Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a major United States government agency that gathers information about foreign governments and certain nongovernmental groups, including those that engage in terrorism or organized crime. The information collected by the CIA is political, economic, and military in nature. The CIA analyzes the information, which is called intelligence, for the president, Congress, and other federal agencies. The CIA also engages in counterintelligence, which consists of attempts to identify, neutralize, and manipulate the intelligence activities of other countries. Another important CIA function is covert action—that is, secret efforts to influence events abroad.
Functions.
The CIA collects intelligence about the intentions and capabilities of countries that threaten the security of the United States or its citizens. Much of the information is classified (secret). Sources include reports from spies or documents obtained illegally. Intelligence may also come from recordings from secret listening devices and pictures taken from spy satellites in space. News organizations may report what foreign officials say at press conferences, but the CIA also tries to determine what the officials say in private meetings.
CIA analysts try to make world events understandable for U.S. leaders. They analyze information gathered by the CIA and other U.S. government agencies—including the Departments of Defense, State, and the Treasury—to tell policymakers who is doing what, when they are doing it, and why. Analysts also identify opportunities for the United States to influence world events.
Counterintelligence protects U.S. secrets from foreign spies. Such secrets include information about U.S. armed forces and military plans. CIA counterintelligence units also try to learn whether a foreign government is giving American spies disinformation (false information) intended to deceive the U.S. government.
The CIA’s covert actions include propaganda, unofficial military operations, and secret aid to foreign political and military groups that support U.S. interests. During the Cold War, the CIA used propaganda and secret transfers of money and information to limit the Soviet Union’s own covert actions in Western Europe. The Cold War was a period of intense U.S.-Soviet rivalry that began after World War II (1939-1945). It lasted until the early 1990’s. The U.S. government does not publicly acknowledge its role in covert actions.
The CIA’s headquarters are in the Langley neighborhood of McLean, Virginia. Many CIA officers and agents are stationed in other countries. Sometimes, CIA employees claim to work for other parts of the U.S. government. Some operate under nonofficial cover, meaning they pose as private citizens of the United States or of a foreign country.
The CIA is an executive branch agency responsible to the president. The National Security Council, whose members include the president, the vice president, and the secretaries of state and defense, oversees the CIA. The director of the CIA also works with other U.S. foreign intelligence agencies. They include the Defense Intelligence Agency, which gives intelligence to the armed forces, and the National Security Agency/Central Security Service, which specializes in communication and cryptography (using and deciphering secret communication). The CIA’s website at https://www.cia.gov presents information about the CIA.
History.
Congress and President Harry S. Truman created the CIA early in the Cold War by approving the National Security Act of 1947. After the Cold War, the CIA’s focus shifted toward such problems as terrorism, organized crime, and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
CIA operations have sometimes created controversy. In the mid-1970’s, the CIA was the focus of Congressional and other federal investigations of charges that it had abused its powers. The investigators concluded that some of the charges were false, but found others to be true. For example, a commission headed by Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller reported that the CIA had spied on some Americans who opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. To guard against future abuses, a number of reforms were adopted to make the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies more accountable to Congress. Today, the CIA must report major activities to two congressional committees that specialize in intelligence matters.
Some critics question whether a democratic government, such as that of the United States, should even have a secret agency. However, most elected leaders around the world believe intelligence agencies are essential to the security of their nations. In addition, many scholars believe the United States has benefited from having such agencies.
On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists crashed hijacked jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon Building near Washington, D.C. About 3,000 people were killed. Following the attacks, the CIA and other government agencies received criticism for failing to detect the terrorists’ activity before the attacks. The CIA also received criticism for apparent intelligence failures leading up to the Iraq War (2003-2011). The agency’s estimates of Iraq’s weapons programs are widely believed to have been inaccurate.
In 2004, Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. The law included numerous antiterrorism measures that affected the CIA. The act established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to oversee the intelligence-gathering operations of the CIA and other agencies. The act also set guidelines for improved cooperation between the CIA and other intelligence services.
In the years following the September 11 terrorist attacks, CIA agents working overseas seized terror suspects and flew them to secret CIA-run prisons around the world. Suspects were also transferred to the custody of foreign governments. The practice of sending terror suspects to foreign or secret prisons to be interrogated became known as “extraordinary rendition.”
