CIA cryptonyms are code words seen in declassified documents of the US 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).

Unidentified digraphs

AV, CA, DT, EC, FJ, HB, HO, HT, JM, JU, KM, LC, LI, PB, SE, SC, WS

Partial list of CIA cryptonyms and probable definitions

Operations and Projects

• ARTICHOKE
• BLUEBIRD - mind control program
• CHATTER
• HTAUTOMAT - Lockheed U-2 Spy Plane Project
• HTLINGUAL - Mail interception operation
• 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, renamed MKSEARCH in 1964
• MKSEARCH - MKULTRA after 1964, mind control research
• MKOFTEN - Testing effects of biological and chemical agents, part of MKSEARCH
• PAPERCLIP - US recruiting of German scientists after the Second World War
• PHOENIX - Vietnam covert intelligence/assassination operation
• 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
• 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
• 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, Cuban guerilla leader
• AMTHUG - Fidel Castro, president of Cuba
• JMBLUG - John S. Peurifoy , U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala
• GPFLOOR - Lee Harvey Oswald
• GPIDEAL - John F. Kennedy
• GRALLSPICE - Pyotr Semonovich Popov , Soviet defector
• 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 Retalhuleu city, 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
• SARANAC - Training site in Nicaragua
• SCRANTON - Training base for radio operators near Nicaragua.
• WSBURNT - Guatemala
• WSHOOFS - Honduras

Other

• BGGYPSY - Russia; Russian
• 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 (anobarbital), sodium pentothal (thiopental), and seconal (seconbarbital) to induce regression in the subject.
• 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, QKENCHANT, SECANT, SEQUIN, SCRANGER, SUMAC, ZPSEMANTIC, ZPSECANT, ZRBEACH, ZRBRIEF, and ZRMETAL

References

• Cullather and PBSUCCESS document collection
• Leo D. Carl, The International Dictionary of Intelligence, Mavin Books, 1990, p. 107
• Phillip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Stonehill Publishing, 1975, p. 48
• David Wise, Molehunt, Random House, 1992, p.19