA/celmina/1.html. It's a little more interesting!

Abwehr

Here's a bit of information on the Abwehr...

Abwehr: Germany's intelligence agency from 1921 to 1944
Meaning: the term "abwehr" means defense
Chiefs:

• Col. Friedrich Gempp (1921- 1927)
• Major Gunther Schwantes (1927-1929)
• Lt. Col. Ferdinand von Bredow (1929-1932)
• Rear Adm. Konrad Patzig (1932-1935)
• Adm. Wilhelm Canaris (1935-1944)
  

Purpose: Despite the fact that its name implies counterespionage, the Abwehr was actually an intelligence-gathering agency that dealt mainly with human intelligence (also known as humint). By the 1920s, it was divided up into three sections:

• I. Reconnaissance
• II. Cipher and Radio Monitoring
• III. Counterespionage
  

In 1938, Admiral Canaris reorganized the Abwehr, subdividing it into three main sections:

• The Central Division, also known as Department Z (called the "Abteilung Z" or "die Zentrale" in German)
• The Foreign Branch ("Amtsgruppe Ausland" in German), known later as the Foreign Intelligence Group
• Abwehr I. II. & III. This group was referred to as a counterintelligence branch, but actually dealt with intelligence gathering

For more information, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abwehr.

Key Spy Terms from Secrets, Lies, Gizmos, and Spies

These terms are or were used to identify intelligence agencies all around the world.

• Abwehr - Germany's military intelligence organization during the 1930s and early 1940s
• Cheka - Soviet agency responsible for state security (1917 - 1922); evolved into many others over the years; became the KGB in 1954
• CIA - United States Central Intelligence Agency, founded in 1947
• Cold War - the competition between the United States and its allies and Soviet Union and its allies; began approximately at the end of World War II; ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991
• DNI - Director of National Intelligence; post created in 2004
• FAPSI - Russian counterpart to the United Stated NSA
• FBI - United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, founded in 1935; descendant of the BI (Bureau of Investigation)
• Gestapo - Nazi Germany's Secret Police (1933 - 1945)
• GRU - (1918 - today) Soviet/Russian military intelligence agency created under Lenin
• HVA - East German foreign intelligence, part of the Stasi
• Jedburgh - elite team of British and American intelligence officers and radiomen trained by the SOE and OSS
  
• KGB - the Soviet agency responsible for foreign intelligence and domestic security (1954 - 1991)
• Maquis - an organization formed by French communists and socialists; part of the French Resistance during World War II; members were called Maquisards
• MI5 - the British domestic counterintelligence service; it is focused on internal security within the United Kingdom (MI stands for military intelligence)
• MI6 - the British foreign intelligence service; conducts operations to obtain intelligence and disrupts threats from foreign sources; also known as the SIS
• NSA - National Security Agency; includes the Central Security Service (CSS); protects US information systems and produces foreign intelligence; the principal American code-breaking organization
• OSS - Office of Strategic Services; the American foreign intelligence service during World War II; it was modeled in part on the British SOE and was disbanded in 1945
• Pentagon - the five-sided building that is the headquarters of the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.; "The Pentagon" is often used to refer to the leaders of the US military
• SIS - the British Secret Intelligence Service; established in 1909; also known as MI6
• SOE - British Special Operations Executive; established in 1940 to engage in "sabotage, subversion, and the formation of resistance groups in German-occupied Europe"
• Soviet Union, USSR - the Soviet Union, or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was the name of all the Soviet States or Republics from 1922 to 1991
• Stasi - East Germany's Ministry of State Security; dismantled in 1990
• SVR - Russia's foreign intelligence service; established in 1991; up until that time, foreign intelligence activities were coordinated by the KGB

Want to learn more about these intelligence agencies? Check into my blog for information all each and every one of them!

Spy Lingo from The Daring Book for Girls

• Acorn - someone who is performing an intelligence function
• Agent - a person officially employed by an intelligence service
• Agent (Undercover) - a secret agent
• Agent (Deep-cover) - an agent under permanent cover
• Agent (Double) - an agent simultaneously working for two enemies
• Agent-in-charge - the head agent
• Babysitter - bodyguard
• Blowback - unexpected negative consequences of spying
• Blown - detected, as in "your cover is blown"
• Bona Fides - proof of a person's claimed identity
• Brush Contact or Brush Pass - brief contact between two agents who are passing information, documents, or equipment
• Burn Notice - an official statement from an intelligence agency saying that an individual or group is an unreliable source
• Chicken Feed - low-grade information given by a double agent to an adversary to build the credibility of the double agent
• Cobbler - spy who creates false passports, visas, diplomas, and other documents
• Comm - small note or other written communication
• Cover - a secret identity
• Dead Drop - a secret hiding place somewhere in public where communications, documents, or equipment are placed for another agent to collect
• Doppelganger - a decoy or look-alike
• E&E - escape and evasion
• Ears Only - documents too secret to commit to writing
• Eyes Only - documents too secret to be talked about
• Floater - a person used occasionally or even unknowingly for an intelligence operation
• Friend - an agent or informant providing information
• Front - a legitimate-appearing business created to provide cover for spies and their operations
• Ghoul - agent who searches obituaries and graveyards for names to be used by agents
• Honey Pot or Honey Trap - slang for use of men or women to trap a person using affection or romance
• Informant - a person who provides intelligence to the surveillance team
• Joe - a deep-cover agent
• Legend - a background story or documents to support your cover
• Letterbox - a person who acts as a go-between
• Mole - an agent who penetrates enemy organizations
• Naked - a spy operating without cover or backup
• Paroles - passwords agents use to identify each other
• Peep - photographer
• Pocket litter - items in a spy's pocket (receipts, coins, etc.) that add authenticity to her identity
• Ring - a network of spies or agents
• Safehouse - a secret hideout
• Sanitize - to "clean up" a report or other document to hide sensitive information
• Sleeper Agents - spies who are placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but to be activated later
• Spook - another word for spy
• Target - the person being spied on
• Target (Hard) - a target who actively maintains secrecy and doesn't let on that she is aware of the surveillance team
• The Take - information gathered by spying
• Trigger - an agent who watches for the target and alerts the rest of the surveillance team when the target is spotted
• Unsub - an unknown subject in a surveillance operation
• Undercover - disguising your identity, or using an assumed identity, in order to learn secret information
• Walk-ins - agents (or non-agents) who offer their services
• Window Dressing - like pocket litter, this is extra information included in a cover story to help make it seem more real

- from The Daring Book for Girls by Miriam Peskowitz

Spy Lingo

Greetings, fellow agents. I have discussed it with Agent Josie McKay, and after much consideration (and requests from other bloggers commenting on my original post), I have decided to take charge of the Spy Lingo category. While Josie will continue to cover reviews on spy gadgets, books, and other resources, I will update on a regular basis covering common (and not so common) spy lingo, such as phrases, symbols, abbreviations, and so on. Enjoy!