Living Undercover

To share a little of what life is like undercover..first let me dispell any thoughts that it's a "James Bond" life..There are such moments, but it's mostly boring, routine work. We just watched, on the AHC Channel a program entitled "Spies". It's very interesting so I thought I would give you a little personal gist since Janey & I spent 20 years of our lives, undercover in that world.  First let me tell you that both Janey & I worked under an Alias which we call "Pseudonyms"  So you wouldn't find our real names in the halls of the agency we worked for. But beyond pseudonyms..We also use "Crypts" For example if I were working on a case/assignment..my crypt might be something like "SG-Coffecup". The purpose of both pseudonyms & crypts..All diplomatic cable traffic (Messages) are encrypted..But if the bad guys were trying to decipher a message..they might very well be looking for our true names (which they know) to give them an advantage in breaking the message..so the pseudonym is to confuse the issue. Moreover if we are working on a particularly sensitive (secret) issue..The participants would each be assigned a "Crypt" which is what we call "Super-Encipherment" It's virtually impossible to break a message when super encipherment  is employed.

Now to give you a personal experience which is somewhat amusing.  At one of our embassy assignments in a foreign country..I slowly became aware that the boss had Janey working some assets on the street..whereby she was given a ladies handbag with a secret bottom compartment for carrying both payroll (to pay the assets) & sensitive documents..When I became aware of this..I was furious because although I held "Diplomatic Immunity"..Janey did not..So I put a stop to it forthwith.

Now the amusing part..In this particular country/embassy..our agents were trying to recruit a high level Russian officer to collaborate with us..He was assigned a crypt & although that was more than 30 years ago..I'm still not free to disclose his crypt..But the part you'll find amusing is that in the effort to recruit him..(We never did succeed btw) but we decided to provide him with a girlfriend..So we wired Washington to send us a girlfriend for this guy.  They, of course sent us an eligible agent & we started putting her close to him at diplomatic parties etc..It didn't take long..She was a pro.& darned pretty..He swallowed it "Hook-line-&-sinker"..At one point..he took her to an antique auction & she bought an antique chair..which he put in his station wagon.. to take it home for her..But in the process of driving her home while doting/fawning on her..He forgot to take the chair out of his car & next day his wife discovered it..Yes I could tell you more but that should be enough to allow your imagination work on the case..As I mentioned above however..we never did get him..Not while I was assigned to that embassy anyway.