A black operation or black op is a covert or clandestine operation by a government agency, a military unit or a paramilitary organization; it can include activities by private companies or groups. Key features of a black operation are that it is secret and it is not attributable to the organization carrying it out. A single such activity may be called a black bag operation; that term is primarily used for covert or clandestine surreptitious entries into structures to obtain information for human intelligence operations. Such operations are known to have been carried out by the FBI, CIA, KGB, Mossad, MI6, ASIS, COMANF, DGSE, MSS, R&AW, DGFI, SVR, FSB and the intelligence services of other nations. The main difference between a black operation and one that is merely secret is that a black operation involves a significant degree of deception, to conceal who is behind it or to make it appear that some other entity is responsible.
In June 2007 the Central Intelligence Agency declassified secret records—part of a collection of highly guarded documents called the "Family Jewels"—detailing illegal domestic surveillance, assassination plots, kidnapping, and infiltration and penetration of other "black" operations undertaken by the CIA from the 1950s to the early 1970s. CIA Director General Michael Hayden explained why he released the documents, saying that they provided a "glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency".
In October 2016, The Week reported that the Special Group has been used to carry out black operations outside India by the Indian government, with one instance being the training of some members of the militant organisation Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The theme of black operations is a popular genre within fictional literature and Hollywood films. Both the spy film and spy fiction genres have had a significant following for many decades including such films as Apocalypse Now and Zero Dark Thirty and such authors as John Le Carre and Tom Clancy. These “black operations” have also been a key point in video games. One such example is Activision's ', set in the early 1960s, where the player performs black operations such as trying to assassinate Fidel Castro and to eliminate the three antagonists. Another example is Half-Life and its expansion pack', which both feature Black Ops as hostile factions. In the anime and manga series Naruto, a black ops unit called the Anbu features heavily, and several major characters are or were formerly members.
