Intelligence Community

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The Intelligence Community (IC) of the United States Government

Definition

"The IC is a federation of executive branch agencies and organizations that work separately and together to conduct intelligence activities necessary for the conduct of foreign relations and the protection of the national security of the United States. These activities include: [1]

  • "Collection of information needed by the President, the National Security Council, the Secretaries of State and Defense, and other Executive Branch officials for the performance of their duties and responsibilities;
  • "Production and dissemination of intelligence;
  • "Collection of information concerning, and the conduct of activities to protect against, intelligence activities directed against the US, international terrorist and international narcotics activities, and other hostile activities directed against the US by foreign powers, organizations, persons, and their agents;
  • "Special activities;
  • "Administrative and support activities within the US and abroad necessary for the performance of authorized activities; and
  • "Such other intelligence activities as the President may direct from time to time."

Members of the IC

DoD Members

  • Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) - provides timely and objective military intelligence to warfighters, policymakers, and force planners.
  • National Security Agency (NSA) - collects and processes foreign signals intelligence information for our Nation's leaders and warfighters, and protects critical US information security systems from compromise.
  • National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) - coordinates collection and analysis of information from airplane and satellite reconnaissance by the military services and the CIA.
  • Army Intelligence and Security Command - organized on January 1, 1977 as a combination of the US Army Security Agency (USASA), the US Army Intelligence Agency (USAINTA), and a number of different intelligence production agencies, most of which had been under the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) for direct control. [2]
  • Office of Naval Intelligence - the oldest of America's intelliegence agencies, the ONI "no longer has only a Navy focus. It provides national products to national consumers and focus on all aspects of maritime intelligence vice Navy-only. Maritime intelligence includes the technical and operational intelligence needed to support training and equipping of the nation's seagoing forces as well as the detailed tracking and evaluation of civil maritime shipping. ONI is the only source for intelligence on civil maritime shipping worldwide and emphasize the national interests associated with weapons proliferation, chemical/biological/nuclear materials transfer, technology transfer, terrorism, drug smuggling, illegal migrant transfer, and the overall national and international concerns regarding ocean environment." [3]
  • Air Intelligence Agency - created in 1948 as the The United States Air Force Security Service, the USAFSS evolved into the Air Force Intelligence Comman in 1991 and the AIA in 1993. [5] IN February, 2001, the AIA was realigned as a primary subordinate unit under the Air Force's Air Combat Command. [6] AIA uses information in real time to support missions as well as reconaissance missions to ensure treaty obligatins are met.
  • Counterintelligence Field Activity: "Formed in 2002, CIFA was established to oversee Defense Department counterintelligence investigations and training and to assess potential terrorist threats at home and abroad. It has gathered domestic and international data, including criminal, financial, credit and other records, as well as background information about foreign workers and scientists employed by the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies." [7]

Non-DoD Members

Responsibilities

"All the responsibilities of the CIA, DIA, NSA, NRO, and NGIA are concerned with intelligence. Therefore each of these organizations in its entirety is considered to be a member of the Intelligence Community.

"The other organizations are concerned primarily with missions and business other than intelligence, but do have intelligence responsibilities. In these cases, only the part of the organization with the intelligence responsibility is considered to be a part of the Community. In the case of the US Navy, for instance, only their Office of Naval Intelligence is an IC member. The rest of the Navy supports the DoD in missions other than intelligence."

External links

SourceWatch Resources

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