CIA cryptonyms are code names or code words used by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to refer to projects, operations, persons, agencies, etc.
Format of cryptonyms CIA cryptonyms sometimes contain a two character prefix called a digraph, which designates a geographical or functional area. Certain digraphs were changed over time; for example, the digraph for the Soviet Union changed at least twice.
The rest is either an arbitrary dictionary word, or occasionally the digraph and the cryptonym combine to form a dictionary word (e.g., AEROPLANE) or can be read out as a simple phrase (e.g., WIBOTHER, read as "Why bother!"). Cryptonyms are sometimes written with a slash after the digraph, e.g., ZR/RIFLE, and sometimes in one sequence, e.g., ZRRIFLE. The latter format is the more common style in CIA documents.
Examples from publications by former CIA personnel show that the terms "code name" and "cryptonym" can refer to the names of operations as well as to individual persons. TRIGON, for example, was the code name for Aleksandr Ogorodnik, a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the former Soviet Union, whom the CIA developed as a spy;Wallace and Melton, pp. 88–102 HERO was the code name for Col. Oleg Penkovsky, who supplied data on the nuclear readiness of the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.Helms 2003, p. 216 According to former CIA Director Richard M. Helms: "The code names for most Agency operations are picked in sequence from a sterile list, with care taken not to use any word that might give a clue to the activity it covers. On some large projects, code names are occasionally specially chosen—GOLD, SILVER, PBSUCCESS, CORONA. When Robert F. Kennedy requested a code name for the government-wide plan that Richard Goodwin was drafting, an exception was made. Goodwin was on the White House staff, and the plan concerned Cuba. Occasionally the special code names come close to the nerve, as did MONGOOSE."Helms 2003, p. 197 A secret joint program between the Mexico City CIA station and the Mexican secret police to wiretap the Soviet and Cuban embassies was code-named ENVOY.Weiner 2008, p. 258
Some cryptonyms relate to more than one subject, e.g., a group of people. In this case, the basic cryptonym, e.g., LICOZY, will designate the whole group, while each group member is designated by a sequence number, e.g., LICOZY/3, which can also be written LICOZY-3, or just L-3.
Digraphs
Partial list of digraphs and probable definitions
AE: Soviet Union (1960s)David Wise, Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames Sold the CIA to the KGB for $4.6 Million, HarperCollins Publishers, 1996 p.15 AL: Brazil AM: Cuba (also JM) AV: Uruguay BE: Poland BG: Albania BI: Argentina CA: West Germany CK: CIA Soviet and East Europe division sensitive cases (late 1970s) DB: Iraq DI: Czechoslovakia DM: SFRY / Yugoslavia DN: South Korea DU: Peru EC: Ecuador ES: Guatemala (also PB) FU: Chile GT: CIA Soviet and East Europe division sensitive cases (1980s) HA: Indonesia (1958) IA: AngolaOur War' in Angola". Time. May 22, 1978. IR: Philippines?Spy Anonymous. (2013). True Accounts of Espionage: The Anonymous Spy (Vol. 3). Retrieved March 8, 2016, from https://www.amazon.com/TRUE-ACCOUNTS-ESPIONAGE-Spy-Book-ebook/dp/B00EX5K0WG/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1457488683&sr=1-3 JM: Cuba (also AM) KK: IsraelSeymour M. Hersh, The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, New York, Random House, 1991 pp. 5 KU: CIA and CIA components LC: China LN: United States LI: Mexico City MH: Worldwide operation. MJ: Palestinian-relatedKai Bird, The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, Crown Publishing Group, New York, 2014 p. 95 MK: CIA Technical Services Division (1950s/1960s) MO: Thailand OD: Other US Government Departments (1960s) PB: Guatemala (also ES) PD: Soviet Union (1980s) PO: Japan SD: Iran SM: United Kingdom ST: CIA Directorate of Operations, Far East division, China BranchKenneth Conboy and James Morrison, The CIA's Secret War in Tibet, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2002, p. 269 SZ: Switzerland TP: Iran (1953) TU: South Vietnam WI: Congo-Léopoldville/Kinshasa (1960s) EU-RN: Intelligence intercept program of CIA Staff D ops, the group that worked directly with the NSA (National Security Agency).
Unidentified digraphs DT, ER, FJ, HB, HO, HT, JU, KM, KO, QK, SC, SE, SG, WO, WS, ZI
Known cryptonyms
ADAM: Guatemala City AEACRE: Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (ZP/UHVR) radio broadcastsRichard H. Cummings, "From the Secret Pages of History", Kyiv Post, December 21, 2021 AECASSOWARY-2: Mykola Lebed, President of Prolog and CIA Principal Agent AECROAK: Radio station called Nasha Rossiya AEFOXTROT: Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, a Soviet defector. AELADLE: Anatoliy Golitsyn, Soviet defector and former KGB officer. AERODYNAMIC: Psychological warfare operation AERANTER: Sub-project of Operation AERODYNAMIC AESCREEN: Soviet Bloc division's translation and analysis unitRonald Kessler, Spy vs. Spy: Stalking Soviet Spies in America, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988 p. 53 AETENURE: Prolog Research and Publishing Association, Inc. AMBIDDY-1: Manuel Artime.Waldron & Hartmann 2005, p. 878 AMBLOOD: Luis Torroella y Martin Rivero, a CIA agent.Escalante, Fabian. 1995. The Secret War: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959–62, p. 93, AMCLATTER-1: Bernard Barker, one of the Watergate burglars.Waldron & Hartmann 2009, p. 262 AMBUD AMCLEOPATRAWaldron & Hartmann 2009, p. 204 AMCOBRA AMCOG-3: Ramón Grau San Martín AMCROW AMCRUZ or AMCRUX? AMFOX AMGLOSSY AMHALF AMJUDGE AMLASH: Plan to assassinate Fidel Castro associated mainly with Rolando Cubela. AMLASH has been referred to as a "basically one-person Cubela operation".Waldron & Hartmann 2005, p. 215 AMLASH-1: Rolando Cubela Secades, a Cuban official involved in plot to kill Fidel Castro in 1963. AMOT: Cuban exile informants of David Sánchez Morales.Waldron & Hartmann 2009, p. 38 AMPALM-4 AMQUACK: Che Guevara, Argentinian (later Cuban) guerrilla leader. AMTHUG: Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba 1959–1976.Waldron & Hartmann 2009, p. 35 AMTRUNK: A CIA plan by New York Times journalist Tad Szulc initiated in February 1963, also called the "Leonardo Plan", that was "an attempt to find disgruntled military officials in Cuba who might be willing to recruit higher military officials in a plot to overthrow Castro",Waldron & Hartmann 2005, p. 216 as well as to overthrow the Cuban government "by means of a conspiracy among high-level ... leaders of the government culminating in a coup d'etat". AMTRUNK has also been described as a "CIA-DIA Task Force on Cuba",Waldron & Hartmann 2009 p. 224 and as "a plodding bureaucratic effort" that "had worked for months to identify Cuban leaders who might be able to stage a coup". AMWHIP-1: Business associate of Santo Trafficante Jr. who was in contact with Rolando Cubela (AMLASH) in 1963.Waldron & Hartmann 2009, p. 19 AMWORLD: A plan initiated June 28, 1963, to overthrow the Castro regime in a coup on December 1, 1963 (C-Day), that would have installed Juan Almeida Bosque, a top ranking Cuban military officer, as the new head of state.Waldron & Hartmann 2005, p. 794Waldron & Hartmann 2009, p. 13 Some Cuban exiles referred to C-Day as "Plan Omega".Waldron & Hartmann 2005, p. 589 AMUPAS-1: June Cobb during her infiltration of the Cuban government under Fidel Castro.Cobb's aliases included "Clarinda E. Sharpe" and "Joyce Pineinch." From September 21 to 29, the CIA maintained surveillance of Cobb's hotel room in New York City. Cobb appears under the crytonym LICOOKY-1, which see, as she continued her CIA employment in Mexico and Gutelmala. BGGYPSY: Russia; Russian; Communist BOND: Puerto Barrios Caesar: Quetzaltenango CALLIGERIS: Carlos Castillo Armas CARTEL: Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (ZP/UHVR) radio broadcasts CKGULL: CIA Polish agent Ryszard Kukliński (also QTGULL)Benjamin Weiser, A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country, New York: PublicAffairs, 2003 p. 344 CKSPHERE, CKVANQUISH: Adolf Tolkachev CKTRIGON: Aleksandr Dmitrievich Ogorodnik CKTWINE: Boris Yuzhin CKUTOPIA, CKQUARTZ: Victor Sheymov CORONA: the CIA's first satellite Reconnaissance program, 1958 DBACHILLES: 1995 effort to support a military coup in Iraq.David Ignatius, "A Big Man To Watch In Baghdad", Washington Post, February 1, 2004 DBANABASIS commenced Fall 2002, operation to train Iraqis in Area 51 in Nevada and then to run them on missions of sabotage and assassination inside Iraq.Annie Jacobsen, Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins. (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2019), p. 371-383 DBROCKSTARS: Iraqi spy ring recruited by the CIA shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack Doc: Mazatenango DTFROGS: El Salvador DYCLAIM: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)The Case of Otto Albrecht Alfred von Bolschwing Eddie: El Quiché ESCOBILLA, Guatemalan national ESMERALDITE, labor informant affiliated with AFL-sponsored labor movement ESSENCE, Guatemalan anti-Communist leader FJHOPEFUL, military base Frank: Jutiapa, Guatemala Goss: Cobán, Guatemala GROSSBAHN: Otto von Bolschwing, Sicherheitsdienst officer who later served as a spy for CIA GTACCORD: GRU colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Vasilyev GTCOWL: KGB officer Sergei Vorontsov ("Stas") GTFITNESS: KGB Gennady Varenik GTGAUZE: KGB major Sergey Motorin GTGENTILE: KGB lieutenant colonel Valery F. Martynov GTTICKLE: Oleg Gordievsky GTJOGGER: KGB lieutenant colonel Vladimir M. Piguzov GTMILLION: GRU lieutenant colonel Gennady Smetanin GTWEIGH: KGB officer Leonid Polyshuk Hank, Zacapa (Guatemalan base) HTAUTOMAT: Photointerpretation center for the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft project. HTKEEPER: Mexico City HTLINGUAL or HGLINGUAL: Mail interception operation 1952–1973. HTNEIGH: National Committee for Free Albania (NCFA) [1949-mid1950s] HTPLUME: Panama Ike: San José Jack, Florida, Honduras JMADD: CIA air base near city of Retalhuleu, Guatemala 1960–1961 JMATE: Cover Action plans against Cuba 1960–1961, resulting in Bay of Pigs invasion JMBELL: CIA office (location unknown) 1961 JMBLUG: John Peurifoy, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala. JMFURY: Preparatory strikes against Cuban airfields before Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961 JMGLOW: CIA Washington 1961 JMMOVE: CIA training base located in Belle Chasse, Louisiana 1961. The stated objective of the base was training Cuban refugees for the Bay of Pigs Invasion. JMTIDE: CIA air base in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua 1961 JMTRAX: CIA covert air base/training camp in Guatemala 1960–1961 JMWAVE: CIA station in Miami (that operated against Cuba). JMZIP: CIA office (location unknown) 1961 Kent: Carias Viejas, Honduras KKMOUNTAIN: CIA-Mossad cooperation in the 1960s KMFLUSH: Nicaragua KMPAJAMA: Mexico KMPLEBE: Peru KUBARK: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); CIA Headquarters, Langley KUBASS: CIA Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T) KUCAGE: CIA Psychological and Paramilitary Operations Staff KUCHAP: CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence (DDI) KUCITY: CIA Technical Services Division KUCLUB: CIA Office of Communications KUDESK: CIA Counterintelligence Center KUDOVE: CIA Deputy Director for Operations (DDO) KUFIRE: CIA Foreign Intelligence Staff KUGOWN: CIA Psychological and Paramilitary Operations Staff KUHOOK: CIA Paramilitary Operations Staff KUJAZZ: CIA Office of National Estimates KUJUMP: CIA Contact Division KUKNOB: CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) KUMONK: CIA Office of Political Analysis (OPA) KUPALM: CIA Office of Central Reference KURIOT: CIA Technical Services Division KUSODA: Center for CIA Security KUTUBE: CIA Foreign Intelligence Staff KUTWIN: Office of Strategic Services (OSS)