Paul Simpson: A Brief History of the Spy

ODNI:Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

one-time pad:a method of sending messages which is nearly impossible to decode unless you have a copy of the pad. Agents are supplied with a set of tear-off sheets which are used to encode the message and then destroyed; their handlers have the only duplicate set, which they use to decode the information.

ONI:Office of Naval Intelligence. The American Navy’s intelligence arm.

OSS:Office of Strategic Services. The American intelligence agency during the Second World War. It was effectively a forerunner of the CIA.

PFLP:Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Terrorist organization fighting for a separate Palestinian state.

PFLP-GC:Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command. Splinter group from the PFLP.

PLO:Palestine Liberation Organisation. Political and paramilitary organization aiming to set up a separate Palestinian state. Politburo:the leading members of the Communist party. Usually referring to the USSR, but each country had its own politburo.

SDECE:External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service. The French intelligence agency between 1944 and 1982. Replaced by the DGSE.

SIG:Special Investigation Group. A team set up by James Jesus Angleton to investigate potential spies within the CIA.

SIGINT:SIGnals INTelligence: information received from messages passed between opposing forces.

SIS:See MI6.

SMERSH:derived from the Russian term SMERt’ SHpionam (Death to Spies). This was a part of the NKVD during the Second World War. Its notoriety derives from its use by Ian Fleming in the James Bond novels written in the 1950s, although the real SMERSH was disbanded in 1946.

SOE:Special Operations Executive. The sabotage wing of British intelligence during the Second World War. It derived from MI6’s Section D, and was folded back into MI6 after the end of hostilities.

SPG:Special Procedures Group. Part of the CIA tasked with aiding anti-Communist parties to win the Italian elections after the Second World War.

SSA:South African State Security Agency. The South African intelligence service since 2009.

Stasi:Staatssicherheit. The Ministry for State Security in East Germany. The intelligence agency for the East German Communist regime.

StB:Státní Bezpeènost (State Security). The Czech secret service between 1945 and 1990.

Sûreté:the French police.

SVR:Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation. The successor to the KGB.

tradecraft:the ways in which a spy operates in order to maintain their cover.

TSD:Technical Services Division. The real-life Q Branch of the CIA, creating all the gadgets and technology required by agents. And the occasional Acoustic Kitty.

watchers:counter-intelligence agents monitoring a target.

wet work/wet affairs:a euphemism for murder and assassinations, deriving from the spilling of blood.

Paul Simpsonis the author or co-author of over a dozen nonfiction books including an acclaimed round-up of conspiracy theories. He has edited and contributed to numerous international entertainment magazines and currently oversees news and reviews website SciFiBulletin.com