CIA cryptonym
CIA cryptonyms are code words seen in declassified documents of the US Central Intelligence Agency. There has been much speculation as to the meaning of these.
Each CIA cryptonym in these documents contains a two character prefix called a digraph, which designates a geographical or functional area. The rest is either an arbitrary dictionary word, or occasionally the digraph and the cryptonym combine to form a dictionary word (ie - AEROPLANE).
Partial list of digraphs and probable definitions
Unidentified digraphs
AV, CA, DT, EC, FJ, HB, HO, HT, JM, JU, KM, LC, LI, PB, SE, SC, WS
Partial list of CIA cryptonyms and probable definitions
Operations
- BLUEBIRD - mind control program
- HTAUTOMAT - U-2 Spy Plane Project
- HTLINGUAL - Mail interception operation
- LINCOLN - ongoing operation involving Spanish terrorist group ETA
- LPMEDLEY - surveillance of telegraphic information exiting or entering the United States
- MHCHAOS - surveillance of antiwar activists during the Vietnam War
- 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 - Successor to MKULTRA, mind control research
- MKULTRA - Mind control research, renamed MKSEARCH in 1964
- PAPERCLIP - US recrutal of German scientists after WWII
- PHOENIX - Vietnam covert intelligence operation
- PBFORTUNE - CIA project to supply anti-Arbenz forces with weapons, supplies, and funding; predecessor to PBSUCCESS.
- PBHISTORY - Central Intelligence Agency project to gather and analyze documents from the Arbenz government in Guatemala that would incriminate Arbenz as a Communist.
- PBSUCCESS - (Also PBS) Central Intelligence Agency covert operation to overthrow the Arbenz government in Guatemala.
- SHERWOOD - CIA radio broadcast program in Nicaragua begun on May 1, 1954.
- TPAJAX - Joint US/UK operation to overthrow Mohammed Mossadeq, prime minister of Iran
- WASHTUB - Operation to plant Soviet arms in Nicaragua
Organizations
Persons
- AEFOXTROT - Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, a Soviet defector
- AELADLE - Anatoliy Golitsyn, a Soviet defector
- AMLASH - Rolando Cubela Secades, a Cuban official involved in plot to kill Fidel Castro in 1963
- AMQUACK - Che Guevara, Cuban guerilla leader
- AMTHUG - Fidel Castro, president of Cuba
- JMBLUG - John S. Peurifoy, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala
- GPFLOOR - Lee Harvey Oswald
- GRALLSPICE - Pyotr Semonovich Popov, Soviet defector
- PANCHO - Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala, also RUFUS
- RUFUS - Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala, also PANCHO
- SKILLET - Whiting Willauer, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras.
- STANDEL - Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala
Places
Other
- BGGYPSY - Russia; Russian
- ESCOBILLA - Guatemalan national
- ESMERALDITE - labor informant affiliated with AFL-sponsored labor movement
- ESSENCE - Guatemalan anti-Communist leader
- FJHOPEFUL - military base
- LCFLUTTER - Polygraph, sometimes supplanted by truth drugs: sodium amytal (anobarbital), sodium pentothal (thiopental), and seconal (seconbarbital) to induce regression in the subject.
- RYBAT - Indicates that the information is very sensitive
- SLINC - Telegram indicator for PBSUCCESS Headquarters in Florida.
Unidentified codewords
AEBARMAN, AEFOX, AEROPLANE, AVBLIMP, AVBRANDY, AVBUSY, CABOUNCE, CLOWER, ECJOB, ESGAIN, ESODIC, ESQUIRE, FJDEFLECT, HBDRILL, HOPEFUL, JUBATE, JUBILIST, KUHOOK, KUJUMP, KUPALM, KUTUBE, LCPANES, LICOZY, LITEMPO, ODIBEX, PBCABOOSE, QKENCHANT, SECANT, SEQUIN, SCRANGER, SUMAC, ZPSEMANTIC, ZPSECANT and ZRBRIEF, ZRMETAL
References
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- Leo D. Carl, The International Dictionary of Intelligence, Mavin Books, 1990, p. 107
- Phillip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Stonehill Publishing, 1975, p. 48
- David Wise, Molehunt, Random House, 1992, p.19
