Paul Simpson: A Brief History of the Spy

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Agency, The:see CIA.

ASIO:Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Counterespionage.

ASIS:Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

AVH:The State Protection Authority. The Hungarian secret police under the Communists.

BfV:Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz. (West) German counterintelligence.

BND:Bundesnachrichtendienst. The German secret service; prior to unification, it served that function for West Germany.

Bureau, The:common nickname for the FBI.

Cheka:see KGB history.

CIA:Central Intelligence Agency. America’s intelligence agency, based in Langley, Virginia.

cover:the identity assumed by a spy.

cryptology:the study (and breaking) of codes.

CSIS:Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The Canadian intelligence and counter-intelligence agency. Prior to its creation, such work was carried out by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

CSS:see DS.

CTC:the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center.

DCI:Director of Central Intelligence. The head of the CIA, and, until 2005, the head of the American intelligence community. Replaced by the D/CIA.

D/CIA:Director, Central Intelligence Agency. The head of the CIA since 2005, who reports to the DNI.

dead drop:a procedure for passing documents between an agent and his handler. The agent will leave the items at a pre-arranged location (e.g. under a rock, beneath a bridge), and at a suitable time the handler will collect it.

DGSE:General Directorate for External Security. The French intelligence agency since 1982.

DNI:Director of National Intelligence. The head of the American intelligence community following reforms brought in after 9/11. Much of the work of the DNI was formerly carried out by the DCI of the CIA.

DPRK:Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. North Korea, under a Communist regime.

DS:Duzhavna Sigurnost (State Security). The popular name for the Bulgarian Committee for State Security under the Communist regime.

ELINT:Electronic INTelligence. Data received from electronic sources, such as listening devices or satellites.

FAPSI:Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information. The Russian equivalent of America’s NSA, concentrating on SIGINT.

FBI:Federal Bureau of Investigation. The American counterintelligence agency which also has responsibility as a criminal investigative body.

FSB:The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. Russia’s counter-espionage agency since the fall of Communism.

G-2:the intelligence gathering section of the US Army. It is also the title of the Irish intelligence agency.

GCHQ:Government Communication Headquarters. The SIGINT wing of British intelligence. Its main base is at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

GPU:see KGB history.

GRU:Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Soviet, now Russian, Army intelligence.

GUGB:see KGB history.

HUMINT:HUMan INTelligence. Information derived from human sources (i.e. spies on the ground)

HVA:Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung. The foreign intelligence arm of the East German Stasi.

IJS:Irish Joint Section. A group of MI5 and MI6 officers working together regarding problems in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1984. MI5 took over responsibility towards the end, leading to its phasing out.

IRA:The Irish Republican Army. Group opposed to the presence of the British in Northern Ireland, which waged a campaign during the twentieth century. Offshoots include The Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. Its political wing is Sinn Fein.

JIC:Joint Intelligence Committee: A group reporting to the British Cabinet, which oversees the work of the various British intelligence agencies.

KGB:The Committee for State Security. Although only officially existing between 1954 and 1991, the title is often used for Russian foreign intelligence throughout the twentieth century.

KGB history:The Soviet State Security organization would go through many name changes in the period leading up to the Cold War. The Cheka (The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage) operated from December 1917 to February 1922, when it was incorporated into the NKVD (the People’s Commissariat of State Security) as the GPU (the State Political Directorate). From July 1923 to July 1934 it was known as the OGPU (the Unified State Political Directorate) before reincorporating into the NKVD, this time as the GUGB (Main Administration of Soviet Security). For five months in 1941 it was referred to as the NKGB (the People’s Commissariat of State Security) before returning to the NKVD. It became the MGB (Ministry for State Security) in 1946, before Beria merged that with the MVD (the Ministry of the Interior) in 1953 following Stalin’s death. After Beria’s fall, State Security was separated from the Ministry, and became the KGB. The KGB was disbanded in 1991 to be replaced by the SVR.

Langley:term often used to describe CIA Headquarters, or the senior officials of the CIA.

MGB:See KGB history.

MI5:The British Security Service. Officially, this was only its title between September 1916 and 1929 but the abbreviation is used even within the service.

MI6:term commonly used for the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Properly, it only refers to a period during the Second World War when it was used as a counterpart to MI5, but the phrase has entered common usage. Officially the title SIS was given in 1920, and enshrined in law in 1994. The service itself uses SIS rather than MI6 as an abbreviation.

Moscow Centre:term used for those giving instructions to Russian/Soviet intelligence agents.

Mossad:the Israeli foreign intelligence agency.

MSS:Ministry for State Security. The foreign intelligence agency of the People’s Republic of China.

MVD:see KGB history.

NCS:National Clandestine Service. Since 2005, the operational arm of the CIA.

NIA:National Intelligence Authority. A body overseeing American intelligence work between the end of the Second World War and the creation of the CIA in 1947.

NKGB:see KGB history.

NKVD:see KGB history.

NSA:National Security Agency. The SIGINT arm of US intelligence. NSC:National Security Council. Chaired by the American president, this was designed to oversee American intelligence after 1947. It came to prominence during the Iran-Contra affair. Its functions were merged with the Homeland Security Council in 2009 to form the National Security Staff.

OGPU:see KGB history.