Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 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.
Some of the key events about Central Intelligence Agency
- 1947Established as the first peacetime intelligence agency in the United States
- 1953Orchestrated a coup to overthrow Iran's democratically elected government
- 1954Organized a coup to remove Guatemala's democratically elected president
- 1960Developed the U-2 spy plane for high-altitude reconnaissance missions
- 1961Warned President Kennedy about Soviet missiles in Cuba, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis
- 1961Supported the failed Bay of Pigs invasion attempt in Cuba
- 1970Assisted in the development of the first photo-reconnaissance satellite, CORONA
- 1970Attempted to prevent the election of a socialist president in Chile
- 1975Conducted Operation Eagle Claw to rescue American hostages in Iran
- 1975Conducted illegal domestic surveillance on American citizens
- 1984Provided crucial intelligence that helped prevent a terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Beirut
- 1986Involved in the Iran-Contra affair, illegally selling weapons to Iran
- 1989Played a significant role in monitoring and analyzing the fall of the Berlin Wall
- 2001Established the Counterterrorism Center to combat global terrorism
- 2002Provided flawed intelligence leading to the Iraq War
- 2004Engaged in extraordinary rendition and operated secret prisons
- 2011Provided critical intelligence that led to the location of a high-profile terrorist leader
- 2014Hacked into Senate computers during an investigation of CIA interrogation practices
- 2017Created a special unit to address North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs
- 2017Developed hacking tools that were later stolen and leaked online
Disclaimer: This material is written based on information taken from open sources, including Wikipedia, news media, podcasts, and other public sources.
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