A Guide for the Aspiring Spy (The Anonymous Spy Series) Read Free Page A

paramilitary operations training, such as small unit tactics and ambush operations, weapons training, parachute training, explosives training, desert, arctic, and tropical jungle escape, evasion, and survival training. While most SOPO have previously received such training as part of their military training, the CIA introduces its particular twist to this training based on the peculiar needs of the CIA.
     
    The history of paramilitary operations in the CIA goes back to its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), during World War II. With the creation and growth of the CIA in the 1950s, little emphasis was given to such operations, and the cadre of paramilitary personnel from the OSS days were integrated into other CIA operations or released from service. It was not until the early 1960s and the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion that the CIA again placed an emphasis on paramilitary operations.
     
    Then along came the Vietnam War. Its counterpart, known as the CIA’s private little war in Laos, resulted in CIA recruiting paramilitary personnel in large numbers. The special operations group within the CIA that was responsible was made a full-fledged Special Ops Division and given major funding to recruit, train, and deploy paramilitary case officers abroad to confront communist inspired insurgencies worldwide.
     
    It is the SOPO who are intimately involved in the worldwide war on terror. SOPO are mainly deployed in hostile military theaters such as Iraq and Afghanistan. While they are not supposed to be directly involved in hostile military operations, they often find themselves drawn into such hostile zones by virtue of their work to collect intelligence. Often SOPO are involved in liaison operations with host country intelligence, security, and paramilitary forces. They may be “advisors” to local level host country security offices responsible for penetrating local terrorist cells. They may work with local paramilitary forces to fund, plan, and deploy teams to pursue terrorists. They also serve as liaison with US military forces in their theater of operations to collect and disseminate intelligence on the local terrorist target.
     
    While the SOPO are an action arm of the CIA at the grass roots level, they also attempt to collect and report to CIA headquarters intelligence information to help CIA analysts understand what is going on at the local level. Thus, they must write operational cables and FIRs (Field Information Reports) just like any other CIA case officer. SOPO also run agent operations just like their Official Cover counterparts. Some operations may be in conjunction with local liaison services and some may be “unilateral” operations.
     
    Paramilitary operations run by the CIA have a mixed history. On the high side was the successful operation to hunt down Cuban communist revolutionary Che Guevara in Bolivia in the 1960s before he could develop a successful communist insurgency. On the low side was the Phoenix Program in Vietnam—the so-called assassination program to neutralize the Viet Cong infrastructure. While the Phoenix Program was, indeed, a success in many provinces in Vietnam, it was tainted by the CIA’s intimate involvement with the program’s action element, the Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PUR) that conducted the ambush operations that killed many Viet Cong agents. Whatever the track record, however, the CIA is involved in paramilitary operations for the long haul. The SOPO are here to stay if you are interested in this program.
     

Testing Doesn’t End After College
     
    Whether you want to be an inside case officer, outside case officer, or paramilitary case officer, you have to pass a battery of test before you are considered for employment for any position.
     
    The testing process described in this section can differ based on a number of factors. For example, if you are a former or active military officer or enlisted man with a security clearance or you already have a