black on black

[dannyday5821]

i watched one of the borne films the other night and during a conversation on guy mentioned one of their programmes within the CIA or whatever was a "black on black" operation.

what does black on black mean? cant find it on google...?
is it something they made up?

ive heard of blue on blue...or is it blue vs blue?

anyone any idea if black on black means something related to reality?

[anniebird]

I believe it means Ultra Top Secret. Only a handful of people are supposed to know about these operations and any funding is channelled through totally innocuous departments such as Education to keep the amounts being spent hidden. (This is via reading too many American novels)

[rojash]

The original meaning was literally crime committed by a a black person against another black person - the significance being that white authority didn't regard such crimes as important as white on white or black on white.

I would guess in the context of spooks it would mean using someone outside the law to attack your enemies - such as when the CIA used Al Qaeda to fight the Russians in Afghanistan.

[Booldawg]

I believe it to mean a deniable operation carried out by one secret government dept. against another countries similar outfit.