3. Secret Code Words Aren’t Always So Secret
If you’ve ever seen a James Bond film or similar flick, than you know that meetings are supposed to happen either in swanky hotels and casinos, or else dark back alleys and similar places. If you’re the CIA, you want to distance yourself as far as possible from the United States, right? You wouldn’t choose to meet your informants at McDonald’s or Pizza Hut, right?
Wrong. Hezbollah in Lebannon was able to discover numerous CIA agents by staking out Pizza Hut. And how did Hezbollah figure out that the CIA was meeting with double agents and informants at Pizza Hut? Because the CIA decided to use the codeword “pizza” when communicating with agents.
Now, you might think that the CIA was clever if they used the codeword “pizza” but meant something totally different. For example, an agent might contact an information and say “hey, let’s meet for some pizza,” and then meet him at a grocery store instead. That’s not what the CIA did. When they said pizza, they meant pizza. When Hezbollah operatives figured out the code word, all they had to do was stake out pizza places and wait for the CIA agents and informants to show up.
Hezbollah decided not to go after the agents, but instead revealed their identity. Of course, for a spy, having their identity revealed can be a death kneel for their careers. After all, secrecy is a criteria necessary for every spy’s resume.
A total of ten agents had their identity revealed, and numerous other informants were discovered. The CIA was left essentially blind in Lebennon for several months, having to pull the agents out, all because agents were lazy and uncreative with their code words.