Case 5 - I Rather Prefer the CIA, Thank You!!!!! Case 6 - Open Code Screw Up

Case Five:

“I made a commercial recruitment attempt on a development asset I had been working on in commercial alias for around six months. I believed the asset had sufficient motivation to accept recruitment as a witting agent so I suggested the asset be turned over to an inside Case Officer in an unattributible turnover so he could be recruited as a witting agent. I was overruled by the bureaucracy, however, and had to make a commercial pitch using a devised commercial cover facility.

In the pitch scenario I suggested to the asset that my company had some unspecified US government clients implying that some of the reports he may provide could be go to US government clients as well as commercial companies. When this part of the pitch was divulged, the asset stopped me to verify that he had just heard correctly that my company had some agencies of the US government among its clients! When I responded that this was correct the asset then asked if I could arrange for him to meet someone from the CIA because he would feel more comfortable working for the CIA than for my commercial consulting company! Surprise!”

Case Six:

“Case Officers often use public pay telephones in communications with agents and other Case Officers rather than using their office or home telephones which one must assume from a security point of view are tapped by local security services. While use of public pay phones is the norm for unscheduled communications, Case Officers and agents use an “open code” in their communications. For example, the Case Officer using a prearranged telephone alias may ask the agent to meet him at Tony’s Bar at 9 PM on Thursday for drinks. In open code, Tony’s Bar may mean another location altogether. The 9 PM time may mean 7 PM and Thursday may have the meaning of Friday. It is, of course, important to keep the code simple to avoid confusion.

“I received a communications on one occasion to meet my inside contact at Jody’s Bar which was open code for Ben’s Restaurant. My inside contact, however, meant Tony’s Bar that was actually Francis’ Restaurant. Needless to say, we did not meet at all that day wasting several hours each. After this happened on several occasions we finally learned. Needless to say, we soon revised our code name list to make sure the names used did not sound so similar”.