How It's Used

“For example, most of us did not know that, during her husband's run for president in 1992, Mrs. Clinton headed something called the Defense Team, basically a black-ops version of the campaign's War Room. Defense Teamers under Mrs. Clinton's direction dealt even more aggressively than their War Room colleagues with bimbo eruptions, draft-dodging revelations and Whitewater leaks.”

—Byron York, “Getting to Know Her,” The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2007, p. W6.

"One former CIA official who is familiar with these programs (and who asked not to be identified) speculates that [Leon] Panetta's main task might be to clean up not only the agency's high-profile mess—the 'black ops' that have tarnished America's reputation around the world—but this budgetary-bureaucratic mess as well. Certainly, he knows where the line items are buried to a degree that few insiders can match."

—Fred Kaplan, “Why Obama Picked Panetta To Run the CIA: He's clean, he knows where the line items are buried, and the director isn't the chief spook anymore,” Slate, January 6, 2009.

"So Variety says George Clooney’s production company has acquired the film rights to 'The Tourist,' an espionage thriller by Olen Steinhauer. Clooney himself is reported to be keen on playing the lead role of Milo Weaver, a black-ops agent with a clandestine branch of the C.I.A. that refers to its agents as Tourists and specializes in acts of extreme Tourism."

—Marilyn Stasio, "Once a Spy...," The New York Times, March 12, 2009.

"Mark Wahlberg—who I've always maintained is better cast as a comedian than as an action hero—plays a perpetually shirtless black-ops expert who can't stop exchanging charged innuendo with Claire."

—Dana Stevens, “Date Night: The funniest comedy of the year.* [sic],” Slate, April 8, 2010.

Also Known As (AKA)

Black Ops

Links

Related on eAlmanac
CIA
MI-6

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on black operations