Here’s your indispensable guide to CIA cryptonyms

The Mary Ferrel Foundation has updated its invaluable guide to CIA Cryptonyms. These are the code names for agency operations and operatives in the early 1960s. These are the identifying terms used in the agency’s internal communications. You can’t delve very deep into the history of the Kennedy years without needing this resource.

7 thoughts on “Here’s your indispensable guide to CIA cryptonyms”

  1. While there may be no clear evidence of a direct link between some of the operations such as ARTICHOKE and MKULTRA, you do have to remember that Richard Helms, in one of his last acts as DCI, destroyed most of the files related to those programs. A declassified document dated in January 1954 from ARTICHOKE, that survived the destruction, indicated that the CIA was looking into ways to get a person “to perform an act, involuntarily, of attempted assassination against a prominent [redacted] politician or if necessary, against an American official.” https://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/document-friday-project-artichoke-or-the-cia-attempt-to-create-a-manchurian-candidate/.

    1. H.P. Albarelli Jr.

      ARTICHOKE files were not destroyed under Helms’s order to Gottlieb. Those files [and that program] were not overseen by CIA TSD or Gottleib. In fact, there are some MK/ULTRA files on the Mary Ferrell site, some that are quite important and that escaped destruction.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top