Googling The Gs


Two words, six letters. And a lot of frustration.

Throw in information overload and it's a big mess.

I had remembered reading somewhere about a FBI program that employed people from all walks of life to help out with surveilling a suspect. These employees were civil servants, not Special Agents, who looked like the average Joe or Jane. That was because they were the average Joe or Jane. The nickname for the program was the Gs. I thought the Great Search Engine Google could help me find the answer.

So I used keywords like "FBI" with "civilian spies" or "citizen spies" or "the Gs." Nothing. A dead end.

I dug out my copy of the book, The Spy Who Got Away (1988), by David Wise. This nonfiction work tells the story of Edward Lee Howard, a CIA agent who escaped to Moscow after passing US secrets to the Soviet Union. I checked the index and found under Federal Bureau of Investigation references to the Gs, the Special Support Group.

More Googling but no good hits. So I just went with abbreviations: FBI SSG. And then the answers were revealed -- not too many but something.

I was going to write about the Gs but I'm too Googled out to continue. Next time.

So when you're reading one of my posts, keep in mind that sometimes a lot of frustrating research is involved.