Sheep dipped

Posted by ESC on January 23, 2007

In Reply to: posted by pamela on January 23, 2007

: : The phrase "sheep dipped", while it may not be well known in the regular military, is commonly used in intelligence circles. A way of saying someone has been given an alternate identity. The best known example being Air America, but also in many other covert ops applications. Not necessarily military. "Those who were accepted got "sheep-dipped" and vanished."

: Do you know why (i.e. the relationship between literal sheep dipping and vanishing)? Pamela

See www.phrases.org.uk bulletin_board 30 messages 1654.html for a citation from 2004. Dipping a sheep gets rid of creepy crawlies. I am guessing that dipping a person figuratively gets rid of details of his/her former life.

• Sheep dipped

• Sheep dipped ESC 23/January/07
  • Sheep dipped pamela 24/January/07