A Black Bag Job or Black Bag Operation is a covert entry action undertaken by a police force or intelligence agency. A black bag job should not become known to its target, so violence or confrontation are to be avoided. For the band, see The Police. ... An intelligence agency is a governmental organization devoted to gathering of information by means of espionage (spying), communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. ...

Reasons for a black bag job include planting surveillance equipment and finding and copying documents, computer data or cryptographic keys. Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior. ... A key is a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm. ...

The term comes from the black bags formerly used by intelligence services to carry the equipment required for such operations.

The use of "black bag jobs" by the FBI was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court on 19 June 1972 in the Plamondon case, 407 U.S. 297. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... June 19 is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 195 days remaining. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year that started on a Tuesday. ... Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon was a 60s revolutionary activist who was one of the founders of the White Panther Party. ...

See also

• Burglary
• Church Committee
• COINTELPRO
• Lock picking
• Search warrant

The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) in 1975. ... COINTELPRO is an acronym (Counter Intelligence Program) for a program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. ... Lock picking is the art of unlocking a lock without its intended key. ... A search warrant is a written warrant issued by a judge which authorizes the police to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a criminal offense. ...

Reference

Sir Peter Wright. Spy Catcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer. Penguin USA, 1987. ISBN 0670820555.

External link

• Warrantless Surreptitious Entries: FBI "Black Bag" Break-ins And Microphone Installations