Covert operations are military or political activities that are not only clandestine (undertaken in a manner that disguises the identity of the perpetrators) but also covert, i.e. denied by the governments that undertake them. They are employed in situations where openly operating against a target would jeopardize the operation's success. In the case of enemies, there may be issues regarding military strength, treaties, laws, moral principles, or aversion to negative media attention. Operations may be directed at allies and friends to secure their support or to influence their policy against an enemy. Covert operations differ from espionage by attempting to influence events in another country rather than gathering information about it. Spy and secret agent redirect here; for alternate use, see Spy (disambiguation) and Secret agent (disambiguation). ...

The best-known organizations specializing in covert operations today are the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense (The Pentagon) of the United States, but covert operations have been employed by many national and sub-national governments and other organizations for centuries, with or without a formal intelligence agency. They are an established and often controversial component of foreign policy throughout the world. The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the American foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ... The Pentagon, looking east with the Potomac River and Washington Monument in the distance. ... The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... An intelligence agency is a governmental organization devoted to gathering of information by means of espionage (spying), communication interception, cryptoanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. ... For political interaction among states, see foreign policy. ...

Law enforcement agencies also use covert operations to infiltrate suspected criminal organizations. For the band, see The Police. ... A criminal organization is a group run by criminals to further their illegal activities. ...

Forms of covert operations

Covert action takes many different forms reflecting the diverse circumstances in which it is used. There are paramilitary operations, in which a state trains, supports, or advises a military force in another country. There is political subversion, in which a state supports or advises a political group in another country or directs propaganda at its population. In disinformation operations, a government provides forged documents to another government to turn that government against an enemy. Some of the most controversional covert actions are those directed against individuals, such as kidnappings, assassinations, and coups d'état. A paramilitary is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ... This article is about the type of communication. ... Disinformation, in the context of espionage, military intelligence, and propaganda, is the spreading of deliberately false information to mislead an enemy as to ones position or course of action. ... Forgery is the process of making or adapting objects or documents (see false document), with the intention to deceive (fraud is the use of objects obtained through forgery). ... In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away of a person against the persons will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment (confinement without legal authority) for ransom or in furtherance of another crime. ... assassin, see Assassin (disambiguation) Jack Ruby assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald in a very public manner. ... A coup détat, or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. ...

A common tactic in covert operations is to establish a front business or organization through which agents can operate unrecognized. Air America, the CIA-owned airline that supplied Hmong fighters in Laos during the Second Indochina War, is an example of such a front organization. A front organization, also known as a front group (if it is structured to look like a voluntary association) or a front company or simply a front (if it is structured to look like a company), is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization. ... This article is about the airline. ... The Hmong, also known as Miao (Chinese: 苗: Miáo; Vietnamese: Mèo or Hmông; Thai: แม้ว (Maew) or ม้ง (Mong)), are an Asian ethnic group whose homeland is in the mountainous regions of southern China (especially Guizhou) that cross into northern Southeast Asia (northern Vietnam and Laos). ... The Lao Peoples Democratic Republic is a landlocked country in southeast Asia, bordered by Myanmar (commonly known in the west as Burma) and the Peoples Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. ... The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1957 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos (See Secret War) and in bombing runs (Rolling Thunder) over North Vietnam. ...

Examples of covert operations

• Smallpox-infested blankets being distributed to Native North Americans in an early form of germ warfare. See Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox Blankets (http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/amherst/lord_jeff.html).
• A campaign against North Vietnam conducted by the Pentagon's Special Operations Group under the cover name "Studies and Observation Group" from 1964 to 1972, said to be the largest and most complex covert operation since World War II and involving the dispatch of spies, psychological warfare, manipulation of North Vietnamese POWs and kidnapped citizens, dirty tricks, commando raids, and operations on the Ho Chi Minh trail. [1]
• The assassination (by Mossad) of the Palestinians who organized the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.
• The Iran-Contra affair; and Operation COINTELPRO, the FBI's program to subvert and disrupt domestic left-leaning political groups during the Cold War.

Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) is a highly contagious disease unique to humans. ... Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of any organism (bacteria, virus or other disease-causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war. ... The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa), also known as North Vietnam, was founded by Ho Chi Minh and was recognized by China and the USSR in 1950. ... This is an article about the geometrical shape. ... 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ... In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away of a person against the persons will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment (confinement without legal authority) for ransom or in furtherance of another crime. ... The Ho Chi Minh trail was a network of roads built from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the neighbouring countries of Laos and Cambodia to provide logistical support to the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War. ... Ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim (Hebrew: המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks) is an Israeli intelligence agency, commonly referred to as Mossad. ... The Palestinian flag, adopted in 1948, is a widely recognized modern symbol of the Palestinian people. ... Black September terrorist on the balcony of the Israeli hostel at the Olympic village The Munich Massacre occurred at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, when members of the Israeli amateur wrestling team were taken hostage by the Palestinian group Black September, an organization designated terrorist by the United... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München pronunciation) is the state capital of the German Bundesland of Bavaria. ... The Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is one of the worlds leading industrialised countries, located in the heart of Europe. ... A Time Magazine cover of Oliver Norths testifying in front of the U.S. Congress In the Iran-Contra Affair (also known as Irangate), United States President Ronald Reagans administration was involved in the sale of arms to Iran, which was engaged in a bloody war with its... 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. ... 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 Cold War ( 1947- 1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. ...

Representations of covert operations in popular culture

Covert operations have often been the subject of popular novels, films, TV series, etc.

Literature

See Spy fiction. The spy fiction genre (sometimes called political thriller) first arose just before the First World War, at about the same time, the first organized intelligence agencies were being formed. ...

Film

See Spy film. The spy film film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy. ...

Television

• I Spy
• Mission: Impossible, 1966-1963, 1988-1990

The I-Spy books were spotters guides written for English children, particularly successful in the 1950s and 60s. ... Mission: Impossible is the name of an American television series which aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to September 1973. ...

References

1. Shultz, Richard H., Jr. The Secret War against Hanoi: Kennedy's and Johnson's Use of Spies, Saboteurs, and Covert Warriors in North Vietnam. HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN 0060194545.

See also

• black op