Spy Ink includes The Spy Fiction Hall of Fame
Home Spy Encyclopedia	Lexicon-A Access The ability through the possession of appropriate security clearances to obtain classified information. EE Accommodation Address An address where regular mail or sometimes another type of communication is received and then held for pickup, forwarded to or relayed to a member of an intelligence service who does not occupy the premises. Also called a mail drop or live letterbox. SB Acoustic Intelligence (ACINT) Intelligence derived from the collection and processing of acoustic data, especially the noise "signatures" of surface ships and submarines and underwater weapons detected by sonar. SB Action Officer The case officer designated to perform an operational act during a clandestine operation, especially in a hostile area. EE Active Measures Russian term for intelligence operations that will affect another nation's policies or actions. These can be either covert or open and can include a wide variety of activities, including assassination. SB Additive A series of numbers or letters added to a cipher or code; the additive is also referred to as the key. SB Agent A person acting under control of an intelligence or security service to obtain or help obtain information for intelligence purposes. A person, usually a foreign national, who has been recruited by a staff officer from an intelligence service to perform clandestine activities. EE Agent in Place Someone who remains in the current position while acting under the direction of a hostile intelligence service in order to obtain information. EE Agent Net An intelligence-gathering unit of agents supervised by a principal agent who is operating under the direction of an intelligence officer. SB Agent of Influence Individual who can be used to exert covert influence on foreign officials, the news media, or pressure groups to advance the objectives of a foreign government. SB Agent Provocateur Agent who instigates incriminating overt acts by individuals or groups whom the police, for example, already have under suspicion, to help discredit them. SB Air Proprietaries Airlines established by an intelligence agency that are ostensibly private enterprises. They are employed by the agency to carry out clandestine operations, often in addition to their commercial cover with their affiliation to an intelligence organisation kept secret. EE All Source Intelligence Intelligence based on all available information including OPEN SOURCE (OSINT). EE Angel Slang used by intelligence officers for a member of an opposing service. EE Artist An artist trained in forgery working for the CIA's Technical Service. EE Alternative Meet A prearranged location for a clandestine meeting to take place in the event that a regularly scheduled meet is moved for any reason. SB Apparat An espionage ring or cell. SB Aquarium Slang for the headquarters of Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU). Located on Khoroshevskiy Highway in the Moscow suburb of Khodynke, it is a nine-story building whose largely glass external walls account for the nickname. (Many GRU officers refer to the building as steklyashka, "piece of glass.") GRU defector Vladimir Rezun, writing under the pen name Viktor Suvorov, called his 1987 book about the GRU Aquarium. SB Assessment Analysis of the reliability or validity of information, intelligence or a statement resulting from this process. EE Asset Any human resource, technical or otherwise, available to an intelligence or security service for operational use. EE Attache Military and naval attaches are officers assigned to foreign capitals as liaison with those nations' armed forces. Their duties include the overt collection of information and, if appropriate, intelligence gathering. These officers may be intelligence specialists or general service officers; however, typically all Soviet-Russian attaches are GRU or military intelligence officers. EE Audio Surveillance Clandestine eavesdropping procedure usually with electronic devices. EE Aunt Minnies Photographs taken by commercial photographers, journalists, and tourists that show an area of interest or intelligence target. Often these are the only ground-level photos available to an intelligence agency of a location of particular interest. These are called "Aunt Minnies" because someone's aunt (or wife or husband) was often in the photos. SB