Deep Cover

The first-ever in-depth account of the past, present, and future of the CIA's “deep cover” human-spying programs—a rigorously reported and revealing history of how spies really operate, from an award-winning investigative journalist Most intelligence officers stationed abroad operate under the shield of diplomatic immunity, posing as rank-and-file government officials. But there is another breed, known as non-official cover officers—or NOCs—who operate outside the lanes of normal spywork, beyond the protection of their government. Their activities are among the most sensitive performed by the CIA and the world’s other leading spy agencies. NOCs commonly pose as businesspeople—think import-exporters, hi-tech experts, scientists, or financial advisors. Their cover story becomes their life. Since 1947, generations of leaders in U.S. intelligence have touted deep cover spying as the future of espionage. But are the risks worth the payoff? CIA NOCs have evinced extraordinary bravery over the years in their work, contributing to intelligence successes. But over the decades, tremendous resources have been pumped into the NOC program, to mixed results. Failures are often buried beneath layers of secrecy, clouding our understanding of the true human cost of deep cover programs and what they have actually achieved. In Deep Cover, Zach Dorfman provides the first comprehensive journalistic account of this shadowy world. Drawing on exclusive interviews with more than seventy former CIA officials, and thousands of newly declassified documents, Dorfman traces the story of the CIA's deep cover programs, from their modern genesis during the Cold War, through the War on Terror, to today. Along the way, he unearths extraordinary hidden stories of CIA deep cover spies, like that of “Lagunas,” a pseudonymous NOC embedded for years inside a radical extremist network; “Lexadore,” a Bond-like figure who turned up dead in his luxury flat in Switzerland; and a duo of deep-cover officers who hunted a killer of CIA employees to the ends of the earth. The result is a globe-trotting, high-stakes narrative that probes the true value of deep cover espionage—and its often extraordinary cost.