The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), informally known as "the Agency" or "the Company", is a United States intelligence agency that "provides objective intelligence on foreign countries." The CIA is part of the United States Intelligence Community, and is organized into numerous organizational subdivisions including Directorates, Centers, Staffs, Divisions, Groups, Offices, and Branches. It is overseen by the Director of Central Intelligence; and is divided into five major Directorates, supported by several offices of staff, and 11 Mission Centers. , the directorates are:
Directorate of Analysis Directorate of Operations Directorate of Science and Technology Directorate of Digital Innovation Directorate of Support
Organizational Charts
The CIA periodically publishes organizational charts of its agency. Here are a few examples.
Executive offices Previously, the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) oversaw the Intelligence Community (IC), serving as the president's principal intelligence advisor, additionally serving as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 amended the National Security Act to provide for a Director of National Intelligence who would assume some of the roles formerly fulfilled by the DCI, with a separate Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The DCI's title now is "Director of the Central Intelligence Agency" (DCIA), serving as head of the CIA.
Currently, the Central Intelligence Agency answers directly to the Director of National Intelligence, although the CIA Director may brief the President directly. The CIA has its budget approved by the US Congress, a subcommittee of which see the line items. The intelligence community, however, does not take direct orders from the Congress. The National Security Advisor is a permanent member of the National Security Council, responsible for briefing the President with pertinent information collected by all 16 US Intelligence Community agencies are under the policy, but not necessarily budgetary, authority of the Director of National Intelligence.
The effect of the personalities of the DCIs on the structure and behavior of the Agency and indeed the IC is analyzed in Painter's dissertation on "Early Leader Effects" of Donovan, Dulles and Hoover.
Until the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the director of the CIA met regularly with the president to issue daily reports on ongoing operations. After the creation of the post of DNI, currently Tulsi Gabbard, the report is now given by the DNI, who oversees all US intelligence activities, including intelligence community operations outside of CIA jurisdiction. Former CIA Director Porter Goss, who had been a CIA officer, denied this has had a diminishing effect on morale, but promoted his mission to reform the CIA into the lean and agile "counter-terrorism"-focused force he believes it should be.
The Deputy Director of the CIA (DDCIA) assists the director in his or her duties as head of the CIA and exercises the powers of the director when the director's position is vacant or in the director's absence or disability. Either the director or deputy director may be a military officer, but both positions may not be filled, at the same time, by military officers.
The third-highest office and highest non-political office of the CIA, which manages day-to-day operations and budget, was known as Executive Director from July 5, 2006, also as Associate Deputy Director (ADD) and was renamed Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the CIA in 2017.Leadership, cia.gov, 5 June 2017, retrieved 4 January 2018
Relationship with Congress
There have been various arrangements to handle the CIA's relationship with Congress. It began with a single position named the "legislative liaison" which later became the "legislative counsel". Eventually it became an office. In the 1970s, Congressional inquiries demanded a great increase in staffing and a reorganization. In the 1980s, several more reorganizations and renamings followed. Near the end of the 1980s, the office was named the Office of Congressional Affairs and as of 2009, has kept that name. See also CIA Office of Congressional Affairs
Support to the military As the DCIA's principal adviser and representative on military issues, the Associate Director for Military Support (AD/MS), a senior general officer, coordinates CIA efforts to provide Joint Force commanders, who are principally consumers of national-level intelligence but producers of operational intelligence. The AD/MS also supports Department of Defense officials who oversee military intelligence training and the acquisition of intelligence systems and technology. John A. Gordon was the first AD/MS, before the creation of ODNI. There is also an Associate Deputy Director for Operations for Military Affairs (ADDO/MA)
The Office of Military Affairs provides intelligence and operational support to the US armed forces.
Covert Action Authorities
President George W. Bush, in creating the National Clandestine Service (NCS), set a clear policy that the CIA would be in charge of all human intelligence (HUMINT) operations. NCS (formerly the Directorate of Operations, and earlier the "Directorate of Plans"), performs clandestine human intelligence collection, and conducts deniable psychological operations (psyops) and paramilitary operations.
Special Activities Center (SAC) is the NCS's unit responsible for Covert Action and "Special Activities". These special activities include the covert political influence and paramilitary operations.Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency, William J. Daugherty, University of Kentucky Press, 2004. Special Operations Group (SOG) is the element within SAC responsible for paramilitary operations. They recruit solely from the Joint Special Operations Command and are then trained through an extensive course to become a clandestine intelligence officer.The CIA Secret Army, Time, publisher Time Inc, Douglas Waller, 2003-02-03 This unit is the most secretive and one of the most elite special operations forces in the world.U.S. Special Forces: A Guide to America's Special Operations Units: the World's Most Elite Fighting Force, By Samuel A. Southworth, Stephen Tanner, Published by Da Capo Press, 2002 ,
Covert Action authorities come from the National Security Act of 1947. President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12333 titled "United States Intelligence Activities" in 1984. This order defined covert action as both political and military activities that the US Government could legally deny and granted them exclusively to the CIA. The CIA was also designated as the sole authority under the 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act and mirrored in Title 50 of the United States Code Section 413(e).All Necessary Means: Employing CIA operatives in a Warfighting Role Alongside Special Operations Forces, Colonel Kathryn Stone, Professor Anthony R. Williams (Project Advisor), United States Army War College (USAWC), 07 April 2003, page 7
The Pentagon commissioned a study to determine whether the CIA or the Department of Defense (DoD) should conduct covert action paramilitary operations. Their study determined that the CIA should maintain this capability and be the sole government agency conducting covert action. The DoD found that it does not have the legal authority to conduct covert action nor the agility to carry out these types of missions.
Proposed support to Homeland Security A great sensitivity remains about the CIA having domestic responsibilities, but it clearly will, on occasions, collect information outside the US that relates directly to domestic security. The CIA, for example, is more likely to obtain HUMINT on terrorists than the very limited foreign resources of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The DHS, like the military, is seen principally as a consumer of national intelligence, but its border and transportation security functions also produce intelligence. At present, however, there is no well-defined way for DHS to task intelligence collection agencies with its requirements. One proposal suggests using the AD/MS as a prototype, to create an AD/Homeland Security in the CIA, and possibly an equivalent position in the U.S. Justice Department, which, through the FBI and other agencies, legally collects domestic intelligence. This proposal is one of many to improve coordination and avoid intelligence failures caused by not "connecting the dots", when the dots are held by different agencies.
National estimates Prior to 2004, CIA had two analytic roles: the main effort based in the Directorate of Intelligence, which used internal experts to analyze data collected by CIA, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the military collection organizations, and other parts of the intelligence community. Many of these reports were on current subjects, such as the status of a revolutionary group, or the technical details of a new Chinese factory.
Another function, however, was preparing "estimates", which try to predict the future. Estimates are a product of the intelligence community as a whole. National Intelligence Estimates were the most extensively coordinated documents, often that could be scheduled on a regular basis, such as a regular report on Soviet intentions. Special National Intelligence Estimates (SNIE) were quick-response publications, often providing guidance in a crisis, but were still interagency consensus rather than CIA alone.
CIA had a separate and prestigious office, going by different names and organizations, such as the Office of National Estimates, Board of National Estimates, or a set of National Intelligence Officers, which would seek out the consensus of all the intelligence agencies, and then have some of the most senior analysts write a draft. The idea of such estimates is often credited to Sherman Kent, sometimes called the father of US intelligence analysis, with special emphasis on the production of estimates. This function is now in the National Intelligence Council of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Originally defined in 1950, this responsibility stated "CIA is now in the business of producing what are called National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) along the lines laid down in NSC 50. These papers are interdepartmental in character, designed to focus all available intelligence on a problem of importance to the national security." In the early days of the process, CIA used the State Department's intelligence staff for drafting the NIEs, but a "small top level Office of National Estimates" was set up to integrate the departmental drafts. A senior CIA analyst responsible for the document would work out differences. There is also a process by which an agency can disagree with a comment called a "reclama", which is a footnote expressing an alternate position. For an example of such dissents, see Special National Intelligence Estimate 10–9–65, where there are dissents to various parts from all or part of the military, and from the Department of State.
Upon approval by an interagency review committee, the paper becomes a NIE and is sent by the Director of Central Intelligence to the President, appropriate officers of Cabinet level, and the NSC.
Directorate of Science and Technology
The Directorate of Science & Technology researches and applies innovative technology in support of the intelligence collection mission.