Public Intelligence

Several sets of presentation slides for talks given by Ira A. “Gus” Hunt, the CIA’s Chief Technology Officer, on the topic of “big data” and cloud computing. A recent presentation given by Hunt at the GigaOM Structure:Data conference last week garnered significant attention for his discussion of the CIA’s desire to “collect everything and hang on to it forever.” Hunt’s presentation was similar to several he has given before, many of which share the same slides, including one which states: “It is really very nearly within our grasp to be able to compute on all human generated information.”

A formerly classified document from 1952 on the CIA’s Project BLUEBIRD, an offshoot of Project MKULTRA.

A CIA Inspector General report written in 1963 following an investigation into the Agency’s MKULTRA program.

A transcript of a private meeting held in 1968 in the New York Pratt House of the Council on Foreign Relations. The meeting was attended by a number of prominent members of the early U.S. intelligence community, including Richard Bissell and Allen Dulles. The transcript was reportedly discovered by Vietnam War protesters who occupied a building in 1971 housing Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. One of the attendees of the secret meeting, William Harris, served as an associate to the Center for International Affairs and this transcript was found in his personal files. The transcript was published in full in the 1974 book “The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence” by Victor Marchetti, a former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and John D. Marks, a former officer of the United States Department of State. The meeting transcript is described in the book as the “most complete description of the CIA’s covert-action strategy and tactics ever made available to the outside world.”

Central Intelligence Agency Classification Management and Collaboration Group (CMCG) Classification Process Quick Reference Guide (QRG) from 2008.

Documents concerning CIA rendition of terrorism suspects, with the help of the UK, recovered from the offices of Libyan intelligence and published by Human Rights Watch.

(U//FOUO) CIA Open Source Works Report on Afghanistan: Lessons of the Soviet War, March 27, 2009.

19. The Agency faces potentially serious long-term political and legal challenges as a result of the CTC Detention and Interrogation Program, particularly its use of EITs and the inability of the u.s. Govenunent to decide what it will ultimately do with terrorists,detained by the Agency.

An office building complex in suburban McLean, Virginia is the home of the CIA, one of the major intelligence organizations in the world, and a centralized hub for the (nearly) full spectrum of intelligence assets operated by the United States and cooperating governments, corporations, and organizations. The number of employees and the budget of the CIA is officially classified, though it is estimated (2003) that there are around 20,000 employees (not including contractors), working with around $3 billion per year.

Prominent Arab Mujahid [holy warrior] Usama Bin Ladin has said that he or his al-Qua’ida group has nothing to do with the 11 September suicidal attacks in Washington and New York. He said the US Government should find the attackers within the country. In an exclusive interview with daily “Ummat,” he said these attacks could be the act of those who are part of the American system and are rebelling against it and working for some other system.

This directive is issued pursuant to the authorities and responsibilities of the Director of Central Intelligence under the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, Executive Order 12333, Executive Order 12958, and other applicable authorities to protect intelligence sources, methods, and related information and activities from unauthorized disclosure, ensure programs are developed by the Intelligence Community to protect such information and activities, and to keep the President and Congress fully and currently informed of intelligence activities, including any significant intelligence failure. Applicable provisions cited in DCID 1/1 (19 November 1998) are included by reference. This directive rescinds DCID 3/18P.

Daunting Challenges, Hard Decisions by Aris A Pappas and James M. Simon, Jr. CIA Editor’s Note: The authors intend this article to provoke a broad discussion of the role of intelligence in a constitutional republic during an era of accelerating change and terrible new dangers. The effort was inspired by workshops held under the auspices [...]