Central Intelligence Agency
United States civilian foreign-intelligence agency, established in 1947
| Central Intelligence Agency
| |
|---|---|
| Logo |  Seal of the Central Intelligence Agency. |
| Type | Civilian foreign-intelligence agency |
| Founded | 1947[1] |
| Headquarters | Langley, Virginia[2] |
| Area served | United States government; worldwide foreign-intelligence remit |
| Services | Foreign intelligence collection; all-source analysis; covert action as directed by the President[1] |
| Key people | John L. Ratcliffe (Director, sworn in 23 January 2025); Michael Ellis (Deputy Director, sworn in 10 February 2025)[3] |
| Website | Official website |
| Remarks | Director reports to the Director of National Intelligence; not a law-enforcement organisation[3][1] |
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the United States government's civilian foreign-intelligence agency. Its Director manages intelligence collection, analysis, covert action, counterintelligence and liaison with foreign intelligence services, and reports to the Director of National Intelligence. John L. Ratcliffe has been Director since 23 January 2025.[3][4]
History
The CIA was established in 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947.[5][1]
War on Terror
Detention and rendition
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the CIA began a secret detention program under which suspected terrorists were held in prisons or “black sites,” outside the United States, where they were subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques” involving torture and other abuse. The CIA also began a secret programme of “extraordinary rendition,” transferring detainees to other governments, without legal process, for detention and interrogation.[6]
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) later studied the programme. Its declassified findings and conclusions, ordered printed as Senate Report 113-288 in December 2014, state that the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques "was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees", and that the agency's justifications for the techniques rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness.[7] The committee chair, Dianne Feinstein, wrote in her foreword that, under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured. Minority views were printed with the study.[7]
The 2018 nomination of Gina Haspel, who had been a CIA base chief in Thailand in late 2002 and chief of staff to the head of the clandestine service when interrogation videotapes were destroyed in 2005, renewed scrutiny of these records.[8] At her confirmation hearing on 9 May 2018 she told the committee that "under my leadership, on my watch, CIA will not restart a detention and interrogation program".[9]
People
Directors
Directors of Central Intelligence
- Sidney Souers - 1946
- Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg - 1946-7
- Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter - 1947-50
- Walter Bedell Smith - 1950-53
- Allen Dulles - 1953-61
- John McCone - 1961-65
- William Francis Raborn, Jr. - 1965-66
- Richard Helms - 1966-73
- James Schlesinger - 1973
- William Colby - 1973-6
- George Herbert Walker Bush - 1976-7
- Stansfield Turner - 1977-81
- William Casey - 1981-87
- William H. Webster - 1987-91
- Robert Gates - 1991-3
- James Woolsey - 1993-5
- John M. Deutch - 1995-6
- George Tenet - 1997-2004
- Porter Goss - 2004-5 [10]
Following passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 the Director of Central Intelligence was replaced as head of the US Intelligence community by a Director of National Intelligence outside the CIA. [11]
Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency
- Porter Goss - 2005-6
- Michael Hayden - 2006[12]-2009
- Leon E. Panetta 2009-2011
- David Petraeus 2011[13]-2012
- John O. Brennan — March 2013–January 2017.[14][15]
- Mike Pompeo — sworn in on 23 January 2017 as the 22nd Director;[16] entered on duty as Secretary of State on 26 April 2018.[17] Gina Haspel was Acting Director by the time of her confirmation hearing on 9 May 2018.[9]
- Gina Haspel — confirmed by the Senate 54–45 on 17 May 2018; announced her departure on 19 January 2021.[18][19]
- William J. Burns — confirmed by Senate voice vote on 18 March 2021; left office 20 January 2025.[20][21]
- John L. Ratcliffe — confirmed by the Senate 74–25 and sworn in on 23 January 2025 as the 25th Director.[22][4][3]
Deputy Directors
Kingman Douglass | Edwin Kennedy Wright | William Harding Jackson | Allen Dulles | Charles P. Cabell | Marshall Carter | Richard Helms | Rufus Taylor | Robert E. Cushman, Jr. | Vernon A. Walters | E. Henry Knoche | John F. Blake
- Frank Carlucci 1978-81.
- Bobby Ray Inman 1981-82
- John N. McMahon 1982-1986.
- Robert Gates 1986-89.
- Richard J. Kerr 1991-92.
- William O. Studeman 1992-1995.
- George Tenet 1995-97.
- John A. Gordon 1997-2000.
- John E. McLaughlin 2000-04.
- Albert Calland 2005-06.
- Stephen Kappes 2006-10.
- Michael J. Morell 2010[23]-2013.
- Gina Haspel 2017-2018.[9]
- Michael Ellis — sworn in 10 February 2025.[3]
Whistleblowers and former agents
- Philip Agee—Former CIA employee (1957-1968), CIA critic, and author of Inside the Company: CIA Diary (1975).
Robert Baer | A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard | Mary O. McCarthy | Ralph McGehee | Victor Marchetti | Lindsay Moran
- David MacMichael—ten-year US Marine Corps veteran and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst. Resigned from CIA in protest.
- Ray McGovern—Retired CIA analyst who had been in charge of preparing daily security briefs for President Ronald Reagan, later a political activist and CIA critic.
L. Fletcher Prouty | Frank Snepp | John Stockwell |
Structure
In 2010 the CIA listed four main components:
- The Directorate of Intelligence
- The National Clandestine Service
- The Directorate of Science & Technology
- The Directorate of Support[24]
By November 2026 the agency described itself as organised into multidisciplinary Mission Centers grouped under five directorates: the Directorate of Analysis, the Directorate of Operations, the Directorate of Science and Technology, the Directorate of Mission Systems and the Directorate of Support.[25] The agency's leadership page credits Ratcliffe's tenure with creating the Directorate of Mission Systems, an Americas and Counternarcotics Mission Center and a Mission Center for Cyber Intelligence.[3]
National Clandestine Service
The National Clandestine Service, like its predecessors the Directorate of Plans 1952-1973, and the Directorate of Operations 1973-2005, is organised into a number of geographic divisions.[26]
- Western Hemisphere Division later the Latin American Division.
- Western Europe Division later the European Division.
- Soviet-East Europe Division later the Central Eurasia Division
- Near East and South Asia Division
- Africa Division
- Originally the Far East Division, later the East Asia Division
Powerbase Resources
CIA Media Operations in Chile, Jamaica, and Nicaragua | CIA operations in Angola | Congress for Cultural Freedom | Forum World Features | Forum News Service | Kern House Enterprises | Operation Mockingbird | William Burns | Gina Haspel | John Ratcliffe
External Resources
- Central Intell Agency - Blog on CIA personnel.
- Report on the Covert Activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (September 1954), archived at the Internet Archive.
- Chronology of CIA's Senior Management Structure, 1991, Federation of American Scientists.
- C.J. Chivers and Eric Schmitt, Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A., New York Times, 24 March 2013.
- Mark Mazzetti, A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood, New York Times, 6 April 2013.
- Tom Griffin, Central Intelligence Agency, Intelligence History, 31 May 2023.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Central Intelligence Agency, "About CIA", undated, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Central Intelligence Agency, "Explore CIA Headquarters", undated, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Central Intelligence Agency, Director of the CIA, undated, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe Sworn in as CIA Director, 23 January 2025, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Office of the Historian, US House of Representatives, The National Security Act of 1947, historical highlight dated 26 July 1947, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition, Open Society Justice Initiative, February 2013, p5.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program, S. Rept. 113-288, findings and conclusions, December 2014, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ John Prados, Wendy Valdes and Tom Blanton, The CIA Black Sites Program and the Gina Haspel Nomination, National Security Archive, 9 May 2018, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Open Hearing: Nomination of Gina Haspel to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, S. Hrg. 115-302, 9 May 2018, accessed 7 November 2026.
- ↑ Directors of Central Intelligence - Central Intelligence Agency, accessed 27 February 2008.
- ↑ From Director of Central Intelligence to Director of National Intelligence, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 144, edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson, December 17, 2004, accessed 27 February 2008.
- ↑ Leadership - Central Intelligence Agency, accessed 27 February 2008.
- ↑ David H. Petraeus, Central Intelligence Agency, accessed 18 April 2012.
- ↑ US National Archives / LBJ Presidential Library, An Evening with John Brennan, 24 October 2018 event, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ John O. Brennan, Central Intelligence Agency, accessed 27 March 2013.
- ↑ Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo Takes Helm as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 24 January 2017, accessed 7 November 2026.
- ↑ Office of the Historian, US Department of State, Michael Richard Pompeo (1963–), Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission, accessed 7 November 2026.
- ↑ US Senate, Roll Call Vote 115th Congress – 2nd Session, Vote 101, 17 May 2018, archived 10 April 2022, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Jemima McEvoy, CIA Director Gina Haspel Announces Resignation, Forbes, 19 January 2021, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Jeremy Herb, William Burns: Senate confirms next CIA director after Cruz lifts hold, CNN, 18 March 2021, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ William Joseph Burns, Public Financial Disclosure Report (OGE Form 278e), Termination, US Office of Government Ethics, termination date 20 January 2025, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ US Senate, Roll Call Vote 119th Congress – 1st Session, Vote 13, 23 January 2025, archived 23 January 2025, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Michael J. Morell, Central Intelligence Agency, accessed 27 March 2013.
- ↑ Offices of CIA, CIA, accessed 15 March 2010.
- ↑ Central Intelligence Agency, Organization, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ CIA Celebrates 60 Years, CIA, 15 March 2010.