covert action

In the US: intelligence activities conducted in support of national policy objectives when properly and lawfully directed by the President.

The 2009 ODNI guide assigns them to the CIA’s National Clandestine Service.¹

The CIA glossary adds that these are activities abroad in which the US role is not meant to be apparent.²

US law (50 U.S.C. § 3093(e)) defines covert action as activities intended to influence political, economic or military conditions abroad, where the role of the US government is not meant to be apparent or acknowledged publicly; it excludes, among other things, intelligence gathering, traditional counterintelligence, diplomacy and traditional military activities. Covert action may not be intended to influence US political processes, public opinion or media (§ 3093(f)).³