True Accounts of Espionage (the Anonymous Spy Series)

By Anonymous Spy

TRUE ACCOUNTS OF ESPIONAGE
Accounts of the daily life of an Official Cover case offer and a Non-Official Cover case officer. Also contains thirteen first-person anecdotes from an overseas non-official cover case officer’s career.

ABOUT THE ANONYMOUS SPY SERIES

Forget what you see in movies. Don’t fall for over-the-top chase scenes and explosions. If you want to know what it’s really like to live and breathe the life of a CIA spy, then peek into the pages of The Anonymous Spy Series – a comprehensive resource of materials for anyone interested in the trade of spycraft.

The series covers:
- spy terms with definitions and sample sentences that demonstrate how the terms are really used in documents and in speech
- a comprehensive resource of CIA recruitment and training
- a detailed account of a spy’s day to day life
- first-person insight into how a life of espionage affects a spy’s personal life
- many more unexpected insights into the life of a spy.

A perfect addition to any military intelligence library. The perfect Cold War companion to Allen W. Dulles’s The Craft of Intelligence.

The books may be read in conjunction or enjoyed alone.

Other books in The Anonymous Spy series...

THE ESPIONAGE DICTIONARY
A glossary of espionage terms as well examples of their usage. A useful tool for those interested in pursuing intelligence work or writers, actors, and other artists searching to realistically portray the spy trade in their craft.

A GUIDE FOR THE ASPIRING SPY
A basic guide of CIA recruitment, training, and employment from the point of view of a Non-Official Cover case officer. Ideal for those interested in pursuing intelligence work or writers, actors, and other artists searching to realistically portray the spy trade in their craft.

AUTHOR’S NOTE
Nonfiction materials in The Anonymous Spy series have been submitted to the Central Intelligence Agency’s editorial review board for censoring. After five years of revisions and seventy pages of content rejected as “too factual and detailed as to how the CIA actually works” in the field, the remaining materials stand as a comprehensive guide to American spy craft without compromising the modus operandi of the CIA case officer in the field.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to the companies and individuals who risk their reputations, fortunes, and lives to provide a selfless service to this country. This series is dedicated to those heroes on the CIA’s Wall of Honor who made the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest of us can live in the freedom we sometimes take for granted.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Anonymous Spy joined the CIA as a very expendable GS-8 paramilitary case officer after having served as a US Army Intelligence Officer on loan to the Company to work on the infamous Phoenix Program in Vietnam. As a PM case officer, he served two tours in Vietnam, after which he was selected to become a deep-cover Non-Official Cover case officer, a position he held for nearly twenty years. Prior to that assignment, he served one tour at CIA headquarters as a desk “bureaucrat” operations officer planning his own first NOC tour overseas. Rising in the ranks to become a senior level GS-17, the Anonymous Spy has had a taste of almost every area and level of duty the CIA has to offer. Now retired, he enjoys hiking, fishing, and hunting and lives a somewhat reclusive life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: alphadivision
• Release date: May 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781938268922

Anonymous Spy

The Anonymous Spy joined the CIA as a very expendable GS-8 paramilitary case officer after having served as a US Army Intelligence Officer on loan to the Company to work on the infamous Phoenix Program in Vietnam. As a PM case officer, he served two tours in Vietnam, after which he was selected to become a deep-cover Non-Official Cover case officer, a position he held for nearly twenty years. Prior to that assignment, he served one tour at CIA headquarters as a desk “bureaucrat” operations officer planning his own first NOC tour overseas. Rising in the ranks to become a senior level GS-17, the Anonymous Spy has had a taste of almost every area and level of duty the CIA has to offer. Now retired, he enjoys hiking, fishing, and hunting and lives a somewhat reclusive life.

Book preview

True Accounts of Espionage

The Anonymous Spy Series

smashwords edition

copyright 2012

by The Anonymous Spy

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written consent from the author/publisher.

Author’s Note

Nonfiction materials in The Anonymous Spy series have been submitted to the Central Intelligence Agency’s editorial review board for censoring. After five years of revisions and seventy pages of content rejected as too factual and detailed as to how the CIA actually works in the field, the remaining materials stand as a comprehensive guide to American spy craft without compromising the modus operandi of the CIA case officers in the field.

Out of concern for the fate of the many US corporations as well as ordinary citizens in foreign countries who have wittingly and unwittingly assisted CIA officers in their clandestine work, no true names or locations are used in this series.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to the companies and individuals who risk their reputations, fortunes, and lives to provide a selfless service to this country. This series is dedicated to those heroes on the CIA’s Wall of Honor who made the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest of us can live in the freedom we sometimes take for granted.

Introduction

Every day is different for a CIA employee, but like any job, there are routine tasks and expectations.

Here you will read about a typical day for an Official Cover case officer and a paramilitary case officer. I’ve also included a standard week for a Non-Official Cover case officer, followed by thirteen vignettes from my life when a day has been not-so-standard.

What you won’t find: car chases or gun fights. What you will find: bureaucracy and paperwork, and hours of boredom and moments of terror along with unpredictable agents and a comedy of errors, all hopefully and finally leading to a job well done and a few moments of satisfaction as you push on to the next task.

A Day at the Desk of an Official Cover Case Officer

The Official Cover (OC)case officer completed his training at the Farm, was deployed to either CIA headquarters or a CIA domestic Station for a two-year tour of on-the-job training as a junior case officer, and has completed a one-year course in a foreign language. Finally, he has been assigned to an overseas Station under diplomatic cover as a first-tour case officer. It has been five years since he came on board with the CIA and he is ready for this!

After six months at the Station, he’s become an integral part of the Station’s stable of case officers. He has a thorough understanding of the Station’s Operating Directives and the priorities the Station attaches to each. Most days are about the same, and this one is no exception.

He gets to the office around 8:00 AM, has a cup of coffee, and starts reading the cable traffic from headquarters and other Stations that came in overnight. This cable traffic includes intelligence disseminations called Field Information Reports (FIRs), operational cables, administration cables, and more. He will also find copies of all the cables that his Station sent to headquarters and other Stations. The daily reading is an important part of his education and preparation to work with his own agents and developmental contacts.

Next, he writes operational and intelligence cables from his meeting with one of his agents the previous evening. This will include the contact report that must be written after each agent meeting. The contact report documents the history of the operation and details the intelligence production, tasking, and instructions given the agent; administrative matters such as payments made to the agent; agent training; communication arrangements; and more.

Intelligence disseminations are prepared for each major topic on which there is sufficient information to warrant a full dissemination. If there is not sufficiently detailed information available, he may prepare the intelligence information in the form of an operational cable called an ops intel cable. In this process, he may consult with the Station’s reports officer to get further insight that may add to the disseminability of the FIR.

He prepares another operational cable summarizing aspects of the agent contact report that he wants to emphasize to his headquarters’ country desk. This is often done because the contact reports are cabled in a separate format for filing in the agent’s 201 file and sometimes are not read at the country desk. This process may take him several hours. At this point, he may consult his immediate supervisor (the Chief of Station at small Stations or the Chief of Operations (COPS) or the Branch Chief at large Stations), who will have authority to release the cable to HQ.

Next, he discusses his plans to meet with a developmental contact for lunch with his immediate supervisor, who may have some suggestions or instructions for developing the target. Then off he goes to meet with the target. Depending on the nature of the relationship and the host country security service, he may have to conduct a Surveillance Detection Route (SDR) to ensure he is not under hostile surveillance just prior to meeting with the target. In this case, the target knows that he is a US government official at the diplomatic level, but does not know of his intelligence affiliation. He may meet the contact at some small, out-of-the-way restaurant for this meeting, some place that will not draw a lot of attention and not have a