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The CIA Seal

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the American foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government.

The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Defense Department's Defense Intelligence Agency comprise the other two. Its headquarters are in the community of Langley in the McLean CDP of Fairfax County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.. The CIA is part of the American Intelligence Community, which is now led by the United States Director of National Intelligence. The roles and functions of the CIA are roughly equivalent to those of the British Secret Intelligence Service or the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

Organization

History

Original sign with seal from the CIA's first building on E Street in Washington, DC

The Agency, created in 1947 by President Harry S. Truman, is a descendant of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of World War II. The OSS was dissolved in October 1945 but William J. Donovan, the creator of the OSS, had submitted a proposal to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 calling for a new organization having direct Presidential supervision, "which will procure intelligence both by overt and covert methods and will at the same time provide intelligence guidance, determine national intelligence objectives, and correlate the intelligence material collected by all government agencies." Despite strong opposition from the military, the State Department, and the FBI, Truman established the Central Intelligence Group in January 1946. Later under the National Security Act of 1947 (which became effective on September 18, 1947) the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency were established.

In 1949, the Central Intelligence Agency Act (also called "Public Law 110") was passed, permitting the agency to use confidential fiscal and administrative procedures and exempting it from many of the usual limitations on the use of federal funds. The act also exempted the CIA from having to disclose its "organization, functions, officials, titles, salaries, or numbers of personnel employed." It also created a program called "PL-110" to handle defectors and other "essential aliens" outside normal immigration procedures, as well as give those persons cover stories and economic support. [1]

During the first years of its existence, other branches of government did not exercise much control over the Agency. This was often justified by a desire to defeat and match the activities of the KGB across the globe, a task that many believed could only be accomplished through an equally ungentlemanly approach. As a result, few in government inquired too closely into CIA activity. The rapid expansion of the Agency and a developing sense of independence under DCI Allen Dulles added to this trend. Following CIA involvement in the Watergate affair and the overthrow of Salvador Allende in 1973, calls for greater oversight became much stronger. This culminated in the Church Committee, which marked the end of the CIA's shadowy independence.

While collection of foreign intelligence on U.S. citizenry has always been prohibited by its charter, the restrictions and oversight of the 1970s cut into the CIA's intelligence-gathering powers at home. Any such operation against a U.S. citizen must fall within its counterespionage or antiterrorist purview and requires senior approval, up to and including the Director of National Intelligence or the Attorney General for certain operations.

Today, the Central Intelligence Agency reports to U.S. Congressional committees but also answers to the President directly. The National Security Advisor is a permanent cabinet member responsible for briefing the President on pertinent information collected from all U.S. intelligence agencies including the National Security Agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and others.

Some critics have charged that this violates the requirement in the U.S. Constitution that the federal budget be openly published.

In 1988, President George H. W. Bush became the first former head of the CIA to become President of the United States.

Structure

CIA activities fall into four categories. The Directorate of Intelligence (DI) deals with the collection and processing of information on foreign targets. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for the clandestine collection of foreign intelligence and covert action. The Directorate of Science and Technology creates and applies innovative technology in support of the intelligence collection mission. Finally the Directorate of Support ensures the smooth running of the Agency as a whole.

Relationship with other agencies

The CIA has strong links with other intelligence organisations as the provider of central intelligence estimates. It makes use of the surveillance satellites of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the signal interception capabilities of the NSA, including the Echelon system, the surveillance aircraft of the various branches of the U.S. armed forces and the analysts of the State Department and Department of Energy. At one stage, the CIA even operated its own fleet of U-2 surveillance aircraft. The agency has also operated alongside regular military forces, and also employs a group of officers with paramilitary skills in its Special Activities Division. Micheal Spann, a CIA officer killed in November 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, was one such individual.

CIA Director

The head of the CIA is given the title Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (DCIA); ODCI means Office of the Director of Central Intelligence. Before April 21, 2005, the DCIA was not only the head of the CIA but also the leader of the entire U.S. Intelligence Community in the position of Director of Central Intelligence. In this role, he was the President's principal advisor on intelligence matters until introduction of the position of Director of National Intelligence was created in response to the 9/11 Commission's recommendations.

The current Director of the CIA is Porter Goss, who was nominated by President George W. Bush on 10 August, 2004 and was confirmed by the Senate on 21 September. Goss inherits the post previously held by John E. McLaughlin, who served as interim director after longtime director George Tenet resigned on 3 June, 2004 and left the post on 11 July. Goss previously served as head of the House Intelligence Committee as a representative from Florida.

Historical operations

Eastern Europe

In its earliest years the CIA and its predecessor, the OSS, attempted to rollback Communism in Eastern Europe by supporting local anti-communist groups; none of these attempts met with much success. In Poland the CIA spent several years sending money and equipment to an organisation invented and run by Polish intelligence. It was more successful in its efforts to limit Communist influence in France and Italy, notably in the 1948 Italian election.

It has now been firmly established (see references below) that the OSS actively recruited and protected many high ranking Nazi officers immediately following World War II, a policy that was carried on by the CIA. These included, the CIA now admits, the notorious "butcher of Lyon" Klaus Barbie, Hitler's Chief of Soviet Intelligence General Reinhard Gehlen, and numerous less-renowned Gestapo officers. General Gehlen, due to his extensive (if dubious) intelligence assets within the Soviet Union, was allowed to keep his spy-network intact after the war in the service of the United States. The Gehlen organization soon became one of America's chief sources of Intelligence on the Soviet Union during the cold war, and formed the basis for what would later become the German intelligence agency the BND.

Third World

With Europe stabilizing along the line of the Iron Curtain, the CIA then moved in the 1950s to try and limit the spread of Soviet influence elsewhere around the globe, especially in the Third World. With the encouragement of DCI Allen Dulles, clandestine operations quickly came to dominate the organisation. Initially they proved very successful: in Iran in 1953 and in Guatemala in 1954, CIA operations, with little funding, played a major role in ensuring pro-American governments ruled those states. Often, as in these two cases, success in these operations came at the expense of democratically elected governments. Failed covert action in Indonesia, aimed at unseating left leaning, authoritarian President Sukarno, did not alter the Agency's approach, but did force the U.S. to buy Sukarno's silence with several million dollars of aid. The limitations of covert action became readily apparent during the CIA organized Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961. The failure embarrassed the CIA and the United States on the world stage, as Cuban dictator Fidel Castro used the botched invasion to consolidate power and strengthen ties with the Soviet Union.

CIA operations became less ambitious after the Bay of Pigs, and shifted to being closely linked to aiding the U.S. military operation in Vietnam. Between 1962 and 1975, the CIA organized a Laotian group known as the Secret Army and ran a fleet of aircraft known as Air America to take part in the Secret War in Laos, part of the Vietnam War.

The CIA continued to involve itself in Latin America. During the early 1970s, the CIA conducted operations to prevent the election of Salvador Allende in Chile. When these operations failed, the CIA supported Allende's Chilean opponents, who would eventually overthrow him in a coup. In the early 1980s, the CIA funded and armed the Contras in Nicaragua, forces opposed to the Sandinista government in that country, until the Boland Amendment forbade the agency from continuing their support. This support resulted in a World Court decision in the case Nicaragua v. United States ordering the United States to pay Nicaragua reparations. In 1993, with support of the U.S. government, Colombia created the Search Block to locate and kill Pablo Escobar.

In 1996, journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of exposes for the San Jose Mercury News, entitled "Dark Alliance," in which he uncovered a massive CIA operation that allowed Central American narcotics traffickers to import crack cocaine to US cities in the 1980s. Internal government investigations supported Webb's reporting.

Controversies

Defectors such as former agent Philip Agee have alleged that such CIA covert action is extraordinarily widespread, extending to propaganda campaigns within countries allied to the United States. The agency has also been accused of participation in the illegal drug trade, notably in Laos, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua. It is known to have attempted assassinations of foreign leaders, most notably Fidel Castro, though since 1976 a Presidential order has banned such "executive actions", except during wartime.

In 1996, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence issued a congressional report estimating that the clandestine service part of the intelligence community "easily" breaks "extremely serious laws" in countries around the world, 100,000 times every year. [2]

In a briefing held September 15 2001 George Tenet presented the Worldwide Attack Matrix, a "top-secret" document describing covert CIA anti-terror operations in 80 countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The actions, underway or being recommended, would range from "routine propaganda to lethal covert action in preparation for military attacks". The plans, if carried out, "would give the CIA the broadest and most lethal authority in its history". [3]

On November 5, 2002, newspapers reported that Al-Qaeda operatives in a car traveling through Yemen had been killed by a missile launched from a CIA-controlled Predator drone (a high-altitude, remote-controlled aircraft). On May 15, 2005, it was reported [4] that another of these drones had been used to assassinate Al-Qaeda figure Haitham al-Yemeni inside Pakistan.

In June 2005, two events occured that will likley shape CIA operations for years to come.

Arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents were issued in Italy. The agents are alleged to have taken a suspected Egyptian militant from Milan on 17 February 2003 for extraordinary rendition to Egypt, where according to his relatives of the cleric, he was allegedly tortured. The removal of the militant is unusual only in that it was conducted without the approval of the Italian government. Similar operations of this sort have occured worldwide since 9/11, the vast majority with at least tacit approval by the national government. Additionally, it allegedly disrupted Italian attempts to penetrate the militant's Al Qaeda network [5]. The New York Times reported soon after that it is highly unlikely that the CIA Agents involved would be extradited, despite the US-Italy bilaterial treaty regarding extraditions for crimes that carry a penalty of more than a year in prison.

Soon after, President Bush appointed the CIA to be in charge of all human intelligence and manned spying operations. This was the apparent culmination of a years old turf war regarding influence, philosophy and budget between the Defense Intelligence Agency of the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon, through the DIA, wanted to take control of the CIA's paramilitary operations and many of its human assets. The CIA, which has for years held that human intelligence is the core of the agency, successfully argued that the CIA's decades long experience with human resources and civilian oversight made it the ideal choice. Thus, the CIA was given charge of all US human intelligence, but as a compromise, the Pentagon was authorized to include increased paramilitary capabilities in future budget requests.

Despite reforms which have led back to what the CIA considers its traditional principal capacities, the CIA Director position has lost influence in the White House. For years, the Director of the CIA met regularly with the President to issue daily reports on ongoing operations. After the creation of the post of the National Intelligence Director, currently occupied by John Negroponte, that practice has been discontinued in favor of the National Intelligence Director, with oversight of all intelligence, including DIA operations outside of CIA jurisdiction, giving the report. Current CIA Director Porter Goss denies this has had a diminishing effect on morale, in favor of promoting his singular mission to reform the CIA into the lean and agile counter-terrorism focused force he believes it should be.

Support for foreign dictators

The activities of the CIA have caused considerable political controversy both in the United States and in other countries, often nominally friendly to the United States, where the agency has operated (or been alleged to.) Particularly during the Cold War, the CIA supported various dictators, including the infamous Augusto Pinochet, who have been friendly to perceived U.S. geopolitical interests (namely anti-Communism), sometimes over democratically-elected governments.

Often cited as one of the American intelligence community's biggest blunders is the CIA involvement in equipping and training Mujahedeen fighters in Afghanistan in response to the Soviet invasion of the country. Many of the Mujahedeen trained by the CIA later joined Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist organization. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor under President Carter, has discussed U.S. involvement in Afghanistan in several publications.

The CIA facilitated the so-called Reagan Doctrine, channelling weapons and other support (in addition to the Mujahedeen and the Contras) to Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebel movement in Angola in response to Cuban military support for the MPLA, thus turning an otherwise low-profile African civil war into one of the larger battlegrounds of the Cold War.

Criticism for ineffectiveness

The agency has also been criticized for ineffectiveness as an intelligence gathering agency. These criticisms included allowing a double agent, Aldrich Ames, to gain high position within the organization, and for focusing on finding informants with information of dubious value rather than on processing the vast amount of open source intelligence. In addition, the CIA has come under particular criticism for failing to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union and India's nuclear tests or to forestall the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Conversely, proponents of the CIA respond by stating that only the failures become known to the public, whereas the successes typically do not become known until decades have passed. Some successes for the CIA include the U-2 and SR-71 programs, anti-Soviet operations in Afghanistan in the mid-1980s (though with the serious downsides noted earlier, the ultimate worth of these operations is open to considerable debate), and perhaps others which may not come to light for some time.

Criticisms of U.S. Citizens

Thousands of U.S. Citizens have claimed to witness CIA agents commit crimes - theft, drug dealing, rape, torture, and murder - against U.S. citizens - and use the CIAs powers of secrecy to cover up these crimes and fatal blunders. These claims have caused a public relations nightmare for the CIA. Some of these critics claim to be retired CIA agents. Other accusations include : torture to the point of life-lasting crippling effects, torture to death (accidentally to intentionally), freeing drug lords from prison early as informants, and teaching Islamic extremists in Iran how to cause more pain in torture by using finer points of the victim's anatomy against him. Many people distrust the CIA's secretive nature, saying it is no different than the secret police of any corrupt government. The CIA admits that some agents have committed crimes, but that these agents were punished by the CIA. Critics say that most CIA agents do not commit crimes against people, but the small minority that do, can do a lot of damage and neglect to report it to their CIA superiors. Local police and FBI point out that normal law enforcement are held accountable for every bullet fired, while the CIA can keep all information of a case secret, and often won't share information with other law enforcement authorities. The CIA is criticised for its power to stop a trial (as a Federal matter) or overturn the decision of any judge in any trial, as long as the trial isn't high level (government interests involved). Some groups are calling for the elimination of the CIA. The CIA was created to fight the tide of Communism in the Cold War, and was given unusual powers beyond normal law enforcement in order to battle the KGB, a secret police with powers beyond the law. Now that the cold war is over and the U.S.S.R. has become a democracy, there is no need for the too-powerful CIA, critics say. Some local police, detectives, and judges whose cases have been interfered with again and again by the CIA, agree with the elimination of the CIA. Critics point out that it won't happen soon, because President G.W. Bush is the son of the former head of the CIA.

CIA operations in Iraq

According to some sources [6] [7] [8] [9] the CIA appears to have supported the 1963 military coup in Iraq and the subsequent Saddam Hussein-led government up until the point of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. U.S. support was premised on the notion that Iraq was a key buffer state in relations with the Soviet Union. There are court records [10] indicating that the CIA gave military and monetary assistance to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War. The CIA were also involved in the failed 1996 coup against Saddam Hussein (see Iyad Allawi).

In 2002 an unnamed source, quoted in the Washington Post, says that the CIA was authorized to undertake a covert operation, if necessary with help of the Special Forces, that could serve as a preparation for a full-scale military attack of Iraq. [11]

It became widely known that the basis of the second Gulf War in 2003 was erroneous intelligence regarding Iraq's weapons capability. The term "Weapons of mass deception" (WMD) was famous around the world and was frequently used to deride those who had initiated the invasion, notably George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

The questions of whether CIA intelligence could have prevented the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the unreliability of U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have been a focus of intense scrutiny in the U.S. in 2004 particularly in the context of the 9/11 Commission, the continuing armed resistance against U.S. occupation of Iraq, and the widely perceived need for systematic review of the respective roles of the CIA, FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency. On July 9 2004 the Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq of the Senate Intelligence Committee stated that the CIA described the danger presented by weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in an unreasonable way, largely unsupported by the available intelligence. [12]

Other

Other Government Agency or OGA is reportedly slang for the CIA.

A pejorative term for people who work for the CIA or other intelligence agencies is often 'spook'.

One of the CIA's publications, the CIA World Factbook, is unclassified and is indeed made freely available without copyright restrictions because it is a work of the United States federal government. Much of the demographic information presented in Wikipedia is drawn from this publication.

External links

Official websites and documents

Other

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 [[Image:CIA_seal_reg.jpg|thumb|The CIA Seal]]
-The '''Central Intelligence Agency''' ('''CIA''') is one of the [[United States|American]] foreign [[intelligence agency|intelligence agencies]], responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign [[government]]s, [[corporation]]s, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the [[United States Government|U.S. Government]]. The Agency has [[embassy|embassies]] in every state in the [[Union]], and in every nation in the world.
+The '''Central Intelligence Agency''' ('''CIA''') is one of the [[United States|American]] foreign [[intelligence agency|intelligence agencies]], responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign [[government]]s, [[corporation]]s, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the [[United States Government|U.S. Government]].
 The [[United States Department of State|State Department]]'s [[Bureau of Intelligence and Research]] and the [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]]'s [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] comprise the other two.  Its headquarters are in the community of [[Langley, Virginia|Langley]] in the [[McLean, Virginia|McLean]] CDP of [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]], [[Virginia]], across the [[Potomac River]] from [[Washington, D.C.]]. The CIA is part of the American [[Intelligence Community]], which is now led by the [[United States Director of National Intelligence]]. The roles and functions of the CIA are roughly equivalent to those of the [[Secret Intelligence Service|British Secret Intelligence Service]] or the [[Australian Secret Intelligence Service]].

Central Intelligence Agency: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:54, 18 July 2005

Organization

History

Structure

Relationship with other agencies

CIA Director

Historical operations

Eastern Europe

Third World

Controversies

Support for foreign dictators

Criticism for ineffectiveness

Criticisms of U.S. Citizens

CIA operations in Iraq

Other

Further reading

See also

External links

Official websites and documents

Other