Post by Admin on Nov 28, 2015 13:35:56 GMT
[(......The bad guys already know all about this, only the good people do not. Copy-cat behavior will get you in more trouble than you ever wanted in your life, don't do this. The information is here so you can learn it and know what to look for so you don't get caught in a terrorist trap. .........)]
Sleeper agent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_agent
A sleeper agent is a spy who is placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but rather to act as a potential asset if activated. Sleeper agents are popular plot devices in fiction, in particular espionage fiction and science fiction.
Sleeper agents in espionage
In espionage, a sleeper agent is one who has infiltrated into the target country and has "gone to sleep", sometimes for many years. That is, he or she does nothing to communicate with his or her sponsor nor any existing agents, nor to obtain information beyond that in public sources. They can also be referred to as 'deep cover' agents. They acquire jobs and identities—ideally ones which will prove useful in the future - and attempt to blend into everyday life as normal citizens. Counter-espionage agencies in the target country cannot, in practice, closely watch all of those who might possibly have been recruited some time before.
In a sense, the best sleeper agents are those who do not need to be paid by the sponsor as they are able to earn enough money to finance themselves. This avoids any possibly traceable payments from abroad. In such cases, it is possible that the sleeper agent might be successful enough to become what is sometimes termed an "agent of influence".
Sleeper agents who have been discovered have often been natives of the target country who moved elsewhere in early life and were co-opted (perhaps for ideological or ethnic reasons) before returning to the target country. This is valuable to the sponsor as the sleeper's language and other skills can be those of a 'native' and thus less likely to trigger suspicion.
Choosing and inserting sleeper agents has often posed difficulties as it is uncertain which target will be appropriate some years in the future. If the sponsor government (or its policies) change after the sleeper has been inserted, the sleeper might be found to have been planted in the wrong target.
Examples
Otto Kuehn and family were installed in Hawaii by the German Abwehr, before World War II, to work for Japanese intelligence. Kuehn, and his family, aided the Japanese in the period before the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
Kim Philby was recruited by the Soviets while at university and may have been a sleeper agent for some years until going to work for the British government. By the end of WWII, he was operating as the liaison between the British Secret Intelligence Service and several U.S. intelligence operations. He was an agent of influence by then, but had not been a sleeper agent for several years.
The so-called Illegals Program is an alleged network of sleeper spies planted in the U.S. by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. The ongoing, multi-year investigation culminated in June 2010 with the filing of charges and the arrest of 10 suspects in the U.S. and another in Cyprus. Russian General Directorate for special programs or GUSP in Russian transliteration (Главное управление специальных программ, ГУСП) still recruits candidates among students and talented scientists in order to use them as sleeper agents or as legal employees in the Police and intelligence bodies in Russian Federation.
Fictional sleeper agents
In fiction, particularly science fiction, sleeper agents fall into two categories. The first is an extension of the real world sleeper agent where an enemy agent is substituted for a person already in a trusted position. The second and more common category involve people who have been subjected to mind control techniques, such as drugs, torture, psychological conditioning, implanted devices, and even telepathic manipulation who then are either released, or allowed to escape back to friendly territory. These sleeper agents are then used by enemy forces to spy, to conduct sabotage, to assassinate certain targets, or for other operations the enemy has in mind for them. During these outbreaks, the sleeper agent doesn't normally know what he/she is doing.
The substitution sleeper agent was often surgically altered to appear as someone else but more recent versions tend toward androids or clones. Or the agent may have been an infiltrator from the start but brainwashed to believe they are the real thing until activation.
Activation of the second kind of sleeper is, at least in novels and stories, done by approaching the agent and uttering a long ago memorized password or pass phrase, or by mailing a postcard with a significant picture to the sleeper. Once a sleeper becomes active, counter intelligence agencies can, at least in principle, become aware of the sleeper as intelligence is collected and transmitted, as instructions are passed, and so on.
In popular culture
There are a number of examples of sleeper agents found in science fiction and other forms of entertainment. Many times the unveiling of a sleeper agent is an important part of the plot and acts as surprise element and a plot twist. Some examples of sleeper agents include:
One of the earlier uses of the second type of sleeper agents in fiction is in Richard Condon's 1959 novel, The Manchurian Candidate, which has twice been adapted to film. Both the original and the remake are about a group of people 'programmed' to be sleeper agents. One of the sleeper agents is part of a Presidential election campaign, which if won will produce a Vice President controlled by sinister forces. One of his fellows would then be ordered to assassinate the President, allowing these forces to control the Executive Branch of Government.
Another early use of sleeper agents is in the 1977 Charles Bronson film "Telefon." Bronson plays an unwitting KGB agent whose trigger phrase is borrowed from Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
In the show 24, the villain Habib Marwan commands a network of sleeper agents. His hierarchy is complex and secretive, with families only being able to identify the rest of the family (as well as Marwan) as the only members of their "cell".
Both the book and film Eye of the Needle demonstrate how a sleeper agent has to operate within a host country - in this case, the German agent Henry Faber in World War II Britain. This story portrays points of view of both the agent and the British intelligence services as the hunt for the sleeper spy continues across Great Britain. Faber discovers the true nature of Operation Fortitude and tries to get the information to his home country.
The BBC mini series Sleepers centered on two Russian sleeper agents who had so fully integrated in British society that they were keen to avoid being brought back to the Soviet Union.
The seventh series of BBC spy drama Spooks involved an MI6 operation to put a network of sleeper agents in post-Soviet Russia as the Berlin Wall fell, and a Russian counter-operation to infiltrate Britain. The finale involved a Russian sleeper detonating a suitcase nuke in the heart of London.
In the Battlestar Galactica TV miniseries (2004), Raptor pilot Sharon Valerii is a sleeper Cylon. She is unaware of her true identity until activated. Her actions under her sleeper programming was a major plot point of the first season and the movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan.
The 1987 movie No Way Out is a cold war themed fiction of US government frantically searching for an alleged mole whose elusiveness is revealed in his being a successful sleeper agent.
The 1988 movie Little Nikita (starring Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix) revolves around a teenager in America finding out that his parents are actually Soviet sleeper agents.
Martin Scorsese's 2010 movie Shutter Island involved an imaginary plot to create sleeper agents at a Mental Institution.
In American TV series Family Guy (Season 8, episode 3) Stewie and Brian Griffin travel to meet Mayor Adam West to inform him of a secret spy program, but incidentally utter the phrase "gosh that Italian family at the next table sure is quiet." which activates the "sleeper agent" status within Mayor West, who fights his way out of the building to head towards Russia.
In the 2010 film Salt, Evelyn Salt was exposed as a sleeper agent but after finding out her husband was killed by the hands of her own people, she decides to annihilate the missions she was supposed to execute.
In the 2004 game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, EVA was a PLA sleeper agent assigned with obtaining the Philosophers' Legacy while posing as a KGB agent.
In the 1998 game Metal Gear Solid, during the briefing it's revealed that Liquid Snake was a sleeper agent for the Secret Intelligence Service that penetrated in the Middle East shortly before he served to the Special Air Service in a mission during the Gulf War.
In the 2010 game Call of Duty Black Ops, the main character Alex Mason is turned into a Russian sleeper agent while being captured as a P.O.W. at the real-life gulag Vorkuta in the northern Soviet Union so that the Soviet Union can attack the United States with other sleeper agents, including Mason with the fictional Nova 6 nerve agent.
Garage-rock band Sleeper Agent derives its name from Cylon sleeper agents in the show Battlestar Galactica.
In the comic series Assassin's Creed: The Fall, the main character Daniel Cross was a sleeper agent of the Templar Order (Abstergo Industries) assigned to kill the Mentor of the Assassin Order, succeeding in the year 2000 in Dubai.
Thuppakki is a 2012 Tamil movie which is also the first sleeper cell based movie in Tamil. The movie's plot revolves around the hero Jagdish (Vijay), a captain in the Indian Army fighting a set of sleeper agents terrorizing Mumbai.
TV series The Americans is a Cold War drama. The premise is that a group of Soviet KGB officers have been trained to impersonate American citizens, so that each one can become a sleeper agent, with a cover which may even include an unwitting spouse and family.
The Phyrexians in Magic: the Gathering made use of sleeper agents, engineered beings which believed themselves to be members of the native race of a plane until activated, at which point they became loyal to Phyrexia and were used to construct interplanar portals, among other chores. One such sleeper agent, Xantcha, notably retained her free will after her activation partially failed, and rebelled against Phyrexia.
Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty is Hindi action thriller film featuring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha is Bollywood's first sleeper cell based movie. It is a remake of Tamil movie Thuppakki.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier and in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D. is infested with numerous sleeper agents from the terrorist organization Hydra.
In The Penguins of Madagascar episode entitled "Our Man in Grrfurjiclestan," Special Agent Buck Rockgut is revealed to be a Sleeper Agent working for the villainous Red Squirrel, (that is after tricking the Penguins into believing that one of them was said Sleeper Agent out of spite for being tricked by them into looking for the fictitious Grrfurjiclestan for the Red Squirrel.) In the show, the Penguins instead define a Sleeper Agent as "A captive who is hypnotized into working for the enemy, and then sent to eliminate their allies when they least expect it."
See also:
Double agent
Mole (espionage)
Resident spy
Sleeper cell
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Clandestine cell system
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Sleeper cell)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_cell_system
A clandestine cell structure is a method for organizing a group of people ranging from resistance fighters or terrorists in such a way that it can more effectively resist penetration by an opposing organization (e.g., a law enforcement organization). In a cell structure, each small group of people in the cell only know the identities of the people in their cell; as such, if a cell member is apprehended and interrogated, he or she will not know the identities of the higher-ranking individuals in the organization. Depending on the group's philosophy, its operational area, the communications technologies available, and the nature of the mission, it can range from a strict hierarchy to an extremely distributed organization. It is also a method used by criminal organizations, undercover operatives, and unconventional warfare (UW) units led by special forces. Historically, clandestine organizations have avoided electronic communications, because signals intelligence is a strength of conventional militaries and counterintelligence organizations.[citation needed]
In the context of tradecraft, covert and clandestine are not synonymous. As noted in the definition (which has been used by the United States and NATO since World War II) in a covert operation the identity of the sponsor is concealed, while in a clandestine operation the operation itself is concealed. Put differently, clandestine means "hidden", while covert means "deniable". The adversary is aware that a covert activity is happening, but does not know who is doing it, and certainly not their sponsorship. Clandestine activities, however, if successful, are completely unknown to the adversary, and their function, such as espionage, would be neutralized if there was any awareness of the activity. Saying a "covert cell structure" is tantamount to tautology, because the point of the cell structure is that its details are completely hidden from the opposition.
A sleeper cell refers to a cell, or isolated grouping of sleeper agents that lies dormant until it receives orders or decides to act.
History:
> Provisional Irish Republican Army:
As opposed to the French Resistance, the modern Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) has a history going back to Irish revolutionary forces in the early 20th century, but has little external control. Its doctrine and organization have changed over time, given factors such as the independence of 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, the continued British control of Northern Ireland and the simple passage of time and changes in contemporary thinking and technology.
Officially, the PIRA is hierarchical, but, especially as British security forces became more effective, changed to a semiautonomous model for its operational and certain of its support cells (e.g., transportation, intelligence, cover and security). Its leadership sees itself as guiding and consensus-building. The lowest-level cells, typically of 2-5 people, tend to be built by people with an existing personal relationship. British counterinsurgents could fairly easily understand the command structure, but not the workings of the operational cells.
The IRA has an extensive network of inactive or sleeper cells, so new ad hoc organizations may appear for any specific operation.
> World War II French Resistance:
In World War II, Operation Jedburgh teams parachuted into occupied France to lead unconventional warfare units. They would be composed of two officers, one American or British, and the other French, the latter preferably from the area into which they landed. The third member of the team was a radio operator.
Especially through the French member, they would contact trusted individuals in the area of operation, and ask them to recruit a team of trusted subordinates (i.e., a subcell). If the team mission were sabotage, reconnaissance, or espionage, there was no need to meet in large units. If the team was to carry out direct action, often an unwise mission unless an appreciable number of the locals had military experience, it would be necessary to assemble into units for combat. Even then, the hideouts of the leadership were known only to subcell leaders. The legitimacy of the Jedburgh team came from its known affiliation with Allied powers, and it was a structure more appropriate for UW than for truly clandestine operations.
> National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam:
Also known as the Viet Cong, this organization grew from earlier anticolonial groups fighting the French, as well as anti-Japanese guerillas during World War II. Its command, control, and communication techniques derived from the experiences of these earlier insurgent groups. The group had extensive support from North Vietnam, and, indirectly, from the Soviet Union. It had parallel political and military structures, often overlapping. See Viet Cong and PAVN strategy and tactics.
The lowest level consisted of three-person cells who operated quite closely, and engaging in the sort of self-criticism common, as a bonding method, to Communist organizations.
> Parallel organizations:
The NLF and PIRA, as well as other movements, have chosen to have parallel political and military organizations. In the case of the NLF, other than some individuals with sanctuary in North Vietnam, the political organization could not be overt during the Vietnam War. After the war ended, surviving NLF officials held high office.
In the case of the PIRA, its political wing, Sinn Féin, became increasingly overt, and then a full participant in politics. Hamas and Hezbollah also have variants of overt political/social service and covert military wings.
The overt political/social–covert military split avoided the inflexibility of a completely secret organization. Once an active insurgency began, the secrecy could limit freedom of action, distort information about goals and ideals, and restrict communication within the insurgency. In a split organization, the public issues can be addressed overtly, while military actions were kept covert and intelligence functions stay clandestine.
> External support:
Many cell systems still receive, with due attention to security, support from the outside. This can range from leaders, trainers and supplies (such as the Jedburgh assistance to the French Resistance), or a safe haven for overt activities (such as the NLF spokesmen in Hanoi).
External support need not be overt. Certain Shi'a groups in Iraq, for example, do receive assistance from Iran[citation needed], but this is not a public position of the government of Iran, and may even be limited to factions of that government. Early US support to the Afghan Northern Alliance against the Taliban used clandestine operators from both the CIA and United States Army Special Forces. As the latter conflict escalated, the US participation became overt.
Note that both unconventional warfare (UW) (guerrilla operations) and foreign internal defense (FID) (counterinsurgency) may be covert and use cellular organization.
In a covert FID mission, only selected host nation (HN) leaders are aware of the foreign support organization. Under Operation White Star, US personnel gave covert FID assistance to the Royal Lao Army starting in 1959, became overt in 1961, and ceased operations in 1962.
> Models of insurgency and associated cell characteristics:
While different kinds of insurgency differ in where they place clandestine or covert cells, when certain types of insurgency grow in power, the cell system is deemphasized. Cells still may be used for leadership security, but, if overt violence by organized units becomes significant, cells are less important. In Mao's three-stage doctrine, cells are still useful in Phase II to give cover to part-time guerillas, but, as the insurgency creates full-time military units in Phase III, the main units are the focus, not the cells. The Eighth Route Army did not run on a cell model.
When considering where cells exist with respect to the existing government, the type of insurgency needs to be considered. One US Army reference was Field Manual 100-20, which has been superseded by FM3-07. Drawing on this work, Nyberg (a United States Marine Corps officer) extended the ideas to describe four types of cell system, although his descriptions also encompass types of insurgencies that the cell system supports. At present, there is a new type associated with transnational terrorist insurgencies.
1. Traditional:
the slowest to form, this reflects a principally indigenous insurgency, initially with limited goals. It is more secure than others, as it tends to grow from people with social, cultural or family ties. The insurgents resent a government that has failed to recognize tribal, racial, religious or linguistic groups "who perceive that the government has denied their rights and interests and work to establish or restore them. They seldom seek to overthrow the government or control the whole society; however, they frequently attempt to withdraw from government control through autonomy or semiautonomy." The Mujahideen in Afghanistan and the Kurdish revolt in Iraq illustrate the traditional pattern of insurgency. al-Qaeda generally operates in this mode, but if they become strong enough in a given area, they may change to the mass-oriented form.
2. Subversive:
Usually driven by an organization that contains at least some of the governing elite, some being sympathizers already in place, and others who penetrate the government. When they use violence, it has a specific purpose, such as coercing voters, intimidating officials, and disrupting and discrediting the government. Typically, there is a political arm (such as Sinn Féin or the National Liberation Front) that directs the military in planning carefully coordinated violence. "Employment of violence is designed to show the system to be incompetent and to provoke the government to an excessively violent response which further undermines its legitimacy." The Nazi rise to power, in the 1930s, is another example of subversion. Nazi members of parliament and street fighters were hardly clandestine, but the overall plan of the Nazi leadership to gain control of the nation was hidden. "A subversive insurgency is suited to a more permissive political environment which allows the insurgents to use both legal and illegal methods to accomplish their goals. Effective government resistance may convert this to a critical-cell model.
3. Critical-cell:
Critical cell is useful when the political climate becomes less permissive than one that allowed shadow cells. While other cell types try to form intelligence cells within the government, this type sets up "shadow government" cells that can seize power once the system is destroyed both by external means and the internal subversion. This model fits the classic coup d'etat, and often tries to minimize violence. Variants include the Sandinista takeover of an existing government weakened by external popular revolution. "Insurgents also seek to infiltrate the government's institutions, but their object is to destroy the system from within." Clandestine cells form inside the government. "The use of violence remains covert until the government is so weakened that the insurgency's superior organization seizes power, supported by the armed force. One variation of this pattern is when the insurgent leadership permits the popular revolution to destroy the existing government, then emerges to direct the formation of a new government. Another variation is seen in the Cuban revolution and is referred to as the foco (or Cuban model) insurgency. This model involves a single, armed cell which emerges in the midst of degenerating government legitimacy and becomes the nucleus around which mass popular support rallies. The insurgents use this support to establish control and erect new institutions."
4. Mass-oriented:
where the subversive and covert-cell systems work from within the government, the mass-oriented builds a government completely outside the existing one, with the intention of replacing it. Such "insurgents patiently construct a base of passive and active political supporters, while simultaneously building a large armed element of guerrilla and regular forces. They plan a protracted campaign of increasing violence to destroy the government and its institutions from the outside. They have a well-developed ideology and carefully determine their objectives. They are highly organized and effectively use propaganda and guerrilla action to mobilize forces for a direct political and military challenge to the government." The revolution that produced the Peoples' Republic of China, the American Revolution, and the Shining Path insurgency in Peru are examples of the mass-oriented model. Once established, this type of insurgency is extremely difficult to defeat because of its great depth of organization.
>>>>>>> Classic models for cell system operations:
Different kinds of cell organizations have been used for different purposes. This section focuses on clandestine cells, as would be used for espionage, sabotage, or the organization for unconventional warfare. When unconventional warfare starts using overt units, the cell system tends to be used only for sensitive leadership and intelligence roles. The examples here will use CIA cryptonyms as a naming convention used to identify members of the cell system. Cryptonyms begin with a two-letter country or subject name (e.g., AL), followed with an arbitrary word. It is considered elegant to have the code merge with the other letters to form a pronounceable word.
> Operations under official cover:
Station BERRY operates, for country B, in target country BE. It has three case officers and several support officers. Espionage operation run by case officers under diplomatic cover, they would have to with the basic recruiting methods described in this article. Case officer BETTY runs the local agents BEN and BEATLE. Case officer BESSIE runs BENSON and BEAGLE.
Some recruits, due to the sensitivity of their position or their personalities not being appropriate for cell leadership, might not enter cells but be run as singletons, perhaps by other than the recruiting case officer. Asset BARD is a different sort of highly sensitive singleton, who is a joint asset of the country B, and the country identified by prefix AR. ARNOLD is a case officer from the country AR embassy, who knows only the case officer BERTRAM and the security officer BEST. ARNOLD does not know the station chief of BERRY or any of its other personnel. Other than BELL and BEST, the Station personnel only know BERTRAM as someone authorized to be in the Station, and who is known for his piano playing at embassy parties. He is covered as Cultural Attache, in a country that has very few pianos. Only the personnel involved with BARD know that ARNOLD is other than another friendly diplomat.
In contrast, BESSIE and BETTY know one another, and procedures exist for their taking over each other's assets in the event one of the two is disabled.
Some recruits, however, would be qualified to recruit their own subcell, as BEATLE has done. BESSIE knows the identity of BEATLE-1 and BEATLE-2, since he had them checked by headquarters counterintelligence before they were recruited. Note that a cryptonym does not imply anything about its designee, such as gender.
> Clandestine presence:
The diagram of "initial team presence" shows that two teams, ALAN and ALICE, have successfully entered an area of operation, the country coded AL, but are only aware of a pool of potential recruits, and have not yet actually recruited anyone. They communicate with one another only through headquarters, so compromise of one team will not affect the other.
Assume that in team ALAN, ALASTAIR is one of the officers with local contacts, might recruit two cell leaders, ALPINE and ALTITUDE. The other local officer in the team, ALBERT, recruits ALLOVER. When ALPINE recruited two subcell members, they would be referred to as ALPINE-1 and ALPINE-2.
ALPINE and ALTITUDE only know how to reach ALASTAIR, but they are aware of at least some of other team members' identity should ALASTAIR be unavailable, and they would accept a message from ALBERT. Most often, the identity (and location) of the radio operator may not be shared. ALPINE and ALTITUDE, however, do not know one another. They do not know any of the members of team ALICE.
The legitimacy of the subcell structure came from the recruitment process, originally by the case officer and then by the cell leaders. Sometimes, the cell leader would propose subcell member names to the case officer, so the case officer could have a headquarters name check run before bringing the individual into the subcell. In principle, however, the subcell members would know ALPINE, and sometimes the other members of the ALPINE cell if they needed to work together; if ALPINE-1 and ALPINE-2 had independent assignments, they might not know each other. ALPINE-1 and ALPINE-2 certainly would not know ALASTAIR or anyone in the ALTITUDE or ALLOVER cells.
As the networks grow, a subcell leader might create his own cell, so ALPINE-2 might become the leader of the ALIMONY cell.
> Fault-tolerant cellular structures:
Modern communications theory has introduced methods to increase fault tolerance in cell organizations. In the past, if cell members only knew the cell leader, and the leader was neutralized, the cell was cut off from the rest of the organization. Game theory and graph theory have been applied to the study of optimal covert network design (see Lindelauf, R.H.A. et al. 2009. The influence of secrecy on the communication structure of covert networks. Social Networks.).
If a traditional cell had independent communications with the foreign support organization, headquarters might be able to arrange its reconnection. Another method is to have impersonal communications "side links" between cells, such as a pair of dead drops, one for Team ALAN to leave "lost contact" messages to be retrieved by Team ALICE, and another dead drop for Team ALICE to leave messages for Team ALAN.
These links, to be used only on losing contact, do not guarantee a contact. When a team finds a message in its emergency drop, it might do no more than send an alert message to headquarters. Headquarters might determine, through SIGINT or other sources, that the enemy had captured the leadership and the entire team, and order the other team not to attempt contact. If headquarters can have reasonable confidence that there is a communications failure or partial compromise, it might send a new contact to the survivors.
When the cut-off team has electronic communications, such as the Internet, it has a much better chance of eluding surveillance and getting emergency instructions than by using a dead drop that can be under physical surveillance.
> Non-traditional models, exemplified by al-Qaeda:
Due to cultural differences, assuming the al-Qaeda Training Manual is authentic, eastern cell structures may differ from the Western mode. "Al-Qaida's minimal core group, only accounting for the leadership, can also be viewed topologically as a ring or chain network, with each leader/node heading their own particular hierarchy.
"Such networks function by having their sub-networks provide information and other forms of support (the ‘many-to-one’ model), while the core group supplies ‘truth’ and decisions/directions (the ‘one-to-many’ model). Trust and personal relationships are an essential part of the Al-Qaida network (a limiting factor, even while it provides enhanced security). Even while cell members are trained as ‘replaceable’ units, ‘vetting’ of members occurs during the invited training period under the observation of the core group.
Cells of this structure are built outwards, from an internal leadership core. Superficially, this might be likened to a Western cell structure that emanates from a headquarters, but the Western centrality is bureaucratic, while structures in other non-western cultures builds on close personal relationships, often built over years, perhaps involving family or other in-group linkages. Such in-groups are thus extremely hard to infiltrate; infiltration has a serious chance only outside the in-group. Still, it may be possible for an in-group to be compromised through COMINT or, in rare cases, by compromising a member.
The core group is logically a ring, but is superimposed on an inner hub-and-spoke structure of ideological authority. Each member of the core forms another hub and spoke system (see infrastructure cells), the spokes leading to infrastructure cells under the supervision of the core group member, and possibly to operational groups which the headquarters support. Note that in this organization, there is a point at which the operational cell becomes autonomous of the core. Members surviving the operation may rejoin at various points.
Osama, in this model, has the main responsibility of commanding the organization and being the spokesman on propaganda video and audio messages distributed by the propaganda cell. The other members of the core each command one or more infrastructure cells.
While the tight coupling enhances security, it can limit flexibility and the ability to scale the organization. This in-group, while sharing tight cultural and ideological values, is not committed to a bureaucratic process.
"Members of the core group are under what could be termed 'positive control'—long relationships and similar mindsets make 'control' not so much of an issue, but there are distinct roles, and position (structural, financial, spiritual) determines authority, thus making the core group a hierarchy topologically.
In the first example of the core, each member knows how to reach two other members, and also knows the member(s) he considers his ideological superior. Solid lines show basic communication, dotted red arrows show the first level of ideological respect, and dotted blue arrows show a second level of ideological respect.
If Osama, the most respected, died, the core would reconstitute itself. While different members have an individual ideological guide, and these are not the same for all members, the core would reconstitute itself with Richard as most respected.
Assume there are no losses, and Osama can be reached directly only by members of the core group. Members of outer cells and support systems might know him only as "the Commander", or, as in the actual case of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's face is recognizable worldwide, but only a few people know where he was or even how to contact him.
> Infrastructure cells:
Any clandestine or covert service, especially a non-national one, needs a variety of technical and administrative functions.
Some of these services include:
1. Forged documents and counterfeit currency
2. Apartments and hiding places
3. Communication means
4. Transportation means
5. Information
6. Arms and ammunition
7. Transport
Other functions include psychological operations, training, and finance.
A national intelligence service has a support organization to deal with services such as finance, logistics, facilities (e.g., safehouses), information technology, communications, training, weapons and explosives, medical services, etc. Transportation alone is a huge function, including the need to buy tickets without drawing suspicion, and, where appropriate, using private vehicles. Finance includes the need to transfer money without coming under the suspicion of financial security organizations.
Some of these functions, such as finance, are far harder to operate in remote areas, such as the FATA of Pakistan, than in cities with large numbers of official and unofficial financial institutions, and the communications to support them. If the financial office is distant from the remote headquarters, there is a need for couriers, who must be trusted to some extent, but they may not know the contents of their messages or the actual identity of sender and/or receiver. The couriers, depending on the balance among type and size of message, security, and technology available, may memorize messages, carry audio or video recordings, or hand-carry computer media.
"These cells are socially embedded (less so than the core group, however), structurally embedded, functionally embedded (they are specialized into a domain), and knowledge base-specific (there does not seem to be a great deal of cross-training, or lateral mobility in the organization). Such cells are probably subjected to a mixture of positive and negative control ("do this, do these sorts of things, don’t do that")."
> Core Structure of Non-National Group:
Member - Infrastructure commanded
Richard - Finance
Anton - Military training/operations 1
Hassan - Military training/operations 2
David - Transportation
Kim - Communications and propaganda
The leaders of military cells are responsible for training them, and, when an operation is scheduled, selecting the operational commander, giving him the basic objective and arranging whatever support is needed, and then release him from tight control to execute the meeting. Depending on the specific case, the military leaders might have direct, possibly one-way, communications with their cells, or they might have to give Kim the messages to be transmitted, by means that Anton and Hassan have no need to know.
Note that Anton does not have a direct connection to Kim. Under normal circumstances, he sacrifices efficiency for security, by passing communications requests through Hassan. The security structure also means that Hassan does not know the members of Anton's cells, and Kim may know only ways to communicate with them but not their identity.
Kim operates two systems of cells, one for secure communications and one for propaganda. To send out a propaganda message, Osama must pass it to Kim. If Kim were compromised, the core group might have significant problems with any sort of outside communications.
Terrorist networks do not match cleanly to other cell systems that regularly report to a headquarters. The apparent al-Qaeda methodology of letting operational cells decide on their final dates and means of attack exhibit an operational pattern, but not a periodicity that could easily be used for an indications checklist appropriate for a warning center. Such lists depend on seeing a local pattern to give a specific warning.
Note that Hassan has two subordinates that have not yet established operational cells. These subordinates can be considered sleepers, but not necessarily with a sleeper cell.
> Operational cells:
For each mission are created one or more operational cells. If the al-Qaeda signature of multiple concurrent attacks is used, there may be an operational cell for each target location. It will depend on the operation if they will need any support cells in the operational area. For example, it may be more secure to have a local cell build bombs, which will be delivered by cells coming from outside the area.
"Operational cells are not created, but instead 'seeded' utilizing individuals spotted or that request assistance (both groups are 'vetted' by being trained under the observation of the core group, which dramatically restricts the opportunity for passing off walk-ins under false flag). Categorization of operational cells appears to be by capabilities, region, and then task/operation. Operational cells are composed of members whose worldview has been firmly tested—necessary to front-load, because such cells are dispersed back to their own local control (or negative control—proscribed behavior—with positive control only coming in the form of contact for synchronization or support)."
If operational cells routinely are "released" curved dotted lines on link to military cells to select their final operational parameters, they use a different paradigm than governmental clandestine or covert operations. On a number of cases, US special operations forces had to wait for Presidential authorization to make an attack, or even move to staging areas. Admittedly, a country would have to face the consequences of an inappropriate attack, so it may tend to be overcautious, where a terror network would merely shrug at the world being upset. Assuming that the al-Qaeda operational technique is not to use positive control, their operations may be more random, but also more unpredictable for counterterror forces. If their cells truly need constant control, there are communications links that might be detected by SIGINT, and if their command can be disrupted, the field units could not function. Since there is fairly little downside for terrorists to attack out of synchronization with other activities, the lack of positive control becomes a strength of their approach to cell organization.
The operational cells need to have continuous internal communication; there is a commander, who may be in touch with infrastructure cells or, less likely from a security standpoint with the core group.
Al-Qaeda's approach, which even differs from that of earlier terrorist organizations, may be very viable for their goals:
- Cells are redundant and distributed, making them difficult to ‘roll up’
- Cells are coordinated, not under "command & control"—this autonomy and local control makes them flexible, and enhances security
- Trust and comcon internally to the cell provide redundancy of potential command (a failure of Palestinian operations in the past), and well as a shared knowledgebase (which may mean, over time, that ‘cross training’ emerges inside a cell, providing redundancy of most critical skills and knowledge).
> Indirect support networks:
In the above graphic, note the indirect support network controlled by Richard's subcell.
"While Al-Qaida has elements of the organization designed to support the structure, but such elements are insufficient in meeting the needs of such an organization, and for security reasons there would be redundant and secondary-/tertiary-networks that are unaware of their connection to Al-Qaida. These networks, primarily related to fundraising and financial activities, as well as technology providers, are in a ‘use’ relationship with Al-Qaida—managed through cut-outs or individuals that do not inform them of the nature of activities, and that may have a cover pretext sufficient to deflect questions or inquiry."
> A possible countermeasure:
In 2002, U.S. News & World Report said that American intelligence is beginning to acquire a sufficiently critical mass of intelligence on al-Qaida indicating, "Once thought nearly impossible to penetrate, al Qaeda is proving no tougher a target than the KGB or the Mafia--closed societies that took the U.S. government years to get inside. "We're getting names, the different camps they trained at, the hierarchy, the infighting," says an intelligence official. "It's very promising." The report also said that the collected data has allowed the recruiting of informants.
Writing in the U.S. Army journal Military Review, David W. Pendall suggested that a "catch-and-release program for suspected operatives might create reluctance or distrust in such suspects and prevent them from further acts or, perhaps more important, create distrust in the cell leaders of these individuals in the future." The author noted the press release describing Ramzi Binalshib's cooperation with the United States "are sure to prevent reentry into a terrorist cell as a trusted member and most likely limits the further trust and assignments of close cell associates still at large. The captor would determine when to name names and when to remain silent." Indeed, once intelligence learns the name and characteristics of an at-large adversary, as well as some sensitive information that would plausibly be known to him, a news release could be issued to talk about his cooperation. Such a method could not be used too often, but, used carefully, could disturb the critical trust networks. The greatest uncertainty might be associated with throwing doubt onto a key member of an operational cell that has gone autonomous.
See also:
Leaderless resistance
Lone wolf (terrorism)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CIA Cryptonym
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_cryptonym
Digraphs:
Partial list of digraphs and probable definitions
AE: Soviet Union (1960s)
AM: Cuba (1960s)
AV: Uruguay
BE: Poland
BG: Albania
BI: Argentina
CA: West Germany
CK: CIA Soviet and East Europe division sensitive cases (late 1970s)
DB: Iraq
DI: Czechoslovakia
DM: SFRY / Yugoslavia
DN: South Korea
DU: Peru
EC: Ecuador
ES: Guatemala
GT: CIA Soviet and East Europe division sensitive cases (1980s)
HA: Indonesia (1958)
IA: Angola
JM: Cuba
KK: Israel
KU: Part of CIA (1960s)
LC: China
LN: United States
LI: Mexico
MH: Worldwide operation.
MJ: Palestinian-related
MK: CIA Technical Services Division (1950s/1960s)
MO: Thailand
OD: Other US Government Departments (1960s)
PB: Guatemala
PD: Soviet Union (1980s)
PO: Japan
SD: Iran
SM: United Kingdom
ST: CIA Directorate of Operations, Far East division, China Branch[12]
TP: Iran (1953)
TU: South Vietnam
WI: Democratic Republic of the Congo (1960s)
ZR: Intelligence intercept program of CIA Staff D ops, the group that worked directly with the NSA (National Security Agency).
Unidentified digraphs[edit]
DT, ER, FJ, HB, HO, HT, JU, KM, QK, SC, SE, SG, WS, ZI
Known cryptonyms:
AEFOXTROT: Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, a Soviet defector.
AELADLE: Anatoliy Golitsyn, a Soviet defector.
AESCREEN: Soviet Bloc division's translation and analysis unit
AMBIDDY-1: Manuel Artime.
AMBLOOD: Luis Torroella y Martin Rivero, a CIA agent.
AMCLATTER-1: Bernard Barker, one of the Watergate burglars.
AMBUD
AMCLEOPATRA
AMCOBRA
AMCROW
AMCRUZ or AMCRUX?
AMFOX
AMGLOSSY
AMHALF
AMJUDGE
AMLASH: Plan to assassinate Fidel Castro associated mainly with Rolando Cubela. AMLASH has been referred to as a "basically one-person Cubela operation".
AMLASH-1: Rolando Cubela Secades, a Cuban official involved in plot to kill Fidel Castro in 1963.
AMOT: Cuban exile informants of David Sánchez Morales.
AMPALM-4
AMQUACK: Che Guevara, Argentinian (later Cuban) guerrilla leader.
AMTHUG: Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba 1959-1976.
AMTRUNK: A CIA plan by New York Times journalist Tad Szulc initiated in February 1963, also called the "Leonardo Plan," that was "an attempt to find disgruntled military officials in Cuba who might be willing to recruit higher military officials in a plot to overthrow Castro", as well as to overthrow the Cuban government "by means of a conspiracy among high-level ... leaders of the government culminating in a coup d'etat". AMTRUNK has also been described as a "CIA-DIA Task Force on Cuba", and as "a plodding bureaucratic effort" that "had worked for months to identify Cuban leaders who might be able to stage a coup".
AMWHIP-1: Business associate of Santo Trafficante, Jr. who was in contact with Rolando Cubela (AMLASH) in 1963.
AMWORLD: A plan initiated June 28, 1963, to overthrow the Castro regime in a coup on December 1, 1963 (C-Day), that would have installed Juan Almeida Bosque, a top ranking Cuban military officer, as the new head of state. Some Cuban exiles referred to C-Day as "Plan Omega".
DBACHILLES: 1995 effort to support a military coup in Iraq.
DBROCKSTARS: Iraqi spy ring recruited by the CIA shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
CKGULL: CIA Polish agent Ryszard Kukliński (also QTGULL)
DYCLAIM: CIA
GROSSBAHN: Otto von Bolschwing, Sicherheitsdienst officer who later served as a spy for CIA
HTAUTOMAT: Photointerpretation center for the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft project.
HTKEEPER: Mexico City
HTLINGUAL: Mail interception operation 1952-1973.
HTNEIGH: National Committee for Free Albania (NCFA) [1949-mid1950s]
HTPLUME: Panama
JMADD: CIA air base near city of Retalhuleu, Guatemala 1960-1961
JMATE: CIA Air operations office for the Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961
JMBELL: CIA office (location unknown) 1961
JMBLUG: John Peurifoy, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala.
JMFURY: Preparatory strikes against Cuban airfields before Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961
JMGLOW: CIA Washington 1961
JMTIDE: CIA air base in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua 1961
JMTRAX: CIA covert air base/training camp in Guatemala 1960-1961
JMWAVE: CIA station in Miami (that operated against Cuba).
JMZIP: CIA office (location unknown) 1961
KKMOUNTAIN: CIA-Mossad cooperation in the 1960s
KMFLUSH: Nicaragua
KMPAJAMA: Mexico
KMPLEBE: Peru
KUBARK: CIA Headquarters, Langley
KUBASS: CIA Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T)
KUCAGE: CIA Overseas Paramilitary / Propaganda Operations
KUCLUB: CIA Office of Communications
KUDESK: CIA Counterintelligence department
KUDOVE: CIA Deputy Director for Operations (DDO)
KUFIRE: CIA Foreign Intelligence Staff
KUGOWN: CIA Psychological and Paramilitary Operations Staff
KUHOOK: CIA Paramilitary Operations Staff
KUJAZZ: CIA Office of National Estimates
KUJUMP: CIA Contact Division
KUKNOB: CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI)
KUMONK: CIA Office of Political Analysis (OPA)
KUPALM
KURIOT: CIA Technical Services Division.
KUSODA: Center for CIA Security.).
KUTUBE: CIA Foreign Intelligence Staff.).
LCFLUTTER: Polygraph, sometimes supplanted by truth drugs: Sodium Amytal (amobarbital), Sodium Pentothal (thiopental), and Seconal (secobarbital) to induce regression in the subject.
LCPANGS: Costa Rica
LNHARP: United States Government
LIENVOY: Wiretap or intercept program.
LIONIZER: Guatemalan refugee group in Mexico.
LITENSOR: Codename of CIA informant Adolfo López Mateos, president of Mexico.
LITEMPO: Spy network, operated between 1956–1969, to exchange information with Mexican top officers.
LITEMPO-1 Emilio Bolanos, nephew of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of president Adolfo López Mateos)
LITEMPO-2: Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of president Adolfo López Mateos and President of Mexico 1964-1970.
LITEMPO-4 : Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios, Head of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS), the top Mexican intelligence agency, at the midst of the dirty war (1964 – 1970).
LITEMPO-8 (later LITEMPO-14): Luis Echeverría, Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and President of Mexico 1970-1976.
LITEMPO-12 : Miguel Nazar Haro, a LITEMPO-4 subordinate, known to be in contact with CIA station chief Winston M. Scott; Nazar Haro later became head of the DFS intelligence agency (1978–1982)
MHCHAOS: Surveillance of antiwar activists during the Vietnam War.
MJTRUST/2 : Ali Hassan Salameh
MKCHICKWIT: Identify new drug developments in Europe and Asia and obtain samples, part of MKSEARCH.
MKDELTA: Stockpiling of lethal biological and chemical agents, subsequently became MKNAOMI.
MKNAOMI: Stockpiling of lethal biological and chemical agents, successor to MKDELTA.
MKOFTEN: Testing effects of biological and chemical agents, part of MKSEARCH.
MKSEARCH: MKULTRA after 1964, mind control research.
MKULTRA: Mind control research. Renamed MKSEARCH in 1964.
ODACID: United States Department of State/U.S. embassy
ODEARL: United States Department of Defense
ODENVY: Federal Bureau of Investigation
ODEUM: Gehlen Organization (1950-1951)
ODOATH: United States Navy
ODOPAL: Counterintelligence Corps, United States Army
ODUNIT: United States Air Force
ODURGE: Immigration and Naturalization Service
ODYOKE: Federal government of the United States
PBFORTUNE: CIA project to supply forces opposed to Guatemala's President Arbenz with weapons, supplies, and funding; predecessor to PBSUCCESS.
OFFSPRING: Gehlen Organization (1949-1950)
PBHISTORY: CIA project to gather and analyze documents from the Arbenz government in Guatemala that would incriminate Arbenz as a communist.
PBJOINTLY: Operation that built a tunnel from the American sector of Berlin, to the Russian sector.
PBPRIME: the United States
PBRUMEN: Cuba
PBSUCCESS: (Also PBS) CIA covert operation to overthrow the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954.
POCAPON: Taketora Ogata, Japanese politician in the 1950s.
PODAM: Matsutarō Shōriki, Japanese businessman and politician.
QJWIN: European assassin. Also described as an "assassin recruiter".
QKCIGAR: United States Government
QKELUSION: West German Social Democratic Party (SPD)
QKENCHANT: CIA program associated with E. Howard Hunt (1918–2007), who with G. Gordon Liddy and others, was one of the White House's "plumbers" — a secret team of operatives charged with fixing "leaks".
QKFLOWAGE: United States Information Agency
QTGULL: CIA Polish agent Ryszard Kukliński (also CKGULL)
SD/PLOD/1: deputy prime minister for the Interim government of Iran Abbas Amir-Entezam
SMOTH: UK Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
TPBEDAMN: U.S. operation to counter communist subversion in Iran with propaganda and bribes.
TPAJAX: Joint US/UK operation to overthrow Mohammed Mossadeq, Prime Minister of Iran.
TPCREDO: Italy
TPROACH: Yugoslavia
TPTONIC: National Committee for Free Europe (NCFE)
UNREST: Otto von Bolschwing
USAGE: Otto von Bolschwing
UTILITY: Reinhard Gehlen, first president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst
ZIPPER: Gehlen Organization (1951-1956)
ZRRIFLE: An assassination plot targeting Fidel Castro
Operations and projects:
APPLE: Agent team seen in 1952 by CIA/OPC as best bet to successfully continue BGFIEND Project aimed to harass/overthrow Albanian communist regime. Team was arrested, communists controlled radio ops for 16 months, luring more agents into Albania in 1953, and trying and executing original agents in 1954 to suddenly end BGFIEND.[44]
ARTICHOKE: Anti-interrogation project. Precursor to MKULTRA.
AZORIAN: Project to raise the Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean.
BGGYPSY: Communist.
BIRCH
BLACKSHIELD: A-12 aircraft reconnaissance missions off Okinawa.
BLUEBIRD: mind control program
BOND: Puerto Barrios, Guatemala.
CATIDE: Bundesnachrichtendienst
CHARITY: Joint CIA/OSO-Italian Naval Intelligence information gathering operation against Albania (1948–1951).
CHERRY: Covert assassination / destabilization operation during Vietnam war, targeting Prince (later King) Norodom Sihanouk and the government of Cambodia. Disbanded.
DTFROGS: El Salvador
ESCOBILLA: Guatemalan national.
ESMERALDITE: Labor informant affiliated with AFL-sponsored labor movement.
ESQUIRE: James Bamford, author of "The Puzzle Palace".
ESSENCE: Guatemalan anti-communist leader.
FDTRODPINT : Afghan tribal agents, formerly known as GESENIOR, reactivated in the 1990s by the CIA to hunt Mir Aimal Kasi and later Osama bin Laden.
FIR
FJGROUND: Grafenwöhr, West Germany paramilitary training ground.
FJHOPEFUL: Military base.
FPBERM: Yugoslavia
FUBELT: Project to prevent Salvador Allende rise to power, and to promote a military coup in Chile.
GANGPLANK: KYP, Greek Central Intelligence Service (1952–1974)
GESENIOR: Afghan tribal agents working with the CIA during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Later called FDTRODPINT.
GPFLOOR: Lee Harvey Oswald, J.F. Kennedy's assassin.
GPIDEAL: John F. Kennedy, US president.
GRALLSPICE: Pyotr Popov, CIA Soviet agent
GUSTO: Project to design a follow-on to the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Succeeded RAINBOW. Succeeded by OXCART.
HBFAIRY: France
HTCURIO: American or U.S. [Not Government]
IAFEATURE: Operation to support the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) during the Angolan civil war.
IDIOM: Initial work by Convair on a follow-on to the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Later moved into GUSTO.
Project JBEDICT: Tripartite Stay-Behind project.
JENNIFER: Document control system for Project AZORIAN.
KEMPSTER: Project to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) of the inlets of the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft.
KMHYMNAL: Maine-built motor sailer JUANITA purchased by CIA to use as floating, clandestine, propaganda broadcast facility in Mediterranean/Adriatic (1950–53).
LEMON
LNWILT: US Counterintelligence Corps (CIC)
LPMEDLEY: Surveillance of telegraphic information exiting or entering the United States.
MAGPIE: US Army Labor Service Organization
MATADOR: Project to recover section of Soviet submarine K-129 dropped during Project AZORIAN. Cancelled after Soviet protest.
MOCKINGBIRD: Recruitment of American journalists for CIA work.
MONGOOSE: "Primarily a relentless and escalating campaign of sabotage and small Cuban exile raids that would somehow cause the overthrow of Castro," which "also included plans for an invasion of Cuba in the fall of 1962".
OAK: Operation to assassinate suspected South Vietnamese collaborators during Vietnam war.
PANCHO: Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala, also RUFUS.
PAPERCLIP: US recruiting of German scientists after World War II.
PHOENIX: Vietnam covert intelligence/assassination operation.
PINE
RAINBOW: Project to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) of the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Succeeded by GUSTO.
QKWAVER: Egypt
RUFUS: Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala, also PANCHO.
RYBAT: Indicates that the information is very sensitive.
SARANAC: Training site in Nicaragua.
SCRANTON: Training base for radio operators near Nicaragua.
SGCIDER: Germany
SGUAT: CIA Station in Guatemala
SHERWOOD: CIA radio broadcast program in Nicaragua begun on May 1, 1954.
SKILLET: Whiting Willauer, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras.
SKIMMER: The "Group" CIA cover organization supporting Castillo Armas.
SLINC: Telegram indicator for PBSUCCESS Headquarters in Florida.
STANDEL: Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala.
STARGATE: Investigation of psychic phenomena.
STBAILEY: political action and propaganda part of STBARNUM
STBARNUM: CIA Tibetan program (covert action in Tibet, 1950s onwards)
STCIRCUS: aerial part of STBARNUM
STSPIN: Three P-3A Orion aircraft operated from Taiwan in 1966.
SYNCARP: The "Junta," Castillo Armas' political organization headed by Cordova Cerna.
THERMOS: Unclassified codeword used in lieu of RAINBOW
THROWOFF/2: Albanian ethnic agent/radio operator employed by Italian Navy Intelligence/CIA in several early Cold War covert operations against Albania. Was captured, operated radio under communist control to lure CIA agents to capture/death, tried in 1954, death sentence commuted, freed after 25 years. CIA paid his son $40,000 in 1996.
OPERATION TILT: The CIA's name for "an operation put together by John Martino, who was fronting for his boss Santo Trafficante and his roommate Johnny Roselli". OPERATION TILT used "some of the same people working on the CIA-Mafia plots in the spring of 1963 ... [and] involved sending a Cuban exile team into Cuba to retrieve Soviet technicians supposedly ready to defect and reveal the existence of Soviet missiles still on the island".
TROPIC: Air operations flown over North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union by CAT pilots during the 1950s.
VALUABLE: British MI-run Albanian operations 1949 to 1953.
WASHTUB: Operation to plant Soviet arms in Nicaragua.
WBFISHY: British Foreign Office
WSBURNT: Guatemala
WSHOOFS: Honduras
ZAPATA: Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961.
Sleeper agent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_agent
A sleeper agent is a spy who is placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but rather to act as a potential asset if activated. Sleeper agents are popular plot devices in fiction, in particular espionage fiction and science fiction.
Sleeper agents in espionage
In espionage, a sleeper agent is one who has infiltrated into the target country and has "gone to sleep", sometimes for many years. That is, he or she does nothing to communicate with his or her sponsor nor any existing agents, nor to obtain information beyond that in public sources. They can also be referred to as 'deep cover' agents. They acquire jobs and identities—ideally ones which will prove useful in the future - and attempt to blend into everyday life as normal citizens. Counter-espionage agencies in the target country cannot, in practice, closely watch all of those who might possibly have been recruited some time before.
In a sense, the best sleeper agents are those who do not need to be paid by the sponsor as they are able to earn enough money to finance themselves. This avoids any possibly traceable payments from abroad. In such cases, it is possible that the sleeper agent might be successful enough to become what is sometimes termed an "agent of influence".
Sleeper agents who have been discovered have often been natives of the target country who moved elsewhere in early life and were co-opted (perhaps for ideological or ethnic reasons) before returning to the target country. This is valuable to the sponsor as the sleeper's language and other skills can be those of a 'native' and thus less likely to trigger suspicion.
Choosing and inserting sleeper agents has often posed difficulties as it is uncertain which target will be appropriate some years in the future. If the sponsor government (or its policies) change after the sleeper has been inserted, the sleeper might be found to have been planted in the wrong target.
Examples
Otto Kuehn and family were installed in Hawaii by the German Abwehr, before World War II, to work for Japanese intelligence. Kuehn, and his family, aided the Japanese in the period before the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
Kim Philby was recruited by the Soviets while at university and may have been a sleeper agent for some years until going to work for the British government. By the end of WWII, he was operating as the liaison between the British Secret Intelligence Service and several U.S. intelligence operations. He was an agent of influence by then, but had not been a sleeper agent for several years.
The so-called Illegals Program is an alleged network of sleeper spies planted in the U.S. by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. The ongoing, multi-year investigation culminated in June 2010 with the filing of charges and the arrest of 10 suspects in the U.S. and another in Cyprus. Russian General Directorate for special programs or GUSP in Russian transliteration (Главное управление специальных программ, ГУСП) still recruits candidates among students and talented scientists in order to use them as sleeper agents or as legal employees in the Police and intelligence bodies in Russian Federation.
Fictional sleeper agents
In fiction, particularly science fiction, sleeper agents fall into two categories. The first is an extension of the real world sleeper agent where an enemy agent is substituted for a person already in a trusted position. The second and more common category involve people who have been subjected to mind control techniques, such as drugs, torture, psychological conditioning, implanted devices, and even telepathic manipulation who then are either released, or allowed to escape back to friendly territory. These sleeper agents are then used by enemy forces to spy, to conduct sabotage, to assassinate certain targets, or for other operations the enemy has in mind for them. During these outbreaks, the sleeper agent doesn't normally know what he/she is doing.
The substitution sleeper agent was often surgically altered to appear as someone else but more recent versions tend toward androids or clones. Or the agent may have been an infiltrator from the start but brainwashed to believe they are the real thing until activation.
Activation of the second kind of sleeper is, at least in novels and stories, done by approaching the agent and uttering a long ago memorized password or pass phrase, or by mailing a postcard with a significant picture to the sleeper. Once a sleeper becomes active, counter intelligence agencies can, at least in principle, become aware of the sleeper as intelligence is collected and transmitted, as instructions are passed, and so on.
In popular culture
There are a number of examples of sleeper agents found in science fiction and other forms of entertainment. Many times the unveiling of a sleeper agent is an important part of the plot and acts as surprise element and a plot twist. Some examples of sleeper agents include:
One of the earlier uses of the second type of sleeper agents in fiction is in Richard Condon's 1959 novel, The Manchurian Candidate, which has twice been adapted to film. Both the original and the remake are about a group of people 'programmed' to be sleeper agents. One of the sleeper agents is part of a Presidential election campaign, which if won will produce a Vice President controlled by sinister forces. One of his fellows would then be ordered to assassinate the President, allowing these forces to control the Executive Branch of Government.
Another early use of sleeper agents is in the 1977 Charles Bronson film "Telefon." Bronson plays an unwitting KGB agent whose trigger phrase is borrowed from Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
In the show 24, the villain Habib Marwan commands a network of sleeper agents. His hierarchy is complex and secretive, with families only being able to identify the rest of the family (as well as Marwan) as the only members of their "cell".
Both the book and film Eye of the Needle demonstrate how a sleeper agent has to operate within a host country - in this case, the German agent Henry Faber in World War II Britain. This story portrays points of view of both the agent and the British intelligence services as the hunt for the sleeper spy continues across Great Britain. Faber discovers the true nature of Operation Fortitude and tries to get the information to his home country.
The BBC mini series Sleepers centered on two Russian sleeper agents who had so fully integrated in British society that they were keen to avoid being brought back to the Soviet Union.
The seventh series of BBC spy drama Spooks involved an MI6 operation to put a network of sleeper agents in post-Soviet Russia as the Berlin Wall fell, and a Russian counter-operation to infiltrate Britain. The finale involved a Russian sleeper detonating a suitcase nuke in the heart of London.
In the Battlestar Galactica TV miniseries (2004), Raptor pilot Sharon Valerii is a sleeper Cylon. She is unaware of her true identity until activated. Her actions under her sleeper programming was a major plot point of the first season and the movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan.
The 1987 movie No Way Out is a cold war themed fiction of US government frantically searching for an alleged mole whose elusiveness is revealed in his being a successful sleeper agent.
The 1988 movie Little Nikita (starring Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix) revolves around a teenager in America finding out that his parents are actually Soviet sleeper agents.
Martin Scorsese's 2010 movie Shutter Island involved an imaginary plot to create sleeper agents at a Mental Institution.
In American TV series Family Guy (Season 8, episode 3) Stewie and Brian Griffin travel to meet Mayor Adam West to inform him of a secret spy program, but incidentally utter the phrase "gosh that Italian family at the next table sure is quiet." which activates the "sleeper agent" status within Mayor West, who fights his way out of the building to head towards Russia.
In the 2010 film Salt, Evelyn Salt was exposed as a sleeper agent but after finding out her husband was killed by the hands of her own people, she decides to annihilate the missions she was supposed to execute.
In the 2004 game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, EVA was a PLA sleeper agent assigned with obtaining the Philosophers' Legacy while posing as a KGB agent.
In the 1998 game Metal Gear Solid, during the briefing it's revealed that Liquid Snake was a sleeper agent for the Secret Intelligence Service that penetrated in the Middle East shortly before he served to the Special Air Service in a mission during the Gulf War.
In the 2010 game Call of Duty Black Ops, the main character Alex Mason is turned into a Russian sleeper agent while being captured as a P.O.W. at the real-life gulag Vorkuta in the northern Soviet Union so that the Soviet Union can attack the United States with other sleeper agents, including Mason with the fictional Nova 6 nerve agent.
Garage-rock band Sleeper Agent derives its name from Cylon sleeper agents in the show Battlestar Galactica.
In the comic series Assassin's Creed: The Fall, the main character Daniel Cross was a sleeper agent of the Templar Order (Abstergo Industries) assigned to kill the Mentor of the Assassin Order, succeeding in the year 2000 in Dubai.
Thuppakki is a 2012 Tamil movie which is also the first sleeper cell based movie in Tamil. The movie's plot revolves around the hero Jagdish (Vijay), a captain in the Indian Army fighting a set of sleeper agents terrorizing Mumbai.
TV series The Americans is a Cold War drama. The premise is that a group of Soviet KGB officers have been trained to impersonate American citizens, so that each one can become a sleeper agent, with a cover which may even include an unwitting spouse and family.
The Phyrexians in Magic: the Gathering made use of sleeper agents, engineered beings which believed themselves to be members of the native race of a plane until activated, at which point they became loyal to Phyrexia and were used to construct interplanar portals, among other chores. One such sleeper agent, Xantcha, notably retained her free will after her activation partially failed, and rebelled against Phyrexia.
Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty is Hindi action thriller film featuring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha is Bollywood's first sleeper cell based movie. It is a remake of Tamil movie Thuppakki.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier and in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D. is infested with numerous sleeper agents from the terrorist organization Hydra.
In The Penguins of Madagascar episode entitled "Our Man in Grrfurjiclestan," Special Agent Buck Rockgut is revealed to be a Sleeper Agent working for the villainous Red Squirrel, (that is after tricking the Penguins into believing that one of them was said Sleeper Agent out of spite for being tricked by them into looking for the fictitious Grrfurjiclestan for the Red Squirrel.) In the show, the Penguins instead define a Sleeper Agent as "A captive who is hypnotized into working for the enemy, and then sent to eliminate their allies when they least expect it."
See also:
Double agent
Mole (espionage)
Resident spy
Sleeper cell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clandestine cell system
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Sleeper cell)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_cell_system
A clandestine cell structure is a method for organizing a group of people ranging from resistance fighters or terrorists in such a way that it can more effectively resist penetration by an opposing organization (e.g., a law enforcement organization). In a cell structure, each small group of people in the cell only know the identities of the people in their cell; as such, if a cell member is apprehended and interrogated, he or she will not know the identities of the higher-ranking individuals in the organization. Depending on the group's philosophy, its operational area, the communications technologies available, and the nature of the mission, it can range from a strict hierarchy to an extremely distributed organization. It is also a method used by criminal organizations, undercover operatives, and unconventional warfare (UW) units led by special forces. Historically, clandestine organizations have avoided electronic communications, because signals intelligence is a strength of conventional militaries and counterintelligence organizations.[citation needed]
In the context of tradecraft, covert and clandestine are not synonymous. As noted in the definition (which has been used by the United States and NATO since World War II) in a covert operation the identity of the sponsor is concealed, while in a clandestine operation the operation itself is concealed. Put differently, clandestine means "hidden", while covert means "deniable". The adversary is aware that a covert activity is happening, but does not know who is doing it, and certainly not their sponsorship. Clandestine activities, however, if successful, are completely unknown to the adversary, and their function, such as espionage, would be neutralized if there was any awareness of the activity. Saying a "covert cell structure" is tantamount to tautology, because the point of the cell structure is that its details are completely hidden from the opposition.
A sleeper cell refers to a cell, or isolated grouping of sleeper agents that lies dormant until it receives orders or decides to act.
History:
> Provisional Irish Republican Army:
As opposed to the French Resistance, the modern Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) has a history going back to Irish revolutionary forces in the early 20th century, but has little external control. Its doctrine and organization have changed over time, given factors such as the independence of 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, the continued British control of Northern Ireland and the simple passage of time and changes in contemporary thinking and technology.
Officially, the PIRA is hierarchical, but, especially as British security forces became more effective, changed to a semiautonomous model for its operational and certain of its support cells (e.g., transportation, intelligence, cover and security). Its leadership sees itself as guiding and consensus-building. The lowest-level cells, typically of 2-5 people, tend to be built by people with an existing personal relationship. British counterinsurgents could fairly easily understand the command structure, but not the workings of the operational cells.
The IRA has an extensive network of inactive or sleeper cells, so new ad hoc organizations may appear for any specific operation.
> World War II French Resistance:
In World War II, Operation Jedburgh teams parachuted into occupied France to lead unconventional warfare units. They would be composed of two officers, one American or British, and the other French, the latter preferably from the area into which they landed. The third member of the team was a radio operator.
Especially through the French member, they would contact trusted individuals in the area of operation, and ask them to recruit a team of trusted subordinates (i.e., a subcell). If the team mission were sabotage, reconnaissance, or espionage, there was no need to meet in large units. If the team was to carry out direct action, often an unwise mission unless an appreciable number of the locals had military experience, it would be necessary to assemble into units for combat. Even then, the hideouts of the leadership were known only to subcell leaders. The legitimacy of the Jedburgh team came from its known affiliation with Allied powers, and it was a structure more appropriate for UW than for truly clandestine operations.
> National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam:
Also known as the Viet Cong, this organization grew from earlier anticolonial groups fighting the French, as well as anti-Japanese guerillas during World War II. Its command, control, and communication techniques derived from the experiences of these earlier insurgent groups. The group had extensive support from North Vietnam, and, indirectly, from the Soviet Union. It had parallel political and military structures, often overlapping. See Viet Cong and PAVN strategy and tactics.
The lowest level consisted of three-person cells who operated quite closely, and engaging in the sort of self-criticism common, as a bonding method, to Communist organizations.
> Parallel organizations:
The NLF and PIRA, as well as other movements, have chosen to have parallel political and military organizations. In the case of the NLF, other than some individuals with sanctuary in North Vietnam, the political organization could not be overt during the Vietnam War. After the war ended, surviving NLF officials held high office.
In the case of the PIRA, its political wing, Sinn Féin, became increasingly overt, and then a full participant in politics. Hamas and Hezbollah also have variants of overt political/social service and covert military wings.
The overt political/social–covert military split avoided the inflexibility of a completely secret organization. Once an active insurgency began, the secrecy could limit freedom of action, distort information about goals and ideals, and restrict communication within the insurgency. In a split organization, the public issues can be addressed overtly, while military actions were kept covert and intelligence functions stay clandestine.
> External support:
Many cell systems still receive, with due attention to security, support from the outside. This can range from leaders, trainers and supplies (such as the Jedburgh assistance to the French Resistance), or a safe haven for overt activities (such as the NLF spokesmen in Hanoi).
External support need not be overt. Certain Shi'a groups in Iraq, for example, do receive assistance from Iran[citation needed], but this is not a public position of the government of Iran, and may even be limited to factions of that government. Early US support to the Afghan Northern Alliance against the Taliban used clandestine operators from both the CIA and United States Army Special Forces. As the latter conflict escalated, the US participation became overt.
Note that both unconventional warfare (UW) (guerrilla operations) and foreign internal defense (FID) (counterinsurgency) may be covert and use cellular organization.
In a covert FID mission, only selected host nation (HN) leaders are aware of the foreign support organization. Under Operation White Star, US personnel gave covert FID assistance to the Royal Lao Army starting in 1959, became overt in 1961, and ceased operations in 1962.
> Models of insurgency and associated cell characteristics:
While different kinds of insurgency differ in where they place clandestine or covert cells, when certain types of insurgency grow in power, the cell system is deemphasized. Cells still may be used for leadership security, but, if overt violence by organized units becomes significant, cells are less important. In Mao's three-stage doctrine, cells are still useful in Phase II to give cover to part-time guerillas, but, as the insurgency creates full-time military units in Phase III, the main units are the focus, not the cells. The Eighth Route Army did not run on a cell model.
When considering where cells exist with respect to the existing government, the type of insurgency needs to be considered. One US Army reference was Field Manual 100-20, which has been superseded by FM3-07. Drawing on this work, Nyberg (a United States Marine Corps officer) extended the ideas to describe four types of cell system, although his descriptions also encompass types of insurgencies that the cell system supports. At present, there is a new type associated with transnational terrorist insurgencies.
1. Traditional:
the slowest to form, this reflects a principally indigenous insurgency, initially with limited goals. It is more secure than others, as it tends to grow from people with social, cultural or family ties. The insurgents resent a government that has failed to recognize tribal, racial, religious or linguistic groups "who perceive that the government has denied their rights and interests and work to establish or restore them. They seldom seek to overthrow the government or control the whole society; however, they frequently attempt to withdraw from government control through autonomy or semiautonomy." The Mujahideen in Afghanistan and the Kurdish revolt in Iraq illustrate the traditional pattern of insurgency. al-Qaeda generally operates in this mode, but if they become strong enough in a given area, they may change to the mass-oriented form.
2. Subversive:
Usually driven by an organization that contains at least some of the governing elite, some being sympathizers already in place, and others who penetrate the government. When they use violence, it has a specific purpose, such as coercing voters, intimidating officials, and disrupting and discrediting the government. Typically, there is a political arm (such as Sinn Féin or the National Liberation Front) that directs the military in planning carefully coordinated violence. "Employment of violence is designed to show the system to be incompetent and to provoke the government to an excessively violent response which further undermines its legitimacy." The Nazi rise to power, in the 1930s, is another example of subversion. Nazi members of parliament and street fighters were hardly clandestine, but the overall plan of the Nazi leadership to gain control of the nation was hidden. "A subversive insurgency is suited to a more permissive political environment which allows the insurgents to use both legal and illegal methods to accomplish their goals. Effective government resistance may convert this to a critical-cell model.
3. Critical-cell:
Critical cell is useful when the political climate becomes less permissive than one that allowed shadow cells. While other cell types try to form intelligence cells within the government, this type sets up "shadow government" cells that can seize power once the system is destroyed both by external means and the internal subversion. This model fits the classic coup d'etat, and often tries to minimize violence. Variants include the Sandinista takeover of an existing government weakened by external popular revolution. "Insurgents also seek to infiltrate the government's institutions, but their object is to destroy the system from within." Clandestine cells form inside the government. "The use of violence remains covert until the government is so weakened that the insurgency's superior organization seizes power, supported by the armed force. One variation of this pattern is when the insurgent leadership permits the popular revolution to destroy the existing government, then emerges to direct the formation of a new government. Another variation is seen in the Cuban revolution and is referred to as the foco (or Cuban model) insurgency. This model involves a single, armed cell which emerges in the midst of degenerating government legitimacy and becomes the nucleus around which mass popular support rallies. The insurgents use this support to establish control and erect new institutions."
4. Mass-oriented:
where the subversive and covert-cell systems work from within the government, the mass-oriented builds a government completely outside the existing one, with the intention of replacing it. Such "insurgents patiently construct a base of passive and active political supporters, while simultaneously building a large armed element of guerrilla and regular forces. They plan a protracted campaign of increasing violence to destroy the government and its institutions from the outside. They have a well-developed ideology and carefully determine their objectives. They are highly organized and effectively use propaganda and guerrilla action to mobilize forces for a direct political and military challenge to the government." The revolution that produced the Peoples' Republic of China, the American Revolution, and the Shining Path insurgency in Peru are examples of the mass-oriented model. Once established, this type of insurgency is extremely difficult to defeat because of its great depth of organization.
>>>>>>> Classic models for cell system operations:
Different kinds of cell organizations have been used for different purposes. This section focuses on clandestine cells, as would be used for espionage, sabotage, or the organization for unconventional warfare. When unconventional warfare starts using overt units, the cell system tends to be used only for sensitive leadership and intelligence roles. The examples here will use CIA cryptonyms as a naming convention used to identify members of the cell system. Cryptonyms begin with a two-letter country or subject name (e.g., AL), followed with an arbitrary word. It is considered elegant to have the code merge with the other letters to form a pronounceable word.
> Operations under official cover:
Station BERRY operates, for country B, in target country BE. It has three case officers and several support officers. Espionage operation run by case officers under diplomatic cover, they would have to with the basic recruiting methods described in this article. Case officer BETTY runs the local agents BEN and BEATLE. Case officer BESSIE runs BENSON and BEAGLE.
Some recruits, due to the sensitivity of their position or their personalities not being appropriate for cell leadership, might not enter cells but be run as singletons, perhaps by other than the recruiting case officer. Asset BARD is a different sort of highly sensitive singleton, who is a joint asset of the country B, and the country identified by prefix AR. ARNOLD is a case officer from the country AR embassy, who knows only the case officer BERTRAM and the security officer BEST. ARNOLD does not know the station chief of BERRY or any of its other personnel. Other than BELL and BEST, the Station personnel only know BERTRAM as someone authorized to be in the Station, and who is known for his piano playing at embassy parties. He is covered as Cultural Attache, in a country that has very few pianos. Only the personnel involved with BARD know that ARNOLD is other than another friendly diplomat.
In contrast, BESSIE and BETTY know one another, and procedures exist for their taking over each other's assets in the event one of the two is disabled.
Some recruits, however, would be qualified to recruit their own subcell, as BEATLE has done. BESSIE knows the identity of BEATLE-1 and BEATLE-2, since he had them checked by headquarters counterintelligence before they were recruited. Note that a cryptonym does not imply anything about its designee, such as gender.
> Clandestine presence:
The diagram of "initial team presence" shows that two teams, ALAN and ALICE, have successfully entered an area of operation, the country coded AL, but are only aware of a pool of potential recruits, and have not yet actually recruited anyone. They communicate with one another only through headquarters, so compromise of one team will not affect the other.
Assume that in team ALAN, ALASTAIR is one of the officers with local contacts, might recruit two cell leaders, ALPINE and ALTITUDE. The other local officer in the team, ALBERT, recruits ALLOVER. When ALPINE recruited two subcell members, they would be referred to as ALPINE-1 and ALPINE-2.
ALPINE and ALTITUDE only know how to reach ALASTAIR, but they are aware of at least some of other team members' identity should ALASTAIR be unavailable, and they would accept a message from ALBERT. Most often, the identity (and location) of the radio operator may not be shared. ALPINE and ALTITUDE, however, do not know one another. They do not know any of the members of team ALICE.
The legitimacy of the subcell structure came from the recruitment process, originally by the case officer and then by the cell leaders. Sometimes, the cell leader would propose subcell member names to the case officer, so the case officer could have a headquarters name check run before bringing the individual into the subcell. In principle, however, the subcell members would know ALPINE, and sometimes the other members of the ALPINE cell if they needed to work together; if ALPINE-1 and ALPINE-2 had independent assignments, they might not know each other. ALPINE-1 and ALPINE-2 certainly would not know ALASTAIR or anyone in the ALTITUDE or ALLOVER cells.
As the networks grow, a subcell leader might create his own cell, so ALPINE-2 might become the leader of the ALIMONY cell.
> Fault-tolerant cellular structures:
Modern communications theory has introduced methods to increase fault tolerance in cell organizations. In the past, if cell members only knew the cell leader, and the leader was neutralized, the cell was cut off from the rest of the organization. Game theory and graph theory have been applied to the study of optimal covert network design (see Lindelauf, R.H.A. et al. 2009. The influence of secrecy on the communication structure of covert networks. Social Networks.).
If a traditional cell had independent communications with the foreign support organization, headquarters might be able to arrange its reconnection. Another method is to have impersonal communications "side links" between cells, such as a pair of dead drops, one for Team ALAN to leave "lost contact" messages to be retrieved by Team ALICE, and another dead drop for Team ALICE to leave messages for Team ALAN.
These links, to be used only on losing contact, do not guarantee a contact. When a team finds a message in its emergency drop, it might do no more than send an alert message to headquarters. Headquarters might determine, through SIGINT or other sources, that the enemy had captured the leadership and the entire team, and order the other team not to attempt contact. If headquarters can have reasonable confidence that there is a communications failure or partial compromise, it might send a new contact to the survivors.
When the cut-off team has electronic communications, such as the Internet, it has a much better chance of eluding surveillance and getting emergency instructions than by using a dead drop that can be under physical surveillance.
> Non-traditional models, exemplified by al-Qaeda:
Due to cultural differences, assuming the al-Qaeda Training Manual is authentic, eastern cell structures may differ from the Western mode. "Al-Qaida's minimal core group, only accounting for the leadership, can also be viewed topologically as a ring or chain network, with each leader/node heading their own particular hierarchy.
"Such networks function by having their sub-networks provide information and other forms of support (the ‘many-to-one’ model), while the core group supplies ‘truth’ and decisions/directions (the ‘one-to-many’ model). Trust and personal relationships are an essential part of the Al-Qaida network (a limiting factor, even while it provides enhanced security). Even while cell members are trained as ‘replaceable’ units, ‘vetting’ of members occurs during the invited training period under the observation of the core group.
Cells of this structure are built outwards, from an internal leadership core. Superficially, this might be likened to a Western cell structure that emanates from a headquarters, but the Western centrality is bureaucratic, while structures in other non-western cultures builds on close personal relationships, often built over years, perhaps involving family or other in-group linkages. Such in-groups are thus extremely hard to infiltrate; infiltration has a serious chance only outside the in-group. Still, it may be possible for an in-group to be compromised through COMINT or, in rare cases, by compromising a member.
The core group is logically a ring, but is superimposed on an inner hub-and-spoke structure of ideological authority. Each member of the core forms another hub and spoke system (see infrastructure cells), the spokes leading to infrastructure cells under the supervision of the core group member, and possibly to operational groups which the headquarters support. Note that in this organization, there is a point at which the operational cell becomes autonomous of the core. Members surviving the operation may rejoin at various points.
Osama, in this model, has the main responsibility of commanding the organization and being the spokesman on propaganda video and audio messages distributed by the propaganda cell. The other members of the core each command one or more infrastructure cells.
While the tight coupling enhances security, it can limit flexibility and the ability to scale the organization. This in-group, while sharing tight cultural and ideological values, is not committed to a bureaucratic process.
"Members of the core group are under what could be termed 'positive control'—long relationships and similar mindsets make 'control' not so much of an issue, but there are distinct roles, and position (structural, financial, spiritual) determines authority, thus making the core group a hierarchy topologically.
In the first example of the core, each member knows how to reach two other members, and also knows the member(s) he considers his ideological superior. Solid lines show basic communication, dotted red arrows show the first level of ideological respect, and dotted blue arrows show a second level of ideological respect.
If Osama, the most respected, died, the core would reconstitute itself. While different members have an individual ideological guide, and these are not the same for all members, the core would reconstitute itself with Richard as most respected.
Assume there are no losses, and Osama can be reached directly only by members of the core group. Members of outer cells and support systems might know him only as "the Commander", or, as in the actual case of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's face is recognizable worldwide, but only a few people know where he was or even how to contact him.
> Infrastructure cells:
Any clandestine or covert service, especially a non-national one, needs a variety of technical and administrative functions.
Some of these services include:
1. Forged documents and counterfeit currency
2. Apartments and hiding places
3. Communication means
4. Transportation means
5. Information
6. Arms and ammunition
7. Transport
Other functions include psychological operations, training, and finance.
A national intelligence service has a support organization to deal with services such as finance, logistics, facilities (e.g., safehouses), information technology, communications, training, weapons and explosives, medical services, etc. Transportation alone is a huge function, including the need to buy tickets without drawing suspicion, and, where appropriate, using private vehicles. Finance includes the need to transfer money without coming under the suspicion of financial security organizations.
Some of these functions, such as finance, are far harder to operate in remote areas, such as the FATA of Pakistan, than in cities with large numbers of official and unofficial financial institutions, and the communications to support them. If the financial office is distant from the remote headquarters, there is a need for couriers, who must be trusted to some extent, but they may not know the contents of their messages or the actual identity of sender and/or receiver. The couriers, depending on the balance among type and size of message, security, and technology available, may memorize messages, carry audio or video recordings, or hand-carry computer media.
"These cells are socially embedded (less so than the core group, however), structurally embedded, functionally embedded (they are specialized into a domain), and knowledge base-specific (there does not seem to be a great deal of cross-training, or lateral mobility in the organization). Such cells are probably subjected to a mixture of positive and negative control ("do this, do these sorts of things, don’t do that")."
> Core Structure of Non-National Group:
Member - Infrastructure commanded
Richard - Finance
Anton - Military training/operations 1
Hassan - Military training/operations 2
David - Transportation
Kim - Communications and propaganda
The leaders of military cells are responsible for training them, and, when an operation is scheduled, selecting the operational commander, giving him the basic objective and arranging whatever support is needed, and then release him from tight control to execute the meeting. Depending on the specific case, the military leaders might have direct, possibly one-way, communications with their cells, or they might have to give Kim the messages to be transmitted, by means that Anton and Hassan have no need to know.
Note that Anton does not have a direct connection to Kim. Under normal circumstances, he sacrifices efficiency for security, by passing communications requests through Hassan. The security structure also means that Hassan does not know the members of Anton's cells, and Kim may know only ways to communicate with them but not their identity.
Kim operates two systems of cells, one for secure communications and one for propaganda. To send out a propaganda message, Osama must pass it to Kim. If Kim were compromised, the core group might have significant problems with any sort of outside communications.
Terrorist networks do not match cleanly to other cell systems that regularly report to a headquarters. The apparent al-Qaeda methodology of letting operational cells decide on their final dates and means of attack exhibit an operational pattern, but not a periodicity that could easily be used for an indications checklist appropriate for a warning center. Such lists depend on seeing a local pattern to give a specific warning.
Note that Hassan has two subordinates that have not yet established operational cells. These subordinates can be considered sleepers, but not necessarily with a sleeper cell.
> Operational cells:
For each mission are created one or more operational cells. If the al-Qaeda signature of multiple concurrent attacks is used, there may be an operational cell for each target location. It will depend on the operation if they will need any support cells in the operational area. For example, it may be more secure to have a local cell build bombs, which will be delivered by cells coming from outside the area.
"Operational cells are not created, but instead 'seeded' utilizing individuals spotted or that request assistance (both groups are 'vetted' by being trained under the observation of the core group, which dramatically restricts the opportunity for passing off walk-ins under false flag). Categorization of operational cells appears to be by capabilities, region, and then task/operation. Operational cells are composed of members whose worldview has been firmly tested—necessary to front-load, because such cells are dispersed back to their own local control (or negative control—proscribed behavior—with positive control only coming in the form of contact for synchronization or support)."
If operational cells routinely are "released" curved dotted lines on link to military cells to select their final operational parameters, they use a different paradigm than governmental clandestine or covert operations. On a number of cases, US special operations forces had to wait for Presidential authorization to make an attack, or even move to staging areas. Admittedly, a country would have to face the consequences of an inappropriate attack, so it may tend to be overcautious, where a terror network would merely shrug at the world being upset. Assuming that the al-Qaeda operational technique is not to use positive control, their operations may be more random, but also more unpredictable for counterterror forces. If their cells truly need constant control, there are communications links that might be detected by SIGINT, and if their command can be disrupted, the field units could not function. Since there is fairly little downside for terrorists to attack out of synchronization with other activities, the lack of positive control becomes a strength of their approach to cell organization.
The operational cells need to have continuous internal communication; there is a commander, who may be in touch with infrastructure cells or, less likely from a security standpoint with the core group.
Al-Qaeda's approach, which even differs from that of earlier terrorist organizations, may be very viable for their goals:
- Cells are redundant and distributed, making them difficult to ‘roll up’
- Cells are coordinated, not under "command & control"—this autonomy and local control makes them flexible, and enhances security
- Trust and comcon internally to the cell provide redundancy of potential command (a failure of Palestinian operations in the past), and well as a shared knowledgebase (which may mean, over time, that ‘cross training’ emerges inside a cell, providing redundancy of most critical skills and knowledge).
> Indirect support networks:
In the above graphic, note the indirect support network controlled by Richard's subcell.
"While Al-Qaida has elements of the organization designed to support the structure, but such elements are insufficient in meeting the needs of such an organization, and for security reasons there would be redundant and secondary-/tertiary-networks that are unaware of their connection to Al-Qaida. These networks, primarily related to fundraising and financial activities, as well as technology providers, are in a ‘use’ relationship with Al-Qaida—managed through cut-outs or individuals that do not inform them of the nature of activities, and that may have a cover pretext sufficient to deflect questions or inquiry."
> A possible countermeasure:
In 2002, U.S. News & World Report said that American intelligence is beginning to acquire a sufficiently critical mass of intelligence on al-Qaida indicating, "Once thought nearly impossible to penetrate, al Qaeda is proving no tougher a target than the KGB or the Mafia--closed societies that took the U.S. government years to get inside. "We're getting names, the different camps they trained at, the hierarchy, the infighting," says an intelligence official. "It's very promising." The report also said that the collected data has allowed the recruiting of informants.
Writing in the U.S. Army journal Military Review, David W. Pendall suggested that a "catch-and-release program for suspected operatives might create reluctance or distrust in such suspects and prevent them from further acts or, perhaps more important, create distrust in the cell leaders of these individuals in the future." The author noted the press release describing Ramzi Binalshib's cooperation with the United States "are sure to prevent reentry into a terrorist cell as a trusted member and most likely limits the further trust and assignments of close cell associates still at large. The captor would determine when to name names and when to remain silent." Indeed, once intelligence learns the name and characteristics of an at-large adversary, as well as some sensitive information that would plausibly be known to him, a news release could be issued to talk about his cooperation. Such a method could not be used too often, but, used carefully, could disturb the critical trust networks. The greatest uncertainty might be associated with throwing doubt onto a key member of an operational cell that has gone autonomous.
See also:
Leaderless resistance
Lone wolf (terrorism)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CIA Cryptonym
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_cryptonym
Digraphs:
Partial list of digraphs and probable definitions
AE: Soviet Union (1960s)
AM: Cuba (1960s)
AV: Uruguay
BE: Poland
BG: Albania
BI: Argentina
CA: West Germany
CK: CIA Soviet and East Europe division sensitive cases (late 1970s)
DB: Iraq
DI: Czechoslovakia
DM: SFRY / Yugoslavia
DN: South Korea
DU: Peru
EC: Ecuador
ES: Guatemala
GT: CIA Soviet and East Europe division sensitive cases (1980s)
HA: Indonesia (1958)
IA: Angola
JM: Cuba
KK: Israel
KU: Part of CIA (1960s)
LC: China
LN: United States
LI: Mexico
MH: Worldwide operation.
MJ: Palestinian-related
MK: CIA Technical Services Division (1950s/1960s)
MO: Thailand
OD: Other US Government Departments (1960s)
PB: Guatemala
PD: Soviet Union (1980s)
PO: Japan
SD: Iran
SM: United Kingdom
ST: CIA Directorate of Operations, Far East division, China Branch[12]
TP: Iran (1953)
TU: South Vietnam
WI: Democratic Republic of the Congo (1960s)
ZR: Intelligence intercept program of CIA Staff D ops, the group that worked directly with the NSA (National Security Agency).
Unidentified digraphs[edit]
DT, ER, FJ, HB, HO, HT, JU, KM, QK, SC, SE, SG, WS, ZI
Known cryptonyms:
AEFOXTROT: Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, a Soviet defector.
AELADLE: Anatoliy Golitsyn, a Soviet defector.
AESCREEN: Soviet Bloc division's translation and analysis unit
AMBIDDY-1: Manuel Artime.
AMBLOOD: Luis Torroella y Martin Rivero, a CIA agent.
AMCLATTER-1: Bernard Barker, one of the Watergate burglars.
AMBUD
AMCLEOPATRA
AMCOBRA
AMCROW
AMCRUZ or AMCRUX?
AMFOX
AMGLOSSY
AMHALF
AMJUDGE
AMLASH: Plan to assassinate Fidel Castro associated mainly with Rolando Cubela. AMLASH has been referred to as a "basically one-person Cubela operation".
AMLASH-1: Rolando Cubela Secades, a Cuban official involved in plot to kill Fidel Castro in 1963.
AMOT: Cuban exile informants of David Sánchez Morales.
AMPALM-4
AMQUACK: Che Guevara, Argentinian (later Cuban) guerrilla leader.
AMTHUG: Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba 1959-1976.
AMTRUNK: A CIA plan by New York Times journalist Tad Szulc initiated in February 1963, also called the "Leonardo Plan," that was "an attempt to find disgruntled military officials in Cuba who might be willing to recruit higher military officials in a plot to overthrow Castro", as well as to overthrow the Cuban government "by means of a conspiracy among high-level ... leaders of the government culminating in a coup d'etat". AMTRUNK has also been described as a "CIA-DIA Task Force on Cuba", and as "a plodding bureaucratic effort" that "had worked for months to identify Cuban leaders who might be able to stage a coup".
AMWHIP-1: Business associate of Santo Trafficante, Jr. who was in contact with Rolando Cubela (AMLASH) in 1963.
AMWORLD: A plan initiated June 28, 1963, to overthrow the Castro regime in a coup on December 1, 1963 (C-Day), that would have installed Juan Almeida Bosque, a top ranking Cuban military officer, as the new head of state. Some Cuban exiles referred to C-Day as "Plan Omega".
DBACHILLES: 1995 effort to support a military coup in Iraq.
DBROCKSTARS: Iraqi spy ring recruited by the CIA shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
CKGULL: CIA Polish agent Ryszard Kukliński (also QTGULL)
DYCLAIM: CIA
GROSSBAHN: Otto von Bolschwing, Sicherheitsdienst officer who later served as a spy for CIA
HTAUTOMAT: Photointerpretation center for the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft project.
HTKEEPER: Mexico City
HTLINGUAL: Mail interception operation 1952-1973.
HTNEIGH: National Committee for Free Albania (NCFA) [1949-mid1950s]
HTPLUME: Panama
JMADD: CIA air base near city of Retalhuleu, Guatemala 1960-1961
JMATE: CIA Air operations office for the Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961
JMBELL: CIA office (location unknown) 1961
JMBLUG: John Peurifoy, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala.
JMFURY: Preparatory strikes against Cuban airfields before Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961
JMGLOW: CIA Washington 1961
JMTIDE: CIA air base in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua 1961
JMTRAX: CIA covert air base/training camp in Guatemala 1960-1961
JMWAVE: CIA station in Miami (that operated against Cuba).
JMZIP: CIA office (location unknown) 1961
KKMOUNTAIN: CIA-Mossad cooperation in the 1960s
KMFLUSH: Nicaragua
KMPAJAMA: Mexico
KMPLEBE: Peru
KUBARK: CIA Headquarters, Langley
KUBASS: CIA Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T)
KUCAGE: CIA Overseas Paramilitary / Propaganda Operations
KUCLUB: CIA Office of Communications
KUDESK: CIA Counterintelligence department
KUDOVE: CIA Deputy Director for Operations (DDO)
KUFIRE: CIA Foreign Intelligence Staff
KUGOWN: CIA Psychological and Paramilitary Operations Staff
KUHOOK: CIA Paramilitary Operations Staff
KUJAZZ: CIA Office of National Estimates
KUJUMP: CIA Contact Division
KUKNOB: CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI)
KUMONK: CIA Office of Political Analysis (OPA)
KUPALM
KURIOT: CIA Technical Services Division.
KUSODA: Center for CIA Security.).
KUTUBE: CIA Foreign Intelligence Staff.).
LCFLUTTER: Polygraph, sometimes supplanted by truth drugs: Sodium Amytal (amobarbital), Sodium Pentothal (thiopental), and Seconal (secobarbital) to induce regression in the subject.
LCPANGS: Costa Rica
LNHARP: United States Government
LIENVOY: Wiretap or intercept program.
LIONIZER: Guatemalan refugee group in Mexico.
LITENSOR: Codename of CIA informant Adolfo López Mateos, president of Mexico.
LITEMPO: Spy network, operated between 1956–1969, to exchange information with Mexican top officers.
LITEMPO-1 Emilio Bolanos, nephew of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of president Adolfo López Mateos)
LITEMPO-2: Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of president Adolfo López Mateos and President of Mexico 1964-1970.
LITEMPO-4 : Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios, Head of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS), the top Mexican intelligence agency, at the midst of the dirty war (1964 – 1970).
LITEMPO-8 (later LITEMPO-14): Luis Echeverría, Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and President of Mexico 1970-1976.
LITEMPO-12 : Miguel Nazar Haro, a LITEMPO-4 subordinate, known to be in contact with CIA station chief Winston M. Scott; Nazar Haro later became head of the DFS intelligence agency (1978–1982)
MHCHAOS: Surveillance of antiwar activists during the Vietnam War.
MJTRUST/2 : Ali Hassan Salameh
MKCHICKWIT: Identify new drug developments in Europe and Asia and obtain samples, part of MKSEARCH.
MKDELTA: Stockpiling of lethal biological and chemical agents, subsequently became MKNAOMI.
MKNAOMI: Stockpiling of lethal biological and chemical agents, successor to MKDELTA.
MKOFTEN: Testing effects of biological and chemical agents, part of MKSEARCH.
MKSEARCH: MKULTRA after 1964, mind control research.
MKULTRA: Mind control research. Renamed MKSEARCH in 1964.
ODACID: United States Department of State/U.S. embassy
ODEARL: United States Department of Defense
ODENVY: Federal Bureau of Investigation
ODEUM: Gehlen Organization (1950-1951)
ODOATH: United States Navy
ODOPAL: Counterintelligence Corps, United States Army
ODUNIT: United States Air Force
ODURGE: Immigration and Naturalization Service
ODYOKE: Federal government of the United States
PBFORTUNE: CIA project to supply forces opposed to Guatemala's President Arbenz with weapons, supplies, and funding; predecessor to PBSUCCESS.
OFFSPRING: Gehlen Organization (1949-1950)
PBHISTORY: CIA project to gather and analyze documents from the Arbenz government in Guatemala that would incriminate Arbenz as a communist.
PBJOINTLY: Operation that built a tunnel from the American sector of Berlin, to the Russian sector.
PBPRIME: the United States
PBRUMEN: Cuba
PBSUCCESS: (Also PBS) CIA covert operation to overthrow the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954.
POCAPON: Taketora Ogata, Japanese politician in the 1950s.
PODAM: Matsutarō Shōriki, Japanese businessman and politician.
QJWIN: European assassin. Also described as an "assassin recruiter".
QKCIGAR: United States Government
QKELUSION: West German Social Democratic Party (SPD)
QKENCHANT: CIA program associated with E. Howard Hunt (1918–2007), who with G. Gordon Liddy and others, was one of the White House's "plumbers" — a secret team of operatives charged with fixing "leaks".
QKFLOWAGE: United States Information Agency
QTGULL: CIA Polish agent Ryszard Kukliński (also CKGULL)
SD/PLOD/1: deputy prime minister for the Interim government of Iran Abbas Amir-Entezam
SMOTH: UK Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
TPBEDAMN: U.S. operation to counter communist subversion in Iran with propaganda and bribes.
TPAJAX: Joint US/UK operation to overthrow Mohammed Mossadeq, Prime Minister of Iran.
TPCREDO: Italy
TPROACH: Yugoslavia
TPTONIC: National Committee for Free Europe (NCFE)
UNREST: Otto von Bolschwing
USAGE: Otto von Bolschwing
UTILITY: Reinhard Gehlen, first president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst
ZIPPER: Gehlen Organization (1951-1956)
ZRRIFLE: An assassination plot targeting Fidel Castro
Operations and projects:
APPLE: Agent team seen in 1952 by CIA/OPC as best bet to successfully continue BGFIEND Project aimed to harass/overthrow Albanian communist regime. Team was arrested, communists controlled radio ops for 16 months, luring more agents into Albania in 1953, and trying and executing original agents in 1954 to suddenly end BGFIEND.[44]
ARTICHOKE: Anti-interrogation project. Precursor to MKULTRA.
AZORIAN: Project to raise the Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean.
BGGYPSY: Communist.
BIRCH
BLACKSHIELD: A-12 aircraft reconnaissance missions off Okinawa.
BLUEBIRD: mind control program
BOND: Puerto Barrios, Guatemala.
CATIDE: Bundesnachrichtendienst
CHARITY: Joint CIA/OSO-Italian Naval Intelligence information gathering operation against Albania (1948–1951).
CHERRY: Covert assassination / destabilization operation during Vietnam war, targeting Prince (later King) Norodom Sihanouk and the government of Cambodia. Disbanded.
DTFROGS: El Salvador
ESCOBILLA: Guatemalan national.
ESMERALDITE: Labor informant affiliated with AFL-sponsored labor movement.
ESQUIRE: James Bamford, author of "The Puzzle Palace".
ESSENCE: Guatemalan anti-communist leader.
FDTRODPINT : Afghan tribal agents, formerly known as GESENIOR, reactivated in the 1990s by the CIA to hunt Mir Aimal Kasi and later Osama bin Laden.
FIR
FJGROUND: Grafenwöhr, West Germany paramilitary training ground.
FJHOPEFUL: Military base.
FPBERM: Yugoslavia
FUBELT: Project to prevent Salvador Allende rise to power, and to promote a military coup in Chile.
GANGPLANK: KYP, Greek Central Intelligence Service (1952–1974)
GESENIOR: Afghan tribal agents working with the CIA during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Later called FDTRODPINT.
GPFLOOR: Lee Harvey Oswald, J.F. Kennedy's assassin.
GPIDEAL: John F. Kennedy, US president.
GRALLSPICE: Pyotr Popov, CIA Soviet agent
GUSTO: Project to design a follow-on to the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Succeeded RAINBOW. Succeeded by OXCART.
HBFAIRY: France
HTCURIO: American or U.S. [Not Government]
IAFEATURE: Operation to support the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) during the Angolan civil war.
IDIOM: Initial work by Convair on a follow-on to the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Later moved into GUSTO.
Project JBEDICT: Tripartite Stay-Behind project.
JENNIFER: Document control system for Project AZORIAN.
KEMPSTER: Project to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) of the inlets of the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft.
KMHYMNAL: Maine-built motor sailer JUANITA purchased by CIA to use as floating, clandestine, propaganda broadcast facility in Mediterranean/Adriatic (1950–53).
LEMON
LNWILT: US Counterintelligence Corps (CIC)
LPMEDLEY: Surveillance of telegraphic information exiting or entering the United States.
MAGPIE: US Army Labor Service Organization
MATADOR: Project to recover section of Soviet submarine K-129 dropped during Project AZORIAN. Cancelled after Soviet protest.
MOCKINGBIRD: Recruitment of American journalists for CIA work.
MONGOOSE: "Primarily a relentless and escalating campaign of sabotage and small Cuban exile raids that would somehow cause the overthrow of Castro," which "also included plans for an invasion of Cuba in the fall of 1962".
OAK: Operation to assassinate suspected South Vietnamese collaborators during Vietnam war.
PANCHO: Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala, also RUFUS.
PAPERCLIP: US recruiting of German scientists after World War II.
PHOENIX: Vietnam covert intelligence/assassination operation.
PINE
RAINBOW: Project to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) of the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Succeeded by GUSTO.
QKWAVER: Egypt
RUFUS: Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala, also PANCHO.
RYBAT: Indicates that the information is very sensitive.
SARANAC: Training site in Nicaragua.
SCRANTON: Training base for radio operators near Nicaragua.
SGCIDER: Germany
SGUAT: CIA Station in Guatemala
SHERWOOD: CIA radio broadcast program in Nicaragua begun on May 1, 1954.
SKILLET: Whiting Willauer, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras.
SKIMMER: The "Group" CIA cover organization supporting Castillo Armas.
SLINC: Telegram indicator for PBSUCCESS Headquarters in Florida.
STANDEL: Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala.
STARGATE: Investigation of psychic phenomena.
STBAILEY: political action and propaganda part of STBARNUM
STBARNUM: CIA Tibetan program (covert action in Tibet, 1950s onwards)
STCIRCUS: aerial part of STBARNUM
STSPIN: Three P-3A Orion aircraft operated from Taiwan in 1966.
SYNCARP: The "Junta," Castillo Armas' political organization headed by Cordova Cerna.
THERMOS: Unclassified codeword used in lieu of RAINBOW
THROWOFF/2: Albanian ethnic agent/radio operator employed by Italian Navy Intelligence/CIA in several early Cold War covert operations against Albania. Was captured, operated radio under communist control to lure CIA agents to capture/death, tried in 1954, death sentence commuted, freed after 25 years. CIA paid his son $40,000 in 1996.
OPERATION TILT: The CIA's name for "an operation put together by John Martino, who was fronting for his boss Santo Trafficante and his roommate Johnny Roselli". OPERATION TILT used "some of the same people working on the CIA-Mafia plots in the spring of 1963 ... [and] involved sending a Cuban exile team into Cuba to retrieve Soviet technicians supposedly ready to defect and reveal the existence of Soviet missiles still on the island".
TROPIC: Air operations flown over North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union by CAT pilots during the 1950s.
VALUABLE: British MI-run Albanian operations 1949 to 1953.
WASHTUB: Operation to plant Soviet arms in Nicaragua.
WBFISHY: British Foreign Office
WSBURNT: Guatemala
WSHOOFS: Honduras
ZAPATA: Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961.