Richard McGarrah Helms was an American government official and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973. Helms began intelligence work with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Following the 1947 creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),he rose in its ranks during the presidencies of Truman,Eisenhower and Kennedy. Helms then was DCI under Presidents Johnson and Nixon,yielding to James R. Schlesinger in early 1973.
Allen Welsh Dulles was an American lawyer who was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI),and its longest serving director to date. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War,he oversaw the 1953 Iranian coup d'état,the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état,the Lockheed U-2 aircraft program,the Project MKUltra mind control program,and the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. As a result of the failed invasion of Cuba,Dulles was fired by President John F. Kennedy.
William Joseph Casey was an American lawyer who was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
George John Tenet is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency,as well as a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.
Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter was the third director of the post–World War II United States Central Intelligence Group (CIG),the third Director of Central Intelligence (DCI),and the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency created by the National Security Act of 1947. He served as DCI and director of the CIG and the CIA from May 1,1947,to October 7,1950,and,after his retirement from the United States Navy,was a member of the board of governors of National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) from 1957 to 1962.
The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency from 1946 to 2004,acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Security Council,as well as the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various US intelligence agencies.
Robert Michael Gates is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and was retained by President Barack Obama. Gates began his career serving as an officer in the United States Air Force but was quickly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gates served for twenty-six years in the CIA and at the National Security Council,and was director of central intelligence under President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993. After leaving the CIA,Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates served as a member of the Iraq Study Group,the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton that studied the lessons of the Iraq War.
Theodore George "Ted" Shackley,Jr. was an American CIA officer involved in many important and controversial CIA operations during the 1960s and 1970s. He is one of the most decorated CIA officers. Due to his "light hair and mysterious ways",Shackley was known to his colleagues as "the Blond Ghost".
Duane Ramsdell "Dewey" Clarridge was an American senior operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supervisor for more than 30 years. Clarridge was the chief of the Latin American division from 1981 to 1987 and a key figure in the Iran-Contra Affair. Clarridge pleaded not guilty to seven counts of perjury and making false statements relating to 1985 shipment to Iran.
Clair Elroy George was a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) clandestine service who oversaw all global espionage activities for the agency in the mid-1980s. According to The New York Times,George was "a consummate spymaster who moved the chess pieces in the CIA's clandestine games of intrigue".
The Central Intelligence Agency,known informally as the Agency,metonymously as Langley and historically as the Company,is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with gathering,processing,and analyzing national security information from around the world,primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT) and conducting covert action through its Directorate of Operations. The agency is headquartered in the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley,Virginia.
Michael Joseph Morell is an American former career intelligence analyst. He served as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2010 to 2013 and twice as its acting director,first in 2011 and then from 2012 to 2013. He also serves as a professor at the George Mason University - Schar School of Policy and Government.
Vincent Cannistraro was Director of Intelligence Programs for the United States National Security Council (NSC) from 1984 to 1987;Special assistant for Intelligence in the Office of the Secretary of Defense until 1988;and Chief of Operations and Analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Counterterrorist Center until 1991.
The Dulles–Jackson–Correa Report was one of the most influential evaluations of the functioning of the United States Intelligence Community,and in particular,the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The report focused primarily on the coordination and organization of the CIA and offered suggestions that refined the US intelligence effort in the early stages of the Cold War.
At various times since the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency,the Federal government of the United States has produced comprehensive reports on CIA actions that marked historical watersheds in how CIA went about trying to fulfill its vague charter purposes from 1947. These reports were the result of internal or presidential studies,external investigations by congressional committees or other arms of the Federal government of the United States,or even the simple releases and declassification of large quantities of documents by the CIA.
Eclipse Group was a private intelligence agency run by former CIA officer Duane "Dewy" Clarridge,who was also the founding director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center. Until May 2010,Eclipse Group received funding from the US Government;it then relied on private donors. As of 2011,its operations include obtaining information related to the politics of Afghanistan and the AfPak region.
Rufus Lackland Taylor Jr. was an officer in the United States Navy. Eventually he became Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence and held the rank of Vice Admiral. In 1966 he was appointed as Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),then shortly thereafter as Deputy Director of the CIA,where he served from 1966 to 1969.
The United States is widely considered to have one of the most extensive and sophisticated intelligence network of any nation in the world,with organizations including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency,amongst others. It has conducted numerous espionage operations against foreign countries,including both allies and rivals. Its operations have included the use of industrial espionage,cyber espionage. and mass surveillance.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) dates from September 18,1947,when President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into law. A major impetus that has been cited over the years for the creation of the CIA was the unforeseen attack on Pearl Harbor,but whatever Pearl Harbor's role,at the close of World War II government circles identified a need for a group to coordinate government intelligence efforts,and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),the State Department,the War Department,and even the Post Office were all jockeying for that new power.
In 1995 it was revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency had delivered intelligence reports to the U.S. government between 1986 and 1994 which were based on agent reporting from confirmed or suspected Soviet operatives. From 1985 to his arrest in February 1994,CIA officer and KGB mole Aldrich Ames compromised Agency sources and operations in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,leading to the arrest of many CIA agents and the execution of at least ten of them. This allowed the KGB to replace the CIA agents with its own operatives or to force them to cooperate,and the double agents then funneled a mixture of disinformation and true material to U.S. intelligence. Although the CIA's Soviet-East European (SE) and Central Eurasian divisions knew or suspected the sources to be Soviet double agents,they nevertheless disseminated this "feed" material within the government. Some of these intelligence reports even reached Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush,as well as President-elect Bill Clinton.
