Covert operation

A planned action designed to conceal its sponsor, its existence, or both. States and other organizations use covert operations to pursue goals while limiting public attribution.

Plausible deniability: The ability to deny responsibility for an action credibly because evidence does not conclusively establish involvement. Concealed sponsorship is more useful when the sponsor can plausibly reject attribution.
Office of Strategic Services: A United States wartime intelligence agency that operated from 1942 to 1945. Its secret missions and organizational legacy helped shape postwar American covert action.
Operation Ajax: A 1953 covert operation by British and U.S. intelligence that helped overthrow Iran’s prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. It is a landmark example of foreign intelligence agencies helping depose a government.
Covert intelligence: Secretly acquired information about people, organizations, or events, usually for policy or security purposes. Intelligence gathering seeks information; covert action seeks to influence outcomes.
Blowback: Unintended harmful consequences of a covert operation, especially consequences that later affect its sponsor. An operation’s hidden effects can return as political or security costs for its sponsor.
Cover story: A fabricated or misleading explanation used to hide the purpose or circumstances of an activity. A cover story can mask an operation’s real purpose or participants.
Central Intelligence Agency: The United States civilian foreign intelligence agency, established in 1947. The CIA became a major institution for conducting and coordinating U.S. covert action.
Bay of Pigs Invasion: A failed 1961 invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles trained and supported by the United States. The operation’s public failure exposed U.S. involvement despite efforts to conceal it.
Espionage: The clandestine acquisition of information, especially by one state about another. Espionage is a collection activity, not necessarily an attempt to alter events.
Church Committee: A U.S. Senate committee that investigated intelligence abuses in 1975 and 1976. Its findings prompted reforms after revelations of covert and domestic intelligence activities.

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