Central Intelligence Agency in the United States
Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), United States government agency created in 1947 to gather information and conduct secret operations to protect the country’s national security. The information that the CIA gathers is known as intelligence.
Until 2004 the director of the CIA also held the position of director of central intelligence. The director of central intelligence had responsibility for coordinating the activities of the United States intelligence community, which includes agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). The CIA also took overall responsibility for gathering information from other U.S. intelligence agencies, analyzing the separate pieces of information from each source, and providing intelligence estimates to the president of the United States and the president’s advisers.
Those roles ended in 2004, however, with the passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. Heralded as the most radical overhaul of the intelligence community since the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947, the new law created the office of director of national intelligence (DNI), which was given the responsibility of coordinating and overseeing the activities of 15 intelligence agencies, including the CIA. John Negroponte became the first director of national intelligence. Porter Goss became the director of the CIA and under the new law reported to the director of national intelligence. The legislation was prompted by the findings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which investigated the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and found that the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to share information that might have prevented the attacks. (1)
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Central Intelligence Agency in the United States
The Central Intelligence Agency collects, evaluates, and disseminates vital information
on political, military, economic, scientific, and other developments abroad needed to
safeguard national security.
The Central Intelligence Agency was established by the National Security
Act of 1947, as amended (50 U.S.C. 401 et seq.). It now functions under
that statute, Executive Order 12333 of December 4, 1981, the Intelligence
Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (50 U.S.C. 401 note), and other
laws, Executive orders, regulations, and directives.
The Central Intelligence Agency is headed by a Director, who is appointed
by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The Central Intelligence Agency does the following: collects intelligence from
human sources and other appropriate means, but it does not carry out internal
security functions nor exercise police, subpoena, or law enforcement powers;
correlates, evaluates, and disseminates intelligence related to national security;
provides overall direction for and coordination of intelligence collecting
outside the United States by U.S.
Intelligence Community elements authorized to engage in human
source collection. In coordination with other departments, agencies, or
authorized elements of the United States Government, it ensures that resources
are used effectively and that adequate consideration is given to the risks to
those involved in such collection and to the United States; carries out other
intelligence-related functions and duties necessary for safeguarding national
security as the President or the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) may direct;
and coordinates, under the direction of the DNI and consistent with section
207 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, relationships between elements of
the U.S. Intelligence Community and the intelligence or security services of
foreign governments or international organizations in matters of national
security or intelligence that is acquired clandestinely.
For further information, contact the Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, DC 20505. Phone, 703–482–0623. Fax, 703–482–1739. Internet, http://www.cia.gov.
CIA Drug Scandal in relation to Crime and Race
CIA Drug Scandal is included in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime (1), beginning with: During the cold war, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) cooperated with drug traffickers who assisted the United States in military and covert operations against Communist-aligned insurgents and governments around the world. This alliance with drug criminals immunized traffickers from law enforcement investigation and prosecution and contributed to the contraband that was imported into the United States, with devastating consequences for minority communities. The Central Intelligence Agency complicity in the global drug trade seems to have begun in the 1950s, when the agency collaborated with Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseilles, France, to curtail Communist influence on the city’s docks at a time when the Corsicans were becoming the United States’ leading supplier of heroin. During that decade, the CIA also supplied anti-Communist forces in Burma with arms and air logistics that they used to build a burgeoning trade in opium.
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Notes and References
- Entry about CIA Drug Scandal in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime