cia cryptonym

CIA cryptonyms are code words seen in declassified documents of the US Central Intelligence Agency. There has been much speculation as to the meaning of these. Each CIA cryptonym in these documents contains a two character prefix called a digraph, which designates a geographical or functional area. The rest is either an arbitrary dictionary word, or occasionally the digraph and the cryptonym combine to form a dictionary word (e.g.: AEROPLANE).

Partial list of digraphs and probable definitions

AE - Soviet Union
AM - Cuba
BE - Poland
DI - Czechoslovakia
DM - Yugoslavia
DN - South Korea
ES - Guatemala
KU - Part of CIA
MH - Worldwide operation
MK - Projects sponsored by the CIA's Technical Services Division
OD - Other Department
SD - Iran
SM - United Kingdom
ZR - Normally prefixes the cryptonym for an intelligence intercept program. Seems to go with Staff D ops, Staff D being the group that worked directly with the NSA. Staff D was where ZR/RIFLE, a Castro assassination plot, was buried.

Unidentified digraphs

AV, CA, DT, EC, FJ, HB, HO, HT, JM, JU, KM, LC, LI, PB, SE, SC, WS

Partial list of CIA cryptonyms and probable definitions

Operations and Projects

ARTICHOKE
BLUEBIRD - mind control program
CHATTER
HTAUTOMAT - Lockheed U-2 Spy Plane Project
HTLINGUAL - Mail interception operation
LINCOLN - Ongoing operation involving Basque separatist group ETA
LPMEDLEY - Surveillance of telegraphic information exiting or entering the United States
MHCHAOS - Surveillance of antiwar activists during the Vietnam War
MKDELTA - Stockpiling of lethal biological and chemical agents, subsequently became MKNAOMI
MKNAOMI - Stockpiling of lethal biological and chemical agents, successor to MKDELTA
MKULTRA - Mind control research, renamed MKSEARCH in 1964
MKSEARCH - MKULTRA after 1964, mind control research
MKOFTEN - Testing effects of biological and chemical agents, part of MKSEARCH
PAPERCLIP - US recruiting of German scientists after the Second World War
PHOENIX - Vietnam covert intelligence/assasination operation
PBFORTUNE - CIA project to supply forces opposed to Guatemala's President Arbenz with weapons, supplies, and funding; predecessor to PBSUCCESS.
PBHISTORY - Central Intelligence Agency project to gather and analyze documents from the Arbenz government in Guatemala that would incriminate Arbenz as a Communist.
PBSUCCESS - (Also PBS) Central Intelligence Agency covert operation to overthrow the Arbenz government in Guatemala.
SHERWOOD - CIA radio broadcast program in Nicaragua begun on May 1, 1954.
TPAJAX - Joint US/UK operation to overthrow Mohammed Mossadeq, Prime Minister of Iran
WASHTUB - Operation to plant Soviet arms in Nicaragua

Organizations

KUBARK - CIA Headquarters
KUCAGE - CIA Overseas Paramilitary / Propaganda Operations
KUCLUB - Office of Communications
KUDESK - Counterintelligence department
KUDOVE - Office of the director
KUFIRE - Intelligence
KUGOWN - Propaganda
KUSODA - CIA Interrogators
ODACID - State Department / US Embassy
ODEARL - US Department of Defense
ODENVY - FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation
ODOATH - US Navy
ODUNIT - US Air Force
ODYOKE - US Government
QKFLOWAGE - United States Information Agency
SKIMMER - The "Group" CIA cover organization supporting Castillo Armas.
SGUAT - CIA Station in Guatemala
SMOTH - British Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6)
SYNCARP - The "Junta," Castillo Armas' political organization headed by Cordova Cerna.
UNIFRUIT - United Fruit Company

Persons

AEFOXTROT - Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, a Soviet defector
AELADLE - Anatoliy Golitsyn, a Soviet defector
AMLASH - Rolando Cubela Secades, a Cuban official involved in plot to kill Fidel Castro in 1963
AMQUACK - Che Guevara, Cuban guerilla leader
AMTHUG - Fidel Castro, president of Cuba
JMBLUG - John S. Peurifoy, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala
GPFLOOR - Lee Harvey Oswald
GPIDEAL - John F. Kennedy
GRALLSPICE - Pyotr Semonovich Popov, Soviet defector
PANCHO - Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala, also RUFUS
RUFUS - Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala, also PANCHO
SKILLET - Whiting Willauer, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras.
STANDEL - Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala

Places

BOND - Puerto Barrios, Guatemala
DTFROGS - El Salvador
HTKEEPER - Mexico City
HTPLUME - Panama
JMMADD - CIA airbase near Retalhuleu city, Guatemala
JMTIDE - CIA airbase in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
JMTRAX - CIA covert airbase/training camp in Guatemala
JMWAVE - CIA station in Miami (which operated against Cuba)
KMFLUSH - Nicaragua
KMPAJAMA - Mexico
KMPLEBE - Peru
LCPANGS - Costa Rica
LIONIZER - Guatemalan refugee group in Mexico
PBPRIME - the United States of America
SARANAC - Training site in Nicaragua
SCRANTON - Training base for radio operators near Nicaragua.
WSBURNT - Guatemala
WSHOOFS - Honduras

Other

BGGYPSY - Russia; Russian
ESCOBILLA - Guatemalan national
ESMERALDITE - labor informant affiliated with AFL-sponsored labor movement
ESSENCE - Guatemalan anti-Communist leader
FJHOPEFUL - military base
LCFLUTTER - Polygraph, sometimes supplanted by truth drugs: sodium amytal (anobarbital), sodium pentothal (thiopental), and seconal (seconbarbital) to induce regression in the subject.
RYBAT - Indicates that the information is very sensitive
SLINC - Telegram indicator for PBSUCCESS Headquarters in Florida.

Unidentified codewords

AEBARMAN, AEFOX, AEROPLANE, AVBLIMP, AVBRANDY, AVBUSY, CABOUNCE, CLOWER, ECJOB, ESGAIN, ESODIC, ESQUIRE, FJDEFLECT, GOLIATH, HBDRILL, HOPEFUL, JUBATE, JUBILIST, KUHOOK, KUJUMP, KUPALM, KURIOT, KUTUBE, LCPANES, LICOZY, LITEMPO, ODIBEX, PBCABOOSE, QKENCHANT, SECANT, SEQUIN, SCRANGER, SUMAC, ZPSEMANTIC, ZPSECANT, ZRBEACH, ZRBRIEF, and ZRMETAL

References

Cullather and PBSUCCESS document collection
Leo D. Carl, The International Dictionary of Intelligence, Mavin Books, 1990, p. 107
Phillip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Stonehill Publishing, 1975, p. 48
David Wise, Molehunt, Random House, 1992, p.19

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