International Spy Lingo
Spies have a lingo all their own. Here are some universal terms, courtesy of the International Spy Museum.
By Daintry Duffy
October 01, 2004 — CSO — Are you head of security for a global corporation? Do you deal with international intelligence? Covert operations? If so, you need this list of spy lingo. It will give you a flavor for the universal truth about spies and spying: They have a colorful lingo. Here are some of the global terms to use when talking shop with security brethren in the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany and elsewhere, courtesy of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
agent: a person officially employed by an intelligence service
agent-in-place: a government employee who is influenced to cooperate with a foreign government instead of defecting; now working for two employers instead of one
agent-of-influence: a person who works to influence national policy within a target country's government or media
babysitter: bodyguard
bang and burn: demolition and sabotage operations
birdwatcher: slang used by British Intelligence for a spy
black operations: covert operations that are not attributable to the organization performing them
blowback: a deception planted abroad by an intelligence agency that returns to the originating nation with bad consequences
bombe: Polish electromagnetic device created to decipher three-rotor Enigma combinations; early precursor to the modern computer
brush pass: a brief encounter where something is passed between case officer and agent
burned: when a case officer or agent is compromised
Camp Swampy: CIA's secret domestic training base (also known as "The Farm")
Camp X: Canada's secret domestic training base
center: KGB headquarters in Moscow
Cheka: Russian secret police founded in 1917 to serve the Bolshevik party; one of the many forerunners of the KGB
chief of station: the officer in charge at a CIA station, usually in a foreign capital
cobbler: a spy who creates false passports, visas, diplomas and other documents
colossus: an electronic device that helped solve German cryptograms
covert action operation: an influence operation designed to affect foreign affairs
dangle: a person who approaches an intelligence agency with the intent of being recruited to spy against his or her own country
dezinformatsiya (disinformation): KGB term for its well-financed and multifarious program to manipulate the West with lies
Enigma: the machine used by the Germans to encode messages during World War II
friends: general slang for members of an intelligence service; specifically British slang for members of the Secret Intelligence Service
hospital: Russian slang for prison
illness: Russian slang for someone under arrest
innocent postcard: a postcard with an innocuous message sent to an address in a neutral country to verify the continued security of an undercover operative
KGB: Soviet Union's all-powerful intelligence and security service during the Cold War
MI-5: the British domestic counterintelligence service
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