CIA cryptonyms are code words seen in declassified documents of the U.S. 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). Certain digraphs were changed at times, for example the digraph for the Soviet Union changed at least twice.

Partial list of digraphs and probable definitions

 

AE: Soviet Union

AM: Cuba

BE: Poland

CK: Soviet Union

DI: Czechoslovakia

DM: Yugoslavia

DN: South Korea

ES: Guatemala

GT: Soviet Union

IA: Angola

KU: Part of CIA

MH: Worldwide operation

MK: Projects sponsored by the CIA's Technical Services Division

OD: Other Department

PB: President Board

SD: Iran

SM: United Kingdom

TU: South Vietnam

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, ER, FJ, HB, HO, HT, JM, JU, KM, LC, LI, QK, SE, SC, WS, ZI

 

Partial list of CIA cryptonyms and probable definitions

 

 

Operations and Projects

APPLE

ARTICHOKE: Anti-interrogation project. Precusor to MKULTRA.

AQUATONE: Lockheed U-2 Spy Plane Project

BIRCH

BLUEBIRD: mind control program

CHALICE: Lockheed U-2 Spy Plane Project

CHATTER

CHERRY: Covert assassination / destabilization operation during Vietnam war, targeting Prince (later King) Norodom Sihanouk and the government of Cambodia. Disbanded.

CONDOR: 1970s CIA interference in Latin American governments, some allege in the coup and assassination of Salvador Allende in Chile

CORONA: Satellite photo system.

DBACHILLES: 1995 effort to support a military coup in Iraq.

FIR

GUSTO: Lockheed U-2 Spy Plane Project

HTAUTOMAT: Lockheed U-2 Spy Plane Project

HTLINGUAL: Mail interception operation.

IAFEATURE: Operation to support UNITA and FNLA during the Angolan civil war.

LEMON

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. MKULTRA means MK (code for scientific projects) and ULTRA (top classification reference, re: ULTRA code breaking in WWII. Renamed MKSEARCH in 1964

MKSEARCH: MKULTRA after 1964, mind control research

MKOFTEN: Testing effects of biological and chemical agents, part of MKSEARCH

OAK: Operation to assassinate suspected South Vietnamese collaborators during Vietnam war

OXCART: Lockheed A-12 Spy Plane Project

PAPERCLIP: US recruiting of German scientists after the Second World War

PHOENIX: Vietnam covert intelligence/assassination operation.

PINE

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

TSS: Technical Services Staff

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

KUHOOK: Negotiations/Logistics (unsure)

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, Argentinian guerrilla leader

AMTHUG: Fidel Castro, president of Cuba

GPFLOOR: Lee Harvey Oswald, J.F. Kennedy's assassin

GPIDEAL: John F. Kennedy, US president

GRALLSPICE: Pyotr Semonovich Popov, Soviet defector

JMBLUG: John S. Peurifoy, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala

KUMOTHER: James Jesus Angleton, head of the CIAs counter intelligence

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 city of Retalhuleu, 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

PBRUMEN: Cuba

SARANAC: Training site in Nicaragua

SCRANTON: Training base for radio operators near Nicaragua.

WSBURNT: Guatemala

WSHOOFS: Honduras

 

 

Other

BGGYPSY: Communist

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 (amobarbital), Sodium Pentothal (thiopental), and Seconal (secobarbital) to induce regression in the subject.

LIENVOY: Wiretap or Intercept Program

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