Spycraft - Melton [221]
Selection of appropriate cover for covert operatives was handled by a separate division within the DDP.3 TSS, and subsequently OTS, supported cover requirements by creating and/or reproducing paper or plastic documentation that a person would normally be expected to carry, such as passports, visas, licenses, credit cards, blood donor records, stationery, membership cards, business cards, and travel documents. Paper documents were at the heart of establishing an officer’s identity and legitimacy, particularly in the decades before electronic databases.4 Historically, officially issued and printed documents carried on one’s person were the standard form of identification for travelers, but in recent years, biometric identification and individual data stored on computer chips have become a required element of establishing identity.
Fabricating high-quality identity documents has always been technically difficult and unforgiving. The OSS London shop reportedly checked documents thirty times before issuance to an agent going behind German lines .5 Minor mistakes or errors in printing, format, color, paper texture, inks, or missing security features in government-issued documents were quickly recognized in the home country. Immigration and customs officials, as well as border guards, were trained to spot false documentation; likewise, local police were keenly aware of the typical contents of a traveler’s wallet or purse. Hotel receptionists, ticket agents, and bank tellers were trained to be alert for fraudulent or counterfeit documents. A suspicious document opened the door for additional investigation and questioning that, once begun, often led to an unraveling of the bearer’s cover story and endangered the larger operation.
Intelligence officers working under an alias required documents that were perfect reproductions of official issuances and contained the current authentication features necessary for travel. Credit cards had to be signed with the same name and same script as the bearer’s passport, driver’s license, and club cards. Passports had to contain valid visas and entry and exit “chops” (rubber-stamp impressions) that corresponded to travel reflected on other documents. Dates on airline stubs or train tickets had to be consistent with dates showing entry into a country.
A production element within the OTS designed, printed, bound, laminated, and artificially aged the false documents while a separate authentication division reviewed, verified, and prepared each document before issue. The separate authentication process confirmed that every piece of an individual’s document package, including any government-issued identification papers, was complete, accurate, and up to date. Before issuance, authentication officers compared the document package to data maintained in CIA’s exhaustive international document inventory and archives of current and historic samples of customs and immigration forms, rubber stamps, cachets, seals, passports, and travel paperwork. To ensure that the document inventory and knowledge of international travel remained current, CIA officers or assets were sent on probes to survey travel routes, observe immigration practices, collect chops in passports at foreign border crossings, and record changes in entrance/exit procedures in countries of operational interest.
A few months before the September