Cryptonyms are secret names used to conceal various people, places, and things. Cryptonyms are usually a combination of a locational prefix and a secondary word to represent the operation. Certain cryptonyms can relate to a group project and specific members of the operation. For example AMCONCERT would be an operation, person, or thing, and AMCONCERT-1 is a specific related person. However, intelligence groups have altered prior names, used a single code name for multiple people, and ceased using some prior designations to prevent identification.
Most Recent Additions: DULAUREL-1, AECOB-5, JYVAPOROUS
*Numeric Cryptonyms are listed according to their alphabetical letter (for example 110 is One-Hundred Ten)
Research accepted into the Mary Ferrell Foundation Collections (MFF)
Research verified by United States National Archives files (USNA)
Research verified by Central Intelligence Agency FOIA Documents (CFD)
AEASPIC: David Tzitzichvili (MFF)
He was a sabotage asset hired for spotting agents and potential assassination operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Additional cryptonyms: WIROGUE-1) (MFF)
AECAMBARO-1: Freds Ziedonids Launags (MFF)
He was a CIA Agent suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was heavily involved with various members of Project AMCOB; at least one member of the related agents was a friend of Launags.
AECAMBARO-2: Arturs Leonids Brombergs (MFF)
Brombergs was a former Latvian police officer and later dentist that served in the anti-Communist resistance.
AECLUSTER: Vladimir Sakharov (MFF)
He was a Soviet diplomat prior serving in the Middle East that later defected.
AECOB-1: Voldis Viksna (USNA)
He was skilled at building repair and provided safe houses for other related intelligence agents that were infiltrated into Communist held Latvia following WWII to support the Latvian resistance.
AECOB-3: Arturs Stankevics (USNA)
This school teacher and medical assistant for the Latvian police assisted Latvian resistance by conducting operations that allowed rebel communications within enemy territory.
AECOB-4: Ilmars Rupners (USNA)
He remained in Latvia following the fall of the Iron Curtain to aid the anti-Communist resistance and simultaneously cultivated a family and business in Soviet territory while remaining a staunch Latvian nationalist.
AECOB-5: Peteris Rungis (CFD)
He was a veterinarian in Latvia whose participation in anti-Communist undertakings was requested by Arturs Brombergs (AECAMBARO-2).
AECOB-6: Janis Presnikovs (USNA)
This music teacher at a local high school in Riga operated as the cutout for another CIA Latvian agent receiving mail within the Soviet Union.
AECOB-7: Vidvuds Sveics (USNA)
He was the leader of the anti-Soviet Latvian resistance movement.
AECOB-8: Janis Ozolins (USNA)
He was a former police officer and later bookkeeper used for Project AMCOB.
AECOB-9: Jekabs Parups (CFD)
This agent was a forester who managed local timber resources in Latvia.
AECOB-10: Andrejs Apsits (USNA)
He was a Swedish CIA agent stationed inside Latvia conducting intelligence gathering operations.
AECOB-11: Erika Zvirgzdins (CFD)
A friend of CIA Agent Arturs Leonids Brombergs (AECAMBARO-2) that was recruited for the Project AECOB to provide an intelligence safe house.
AECOB-12: Eduards Millers (CFD)
This person was utilized to provide one of the multiple safe houses used by agents and assets for Project AECOB.
AECOB-13: August Gruzduls (CFD)
He was recruited by CIA employee Freds Launags to provide a safe house for use in Project AECOB.
AECOB-14: Arvids Vigants (CFD)
CIA employee Freds Launags recruited him to establish one of multiple Latvian safe houses for operational purposes.
AECOB-15: Alexander Bong (CFD)
He was the father of an unnamed CIA contract agent who served as a letter drop location for AECOB-1.
AEGAIN: Artush Oganesyan (MFF)
A Soviet defector serving in the KGB that provided Russian intelligence documents to the CIA.
AEFISSION: Nikolai Ivanovich Trofimov (MFF)
He was a Russian agent that maintained contact with Soviet officials following his supposed defection.
AEGOLD: Zavoroskiy (MFF)
This Soviet defector was a sea captain and only his surname is listed within one official list of defectors.
AEKICK: The KGB (Soviet Committee for State Security) (MFF)
AELENIS: Vladimir Mikhailovich Petrov (MFF)
He was a former KGB officer that defected with the aid of Australian officials.
AEMIGALE: Antanas Zigmas Butkus (MFF)
A Lithuania defector that was employed by Radio Free Europe.
AEOCEAN-3: Philip R. Neilson (MFF)
Neilson was a tourist agent for the CIA in Russia who married and immigrated with a Russian wife the CIA suspected of being a KGB asset.
AEPLEBE: Bimbli (MFF)
An Albanian Soviet defector that provided multiple reports to the Agency with the surname Bimbli.
AEREADY-2: Constantine Mierlak (USNA)
Meirlak was responsible for the selection and spotting of all CIA AEREADY candidates and was consulted on Soviet propaganda in the media.
AEVISION: Michael Goleniewski (MFF)
He was a former Polish Secret Service officer that defected and later claimed to be the heir to the Romanov imperial dynasty of Russia.
AEWIGWAG-2: A female source of media intelligence (MFF)
She was the wife of a French reporter in Moscow who provided information about UPI reporter Robert Korengold to officials.
AMAUTO-1: Orestes Guillermo Ruiz-Perez (MFF)
Ruiz-Perez was a DGI (Cuban intelligence) officer in Madrid that served under official cover as the Cuban Ambassador.
AMBIDDY-1: Manuel Artime Buesa (MFF)
Cuban exile leader that was involved in the Bay of Pigs and several other Agency funded operations that include his direct control of autonomous exile forces.
AMBLEAK-1: Estaben Jacquin Blanco Sanchez (MFF)
A Cuban official, CIA informant, and anti-Castro exile group member who assisted with courier services inside Cuba.
AMBRUSH: Intel Section of the Frente Revolucionario Democratico (FRD) (MFF)
The internal part of a large anti-Castro association of separate exile groups that focused on intelligence related operations.
AMCLATTER-4: Pedro Fernandez (MFF)
He gathered intelligence within Cuba at the request of the Agency’s Havana Station.
AMCONCERT-1: Francisco Wilfredo Varona Alonso (MFF)
He provided information to the CIA's Havana Station to assist in official propaganda supporting the defection of the Cuban dictator's sister Juanita Castro.
AMCOOP-1: Miguel Xiques Marcias (MFF)
He is a retired Cuban diplomat, informant, and friend of Costa Rica's Ambassador to Cuba who seemingly transported diplomatic packages.
AMECRU-1: Guillermo Alonso Pujol (MFF)
Pujol was a former Vice President of Cuba and Bay of Pigs veteran.
AMDIP-1: Manuel Antonio de Varona Loredo (MFF)
He was a leading delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC) and former Cuban Prime Minister.
AMGIRAFFE: An unidentified CIA asset that associated with members of the Cuban exile group Unidad Revolucionaria. (UR) (MFF)
AMHAWK-2: Jesus Exposito Lorenzo (MFF)
Agency Cuban asset reporting to Havana Station associated with Antonio de Varona.
AMICE-14, AMSTALK-1: Miguel A. Diaz Isalgue (MFF)
He was a Cuban exile used by the CIA's JMWAVE Station to conduct over a dozen clandestine infiltrations of subjects into Cuba.
AMICE-31: Reinaldo Pico Ramon (MFF)
Ramon was a veteran of the Bay of Pigs who later defected and subsequently the CIA used him for propaganda operations.
AMJUTE-1: Arnesto Napoleon Rodriguez y Gonzalez (MFF)
An exile asset used for CIA surveillance operations.
AMLASH-2: Jorge Carlos Robreno Marieguez aka "El Mago" (The Wizard) (MFF)
Robreno was a Captain in the Cuban Revolutionary Army and President of the Revolutionary Tribunals in La Cabana Prison. He organized, led, and participated in the execution of dozens of men by firing squad. Among his victims were former Castro supporter William Morgan.
AMLASH-3: Alberto Blanco Ramirez aka "El Loco" (The Crazy One) (MFF)
He was instructed by AMLASH-1 (Rolando Cubela) to contact the CIA to obtain assistance for his attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro and other leading members of the Cuban regime.
AMOT-87: Mercedes Maria de los Angeles Meana Contina (MFF)
Contina performed intelligence reporting and translation for the Agency and its assets.
AMOT-99: Julio Fernandez Gonzales (MFF)
Gonzalez served the Intelligence and Security forces of the Frente Revolucionario Democratico (FRD) Cuban exile association.
AMPANIC-2: Antonio Santiago Ruiz (MFF)
Santiago was among a breakaway sect within one political group overseen by Cuban exile leader Antonio Varona Loredo and he assisted in the creation a rival exile group.
AMPANIC-14: Juan de Jesus Arbelo Zabaleta (MFF)
AMPARTY-1: An unknown source that provided the CIA information via a contact within the Revolutionary Movement of the People (MRP) anti-Castro Cuban exile group. (MFF)
AMPATROL-1: Jose Antonio Gomez Perez (MFF)
AMPHODARCH: A group of foreign agents located at the University of Havana under the direction of CIA Agent Ross Crozier. (MFF)
AMRAZOR-1: A yet unidentified Cuban asset used for intelligence purposes by JMWAVE station. (MFF)
AMSLAW-1: Pedro Julio Martinez Fraga y Fernandez (MFF)
Fernandez was among the anti-Castro exiles critical of the CIA and the former Cuban Ambassador to the United States.
AMSMILE-1: Ernesto Betancourt (MFF)
He was a former ally and later critic of Fidel Castro and wielded significant influence within the Cuban exile community, among his allies was Manuel Ray Rivero.
AMSPRAWL-2: Mexico City Station used this penetration agent with access to Cuban Embassy personnel to influence Cuban intelligence operations. (MFF)
AMSTALK-1: Miguel Angel Diaz Isalgue (MFF)
He was a JMWAVE agent also known as Juan Hildalgo Elizondo Romano that undertook operations targeting the Cuban government.
AMTHUG-1: Fidel Castro (MFF)
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz the later dictator of Cuba who seized power from corrupt autocrat Fulgencio Batista and eventually converted the nation to a Communist stronghold.
BE: Locational prefix for the nation of Poland (MFF)
BESMIRCH-2: Wilhelm Karl Ludtke (USNA)
Ludtke was a former Nazi police official serving as a spotter, recruiter, and generated leads for Project BESMIRCH. He was additionally used to supervise and conduct surveillance against Soviet officials, contacts, and government installations for Project CAUTERY.
BGACTRESS: International Organizations Division (MFF)
This group funded anti-Communist publications and pro-Western media in Europe within the CIA's Directorate for Plans.
BGCANE: CIA Office of Policy Coordination (USNA)
BGMURDER: West Germany (USNA)
This was the democratic zone of the formerly divided German nation.
BGGYPSY: The nation of Russia and Russian related matters. (MFF)
BKHERALD, BKCROWN: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (Additional cryptonyms: PNJEWEL) (MFF)
CAMEN: The West German Federal Criminal Police (USNA)
CASCOPE: The West German Foreign Intelligence Service (BND) (USNA)
CATOMIC-3: Heinrich Bandholz (USNA)
CAUTERY-1: Hanz Friederich Lobbes (USNA)
He was an expelled member of the Nazi party for his alleged connection to the 20th July Plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler and was employed as police officer for most of his life. Officials later utilized him as the lead agent of Project CAUTERY to develop an intelligence network to gather leads on Soviet defectors.
CAUTERY-2: Theodor Saevecke (USNA)
Saevecke prior served the Third Reich as a police employee, was reportedly part of a Nazi death squad in Poland, and later became Chief of the SS in Milan. Subsequently German officials appoint him to lead the Gestapo in Milan and he served in Africa before his later enlistment by the CIA as a foreign agent.
CAUTERY-3: Walter Mellenthin (USNA)
He investigated leads for the possible use of defectors and was dispatched to Soviet controlled Dresden to investigate a failed defection lead. Subsequently he disappears and officials believe enemy forces arrested, compromised, and consigned him to Mokotow Prison in Warsaw, Poland.
CAUTERY-4: Wilhelm Ludtke (USNA)
(Additional cryptonyms: BESMIRCH-2, see BESMIRCH-2 for his description)
CAUTERY-5: Werner Franz Glasenapp (USNA)
Glassenapp was a former agent of the Nazi Gestapo Secret Police that was fired because he sought to financially gain by use of his position; he was later cut off from the CIA because of reportedly selling intelligence material to enemy agencies.
CAUTERY-6: Johann Dosse (USNA)
He joined the Belarusian White Guard after his parent's murder and the destruction of his home by the Bolsheviks, Dosse in time worked importing fruit to Germany and for the later Soviet occupiers translating while he secretly aiding Soviet defectors until his later arrest by Communist officials. Subsequently he later escaped to Berlin and was used by the Agency to generate leads and facilitate enemy defector and refugee information.
CAUTERY-8: Andreas Lottum (USNA)
Andreas Lottum was a construction materials administrator reporting to the Soviet Defense Construction Staff within Russian controlled East Germany. Officials recruited him to provide intelligence and information regarding Soviet civil and defensive construction operations he and his wife later fled to the West after he believed Soviet intelligence officials were observing them.
CAUTERY-10: Elfina Mellenthin (USNA)
Elfina Mellenthin served the Agency gathering intelligence in Soviet controlled areas. She and her former husband Walter Mellethin (CAUTERY-3) both were interrogated while following Soviet intelligence leads in separate encounters. However, she was able to convince Soviet officials that she was not an intelligence agent.
CAUTERY-16: Horst Paul Vetterman (USNA)
He served the Nazi Army during WWII in Russia and Germany but local East German police called him an untrustworthy political refugee and he told US officials he was skilled in sabotage having reportedly prior undertaken plots against Soviet targets.
CAUTERY-18: Heinrich Kutzler (USNA)
CIMOTIF-1: This unknown person was a member of the JURE Cuban exile group that was undertaking anti-Castro support in Panama until they were forced to flee. (MFF)
CORAL: A specialized military clearance provided to a select group of paramilitary and intelligence officials. (MFF)
DI: Locational prefix for the nation of Czechoslovakia (MFF)
DIZTAG: The nation of Czechoslovakia (MFF)
DM: Locational prefix for the nation of Yugoslavia (MFF)
DMLIVID: Major Djurorie Dujare Djurorie (MFF)
He smuggled diamonds for Jose Mankel (QJWIN-1) to establish cover for Mankel's CIA assignments.
DN: Locational prefix for the nation of South Korea (MFF)
DTFROGS: The nation of El Salvador (MFF)
DULAUREL-1: A female Russian media professional assisting Soviet intelligence officers that included Nikolay Sergeyevich Leonov. (MFF)
DYMADNESS: The United States Department of the Navy (USNA)
DYMAGPIE: The United States Department of the Army (USNA)
DYMAROON: The United States Department of State (MFF)
FULMINATOR-1: David Atlee Phillips (MFF)
He served in several roles at the CIA including foreign agent, staff agent, case officer, Covert Action Chief, Chief of Station, and Chief of Western Hemisphere Division. Phillips name is synonymous with propaganda, psychological warfare, and assassination due to the operations he conducted during his intelligence career. This is perhaps the earliest code name assigned to the notorious CIA officer during the 1950s.
FJHAKI: The nation of Estonia (USNA)
GIAGAR-7: This person was a member of the GIAGAR Group supporting anti-Castro operations in Columbia. (MFF)
HBFAIRY: The nation of France (MFF)
HBFINCH: A United States embassy (MFF)
Sometimes accompanied by name of the related embassy's location, for example HBFINCH Mexico City would represent the US Embassy in Mexico City.
HBTROUT: The nation of Canada (USNA)
HTEXOTIC: The German city of Munich (USNA)
HTKEEPER: Mexico City (MFF)
HTPLUME: The nation of Panama (MFF)
JBCLOUD: The nation of Latvia (USNA)
JMBLUG: John S. Peurifoy (MFF)
John S. Peurifoy was appointed by US President Harry S. Truman to serve as the Ambassador of Guatemala and Peurifoy occupied that post during the nineteen fifty-four overthrow of Guatemala by CIA supported military opposition forces.
JMNET: Routing indicator for the Latin American Division (MFF)
JYVAPOROUS: The Belarusian KGB during the 1990s (MFF)
KAPOK: A CIA cable indicator for the highest level of document sensitivity that emerged from the Office of Strategic Services files. (MFF)
KLAMBROSIA- 29: Maria Lydia Duran Rocha de Alzerreca (MFF)
She was CIA source and secretarial employee of the Bolivian Ministry of Government.
KMFLUSH: The nation of Nicaragua (MFF)
KMPLEBE: The nation of Peru (MFF)
KMULCER: The nation of Italy (MFF)
KOBIRD: The CIA East Asia Division (MFF)
KUCHAP: The CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence
KUJAZZ: The CIA Office of National Estimates (MFF)
KUJUMP: The CIA Office of Operations aka the Domestic Contacts Division (MFF)
KUMONK: CIA Office of Political Analysis (MFF)
LCPANGS: The nation of Costa Rica (MFF)
LHGRAB: East German Intelligence Services (USNA)
LIBRIFORM: A source of unique information regarding the Czechoslovakian Embassy located in Mexico City that reported to the CIA. (MFF)
LICOWL-1: An unidentified CIA double agent in Mexico City (MFF)
LICUFF-1: A Soviet agent whose cryptonym was assigned during the winter of nineteen sixty-three and possibly was leftist Mexican journalist Ricardo Poery Cervantes. (MFF)
LIEMPTY-19: Hester Roos De Alvarez (MFF)
LIHUFF-2: Augustin Navarro (MFF)
He collected intelligence on Communists in Mexico via paid university students and led an educational institute founded to oppose Communism.
LINIMENT: The Czechoslovakian Embassy in Mexico City (MFF)
LINOZZLE: A CIA contact at the Pentagon with access to reports on Cuban agent reliability. (MFF)
LIPSTICK-20: Joseph Alvarez Durant (MFF)
LITAINT-1: Angel Lorenzo Saavedra Correa aka Manuel Villafana Martinez (MFF)
Correa was the former Cuban Military and Air Attaché that defected to the United States in 1960.
LITAINT-7: Antonio Montanes (MFF)
Antonio R. Montanes, the former Second Secretary of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City who defected and denounced the Cuban regime at a press conference supported by the CIA's Mexico City Station.
LNAGON: Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (MFF)
LNERGO: Federal Bureau of Investigation (MFF)
LNGOLD: The United States Department of State (MFF)
LNPURE: A US Embassy or Consulate (MFF)
LPOVER: Conover Mast Publications (MFF)
ODINCH: The National Security Agency (MFF)
106: Gonzalo E. Buxton (USNA)
Buxton was an influential public voice that called for the United States entering WWI to oppose growing German military influences in Europe and he would later be instrumental in carrying out the designs of William Donovan as his second in the Office of Strategic Services.
109: William J. Donovan (USNA)
Donovan was a leading figure pushing for the United States to develop paramilitary forces and engage in centralized intelligence collection following the US entry into WWII in order to counter enemy forces deemed national security threats with unconventional warfare.
110: Allen W. Dulles (USNA)
He was the politically well-connected relative of multiple former US Secretaries of State and served in diplomatic jobs prior to his appointment by William Donovan to the Coordinator of Information's New York office. Dulles would later serve in roles at the Office of Strategic Services, the Strategic Services Unit, Central Intelligence Group, and lead the CIA during the nineteen fifties and early nineteen sixties.
154: Whitney H. Shepardson (USNA)
This academic was recruited by William Donovan to administrate the OSS branches concerned with secret intelligence and some operational research efforts.
PDDONOR: Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko (MFF)
He was a KGB defector that was held for years by the CIA but later was hired for advisement and training. However, additional modern research calls into question his prior role of being a possible false defector sent to discredit prior defecting agents.
PNJEWEL: The CIA (Additional cryptonyms: BKHERALD and BKCROWN) (USNA)
PNORACLE: The CIA Directorate of Intelligence (USNA)
QJBANNER-1: An unknown figure that assisted CIA employees Arnold Silver, Oliver Silsby, and lead agent Jose Mankel in developing aspects of Project QJWIN. (MFF)
QJWIN-1: Jose Marie Andre Mankel (MFF)
Mankel was a criminal asset hired by the Agency for spotting candidates, sabotage, and potential assassination operations.
QK: Groups that were knowingly or unknowingly conducting psychological warfare operations. (MFF)
QKCIGAR: United States Government (USNA)
QUHOPS-1: Jose Luis Gonzalez Gallarreta (MFF)
He was associated with the CIA AMLASH Operation to assassinate Fidel Castro and members of his regime.
QUSWIFT-1: Earl Williamson (MFF)
The Agency's Chief of Madrid Station in Spain.
REDTOP: CIA Soviet Russia Division (MFF)
UNRUMBLE-2: Pedro Ruiz Quintero (MFF)
He was a Cuban medical student living in Paris that a CIA asset considered using for intelligence gathering purposes.
UNSNAFU-9: Luis Trasancos (MFF)
He was a Central Intelligence Agency penetration agent at the Cuban Embassy in Paris, and connected to Rolando Cubela.
