Covert operation by a government, agency, or military organization
"Black op" and "Black ops" redirect here. For other uses, see Black Ops (disambiguation).
This US Douglas A-26C Invader was painted in fake Cuban Air Force colors for the military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the USAF sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 in April 1961.
A black operation or black ops is a covert or clandestine operation by a government agency, a military unit or a paramilitary organization; it can include activities by private companies or groups. Key features of a black operation are that it is secret and it is not attributable to the organization carrying it out.[1]
A single such activity may be called a black bag operation;[1] that term is primarily used for covert or clandestine surreptitious entries into structures to obtain information for human intelligence operations.[2] Such operations have been carried out by the FBI,[3] CIA,[4] KGB, Mossad, MI6, MI5, ASIS, COMANF, DGSE, AISE, CNI, MSS, R&AW, DGFI, SVR, FSB, Kuwait 25th Commando Brigade, ISI and the intelligence services of other states.[2]
The main difference between a black operation and one that is merely secret is that a black operation involves a significant degree of deception, to conceal who is behind it or to make it appear that some other entity is responsible (e.g. false flag operations).[5][6]
^ abSmith, W. Thomas Jr. (2003). Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 31. ISBN 0-8160-4666-2.
^ ab"Tallinn government surveillance cameras reveal black bag operation". Intelnews. December 16, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
^Rood, Justin (June 15, 2007). "FBI to Boost 'Black Bag' Search Ops". ABC News. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
^"The CIA Code Thief Who Came in from the Cold". matthewald.com. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
^Popular Electronics, Volume 6, Issue 2–6. Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., Inc. 1974, p. 267. "There are three classifications into which the intelligence community officially divides clandestine broadcast stations. A black operation is one in which there is a major element of deception."
^Djang, Chu, From Loss to Renewal: A Tale of Life Experience at Ninety, Authors Choice Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, p. 54. "(A black operation was) an operation in which the sources of propaganda were disguised or misrepresented in one way or another so as not to be attributed to the people who really engineered it."
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