Wise, David:
Wright, Peter with Greengrass, Paul:
The CIA website at www.cia.gov is an invaluable source of declassified documents and articles, giving the American perspective on events after the Second World War. Similarly, the FBI’s site at www.fbi.gov provides much inside information on the counterespionage activities of the Bureau.
The British Security Service can be found at www.mi5.gov.uk with MI6 represented online at www.sis.gov.uk These are considerably less open than their American counterparts but do reveal some choice nuggets.
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Although we have attempted to trace and contact copyright holders before publication, this may not have been possible in all cases. If notified, the publisher will be pleased to correct any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ACRONYMS
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 fur 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 Aufklarung. 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.
