Central Intelligence Agency

This article is about the foreign intelligence service of the United States of America. For other uses of the term CIA, see CIA (disambiguation).

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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the United States' foreign intelligence agency, 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. It also maintains a vast covert military apparatus, which during the Cold War was responsible for a number of clandestine campaigns against foreign governments, leaders, and citizens. Its headquarters is in Langley, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

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 Roosevelt in 1944. He called 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 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." 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 a provision of the U.S. Constitution that the federal budget be openly published.

Clandestine operations

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 100,000 "extremely serious laws" in countries around the world, every year. [1]

The activities of the CIA are largely undisclosed. It undoubtedly makes use of the surveillance satellites of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the signal interception capabilities of the NSA, including the Echelon system, and the surveillance aircraft of the various branches of the US armed forces. At one stage, the CIA even operated its own fleet of U-2 surveillance aircraft. The agency 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.

In 1951, the CIA led the Anglo-American Operation Ajax, which in 1953 successfully deposed Mohammed Mossadegh as Prime Minister of Iran. In 1961, the CIA organized the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. When this failed, the CIA orchestrated a variety of plans to oppose Fidel Castro's regime, collectively known as Operation Mongoose. Between 1962 and 1975, the CIA organized a Laotian army 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. During the early 1970s, the CIA conducted operations to prevent the election of Salvador Allende in Chile. When these operations failed, the CIA joined in the planning of the coup which would overthrow Allende. 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.

Defectors such as Phillip 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.

One of the CIA's publications, the CIA World Factbook, is unclassified and is indeed made freely available without copyright restrictions.

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

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). For instance, the CIA has supported various brutal dictators, including Augusto Pinochet (see references below), who have been friendly to perceived US geopolitical interests, sometimes over democratically elected governments.

Often cited as one of the American intelligence communities biggest blunders, is the CIA involvement in equipping and training Mujahedeen fighters in Afghanistan, a radical Islamist group who would later form the core of the Al-Qaida network. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor under President Carter, writes about this quite openly in his book 'The Grand Chessboard'.

Urged on by American conservatives, especially including influential foreign policy analysts at the Heritage Foundation, 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, thus turning an otherwise low-profile African civil war into one of the larger battlegrounds of the Cold War.

The agency has also been criticized for ineffectiveness as an intelligence gathering agency. These criticism included allowing a double agent, Aldrich Ames to gain high positions 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.

On November 5, 2002, newspapers reported that a car full of Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen had been killed by a missile launched from a CIA-controlled Predator drone (a high-altitude, remote-controlled aircraft).

CIA Director

The head of the CIA is given the title Director of Central Intelligence (DCI); ODCI means Office of the Director of Central Intelligence. The DCI is not only the head of the CIA but also the leader of the entire U.S. intelligence community and the President's principal advisor on intelligence matters.

The current DCI is John E. McLaughlin, who became interim director on 11 July, 2004 after the resignation of longtime director George J. Tenet. On August 10, 2004, President George W. Bush nominated Rep. Porter Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, as the new Director of Central Intelligence. Some Democrats have announced their opposition to the appointment and McLaughlin remains acting director at present.

CIA operations in Iraq

According to some sources [2] [3] [4] [5] 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. US support was premised on the notion that Iraq was a key buffer state in relations with the Soviet Union. There are court records [6] 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. [7]

On April 7, 2003, U.S. led coalition forces were told by the CIA that Saddam Hussein and at least one of his sons were meeting in a Bunker Restaurant in the Al Mansour residential area of Baghdad. The U.S. dropped four bunker buster bombs on the building, destroying it and a few other buildings, causing injuries to civilians and leaving a 60' crater. Saddam and his sons were not there. The dead bodies of a small boy, a young woman, and an elderly man were found in the crater, and at least 11 others dead.

It became widely known that the basis of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was erroneous intelligence regarding Iraq's weapons capability. The term "weapons of mass destruction" (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 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 final report of the US Senate Intelligence Committee states that the CIA described the danger presented by weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in an unreasonable way, largely unsupported by the available intelligence. [8]

"Worldwide Attack Matrix"

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". [9]

Criticism of CIA Informants & Drugs

The CIA releases prisoners early, as informants. During the criminal's trial, his lawyer can make a deal with the CIA, if the criminal is involved in a crime organization. If the criminal pleads guilty, the CIA will consider him to be reformed and release him from prison long before his real-time sentence is finished. In exchange, the criminal agrees to act as an inside spy for the CIA, giving them inside information, such as names, times, and places such as where illegal drugs are being made or stored. This improves the CIAs ability to catch more criminals.

The CIA is criticized for releasing many drug lords, hitmen with multiple 1st degree murders, and other dangerous criminals over the years. Many feel that the criminals are not truly reformed after a few years in prison. Some criminals are released by the CIA without serving any time at all. Local police and FBI are amazed to see the dangerous criminals they just caught and convicted, walking around free on the streets. This upsets the victims, police, FBI, prosecuting attorneys, and community members who spent years of proof gathering to build a case and alot of money to place that criminal behind bars. These criminals are encouraged by the CIA to go back to the lifestyle of organized crime as informants, where they often repeat their crimes. Most released criminals tell the crime organization that they are informants, because they are still loyal to the crime organization. They mislead the CIA by giving them false information. When the CIA finally busts the drug dealers, they confiscate the drug money. Critics say that CIA agents skim some of the money for their own personal use, though the government gets most of it. Stealing drug money is easy because the CIA isn't required to report anything, unlike other law enforcement agencies and departments. The CIA can hide its crimes with their power to keep missions secret. The CIA has been accused of selling drugs on American streets by witnesses in those neighborhoods. The CIA claims that it must work close to drug dealers, so it may seem like they are selling drugs.

During the 1980s, after private missions to save American POWs in Vietnam, Bo Gritz, the most decorated Green Beret in U.S. history, taped an interview with heroin kingpin Kun Sah. The drug lord said that US government officials are his biggest customers and that the CIA was profiting from drugs sold in Southeast Asia. According to Gritz, the U.S. government threatened him with a court martial if he told anyone about this. He told everyone, but the court martial never happened.

Alleged Crimes Against the People

Some agents quit the CIA in disgust. They wrote books about their experiences in the CIA. They claim to have seen other CIA agents commiting crimes against innocent people, including theft, rape, murder, wrongful interrogations, beatings, and surveillance for personal reasons (peek shows). The crimes were never reported. It is difficult to prove that the quitting CIA agents were ever really CIA agents, because the CIA keeps its list of employees secret. CIA agents have a licence to kill, meaning they can kill anyone without a justifiable reason, and don't have to report it. There are many claims by victims who often say a CIA agent drugged and raped them. The CIA is called the 'new KGB' by some.

Possible End of the CIA

Many are calling for the elimination of the CIA. The CIA was originally formed to fight Communism during the the Cold War. Now that the Soviet Union has converted to Democracy, there is no need for the CIA, they feel. The CIA is thought of as a dangerous Cold War relic, like nuclear missiles. During the Red Scare, people were so panicked, that they developed nuclear weapons and organizations with too much power. The CIA was given great power, more than all other law enforcement, to save everyone from the invading Communists. Thomas Jefferson once said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." The CIA became corrupted by too much power, according to critics. CIA agents that commit crimes against innocent people, have turned against the taxpayers who pay the CIA's salaries. Not all CIA agents are blamed for this - only a small percentage. Furthermore, the many CIA intelligence blunders makes them unuseful to the country.

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'.

In the film Above the Law, the hero (played by actor Stephen Segal) fights evil CIA agents who commit rape and murder against innocent people. The title refers to the CIA's secretive power to do what ever they want to people with no punishment, such as their licence to kill.