bona fides

Proof, usually in the form of a document, that a claimed identity is genuine.

The CIA glossary defines bona fides as proof, usually documentary, that a person’s claimed identity or claims are true. The Latin phrase literally means “in good faith”.¹

Checking credibility also applies to volunteers who approach a foreign intelligence service of their own accord. According to B. G. Royden’s article in Studies in Intelligence, the CIA did not respond for almost a year to the Soviet engineer Adolf Tolkachev’s attempts to make contact (from January 1977), because headquarters feared a KGB dangle. Contact was confirmed in March 1978.²