Black bag operations or black bag jobs are

covert Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controver ...

clandestine Clandestine may refer to: * Secrecy, the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals * Clandestine operation, a secret intelligence or military activity Music and entertainmen ...

entries into structures to obtain information for

human intelligence Human intelligence is the Intellect, intellectual capability of humans, which is marked by complex Cognition, cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. Using their intelligence, humans are able to learning, learn, Concept ...

operations. Some of the tactics, techniques, and procedures associated with black bag operations are

lock picking Lock picking is the practice of unlocking a Lock (security device), lock by manipulating the components of the lock device without the original key. Although lock-picking can be associated with Intention (criminal law), criminal intent, it ...

safe cracking Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or the key. Physical methods Safes have widely different designs, construction methods, and locking mechanisms. A safe cracker needs to know the specifics of whichever ...

, key impressions,

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfa ...

ing, photography, electronic

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

(including audio and video surveillance), mail manipulation (flaps and seals), and forgery. The term "black bag" refers to the small bags in which burglars stereotypically carry their tools.

History

In black bag operations,

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) agents entered offices of targeted individuals and organizations, and photographed information found in their records. This practice was used by the FBI from 1942 through the 1960s. In July 1966, FBI Director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...

allegedly ordered the practice discontinued.

President Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 36th vice president under P ...

in 1970 proposed the

Huston Plan The Huston Plan was a 43-page report and outline of proposed security operations put together by White House aide Tom Charles Huston in 1970.Clyde Tolson Clyde Anderson Tolson (May 22, 1900 – April 14, 1975) was an American law enforcement officer who was the second-ranking official of the FBI from 1930 until 1972, from 1947 titled Associate Director, primarily responsible for personnel and dis ...

, with most records being destroyed after the job was complete. Agents that performed the jobs were trained in lock studies or electronic surveillance. In many cases, lock-picking was not required and a key could be accessed from a landlord, hotel manager, or a neighbor. However,

William C. Sullivan William Cornelius Sullivan (May 12, 1912 – November 9, 1977) was an assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who was in charge of the agency's domestic intelligence operations from 1961 to 1971. Sullivan was forced out of the ...

and W. Mark Felt subsequently testified that Hoover and acting FBI director L. Patrick Gray III authorized "black bag" jobs against the

Weather Underground The Weather Underground was a far-left Marxist militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally known as the Weathermen, or simply Weatherman, the group was organized as a f ...

from 1970 to 1973. The use of "black bag jobs" by the FBI was declared unconstitutional by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

on 19 June 1972 in the Plamondon case, ''

United States v. U.S. District Court ''United States v. U.S. District Court'', 407 U.S. 297 (1972), also known as the Keith Case, was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that upheld, in a unanimous 8-0 ruling, the requirements of the Fourth Amendment in cases of domestic ...

'', 407 U.S. 297. The FBI still carries out numerous "black bag" entry-and-search missions, in which the search is covert and the target of the investigation is not informed that the search took place. If the investigation involves a criminal matter, a judicial warrant is required; in national security cases the operation must be approved by the

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants ag ...

. In 1947, after American spy

Elizabeth Bentley Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (January 1, 1908 – December 3, 1963) was an American NKVD spymaster, who was recruited from within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union as the primary handler of multiple highly placed moles ...

had defected from the Soviet underground and had started talking to the FBI, the FBI broke into her Brooklyn hotel to do a "black bag job" to verify her own background – and to look for anything that would invoke suspicion. "They found nothing out of the ordinary." Bentley had learned how to dodge such intrusions from her earliest days in the underground:

She learned how to determine if enemy agents had discovered secret documents in her possession. "If I had to leave the apartment, I was careful to put them in my black trunk and tie a thin black thread around it so that I would know if they had been tampered with in my absence."

The CIA has used black bag operations to steal cryptography and other secrets from foreign government offices outside the United States. The practice (by preceding U.S. intelligence organizations) dates back at least as far as 1916.

Black bag operations in popular culture

Sam Fisher (Splinter Cell) Sam Fisher is a fictional character and the protagonist of the ''Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell'' series of video games developed by Ubisoft as well as a series of tie-in novels. He was created by the writer J. T. Petty and designed by artist Marti ...

Sombra (Overwatch) Sombra is the alias of Olivia Colomar, a character who first appeared in the 2016 video game ''Overwatch'', a Blizzard Entertainment–developed first-person shooter, and the resulting franchise. In the game's narrative, she is an exceptional ...

* ''

The Doorbell Rang ''The Doorbell Rang'' is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1965. Plot introduction Nero Wolfe is hired to force the FBI to stop wiretapping, tailing and otherwise harassing a woman who gave away ...

References

General references

* Wright, Peter, ''Spy Catcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer''. Penguin USA, 1987. .

Inline citations

Bibliography

External links

"11 Terms Used by Spies"

HowStuffWorks HowStuffWorks is an American commercial infotainment website founded by professor and author Marshall Brain, to provide its target audience an insight into the way many things work. The site uses various media to explain complex concepts, term ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Black Bag Operation Espionage techniques Federal Bureau of Investigation operations Intelligence operations by type