Editing Front organization (section)

==Intelligence agencies==
{{See also|Non-official cover|Agent handling#Human intelligence}}
Intelligence agencies use front organizations to provide "cover", plausible occupations and means of income, for their covert agents. These may include legitimate organizations, such as charity, religious or journalism organizations; or "[[brass plate firm]]s" which exist solely to provide a plausible background story, occupation, and means of income.

[[Brewster Jennings & Associates]] was a front company set up in 1994 by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) as a cover for its officers.

The airline [[Air America (airline)|Air America]], an outgrowth of [[Civil Air Transport]] of the 1940s, and [[Southern Air Transport]], ostensibly a civilian air charter company, were operated and wholly owned by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], supposedly to provide [[humanitarian aid]], but flew many combat support missions and supplied [[covert operation]]s in [[Southeast Asia]] during the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>{{cite web | first = William M. | last = Leary | author-link = William M. Leary | url = https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter99-00/art7.html | title = CIA Air Operations in Laos, 1955-1974 ''Supporting the "Secret War"'' | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061220195609/https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter99-00/art7.html | archive-date = 2006-12-20 }} From ''Studies in Intelligence'' (CIA), volume 43, number 1, winter 1999-2000.</ref> Other CIA-funded front groups have been used to spread American [[propaganda]] and influence during the [[Cold War]], particularly in the [[Third World]].<ref>Powers, Thomas, "The Man Who Kept the Secrets : Richard Helms & the CIA", Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1979, {{ISBN|0-394-50777-0}}</ref>
When intelligence agencies work through legitimate organizations, it can cause problems and increased risk for the workers of those organizations.<ref>Joe Davidson, {{cite web | url = http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/12840/ | title = I Am Not a CIA Agent | date = 2002-04-11 | access-date = 2007-12-13}}</ref> To prevent this, the CIA has had a 20-year policy (since 1976, per US Government sources) of not using [[Peace Corps]] members or US journalists for intelligence purposes.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://clinton6.nara.gov/1996/07/1996-07-17-press-briefing-by-mike-mccurry.html | title = Press briefing by Mike McCurry | date = 1996-07-17 | publisher = Clinton Presidential Materials Project | access-date = 2007-12-13 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110927023908/http://clinton6.nara.gov/1996/07/1996-07-17-press-briefing-by-mike-mccurry.html | archive-date = 2011-09-27 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4262036 | title = Exclusive: Peace Corps, Fulbright Scholar Asked to 'Spy' on Cubans, Venezuelans | date = 2008-02-08 | work = ABC News | access-date = 2008-02-15}}</ref>

Another airline allegedly involved in intelligence operations was Russian [[Aeroflot]] that worked in a close coordination with [[KGB]], [[Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)|SVR]] and [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]].<ref name="Kuzminov">Alexander Kouzminov ''Biological Espionage: Special Operations of the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West'', Greenhill Books, 2006, {{ISBN|1-85367-646-2}}</ref> The company conducted forcible "evacuations" of Soviet citizens from foreign countries back to the USSR. People whose loyalty was questioned were drugged and delivered unconscious by Aeroflot planes, assisted by the company KGB personnel, according to former GRU officer [[Victor Suvorov]].<ref>[[Viktor Suvorov]] ''[[Aquarium (Suvorov)|Aquarium]]'' ({{lang|ru|Аквариум}}), 1985, Hamish Hamilton, {{ISBN|0-241-11545-0}}</ref> In the 1980s and 1990s, specimens of deadly bacteria and viruses stolen from Western laboratories were delivered by Aeroflot to support the [[Soviet program of biological weapons|Russian program of biological weapons]].  This delivery channel encoded VOLNA ("wave") meant "delivering the material via an international flight of the Aeroflot airline in the pilots' cabin, where one of the pilots was a KGB officer".<ref name="Kuzminov" /> At least two SVR agents died, presumably from the transported pathogens.<ref name="Kuzminov" />

When businessman [[Nikolai Glushkov]] was appointed as a top manager of Aeroflot in 1996, he found that the airline company worked as a "[[cash cow]] to support international spying operations" according to [[Alexander Goldfarb (microbiologist)|Alex Goldfarb]]:<ref name="dissident">[[Alexander Goldfarb (microbiologist)|Alex Goldfarb]], with Marina Litvinenko ''[[Death of a Dissident]]: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB'', The Free Press, 2007, {{ISBN|1-4165-5165-4}}</ref> 3,000 people out of the total workforce of 14,000 in Aeroflot were [[Federal Security Service (Russia)|FSB]], SVR, or GRU officers. All proceeds from ticket sales were distributed to 352 foreign bank accounts that could not be controlled by the Aeroflot administration.  Glushkov closed all these accounts and channeled the money to an accounting center called Andava in [[Switzerland]].<ref name="dissident" /> He also sent a bill and wrote a letter to SVR director [[Yevgeni Primakov]] and FSB director [[Mikhail Barsukov]] asking them to pay salaries of their intelligence officers in Aeroflot in 1996.<ref name="dissident" />  Glushkov was imprisoned in 2000 on charges of illegally channeling money through Andava. Since 2004 the company is controlled by [[Viktor Ivanov (politician)|Viktor Ivanov]], a high-ranking FSB official who is a close associate of [[Vladimir Putin]].