ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

CIAPresident Bush, right, and George Tenet, left, head of the Central Intelligence Agency, pause at the entrance to agency headquarters on the way to a speech inMarch, 2001, in which the president thanked CIA employees for their service and spoke of the importance of intelligence collection and analysis in a world thatincludes many new threats to U.S. security. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.the president and major cabinet-level departments, includingState, Defense, and the Treasury.CIA officers may also be involved in counterintelligence,which is designed to preserve U.S. national securityby protecting American assets from foreign spying.Additionally, operatives of the CIA may at times engage inactions such as the spreading of propaganda or disinformation;the use of blackmail or other means to put pressureon enemy operatives; and give support to overseaspolitical or military groups whose objectives align withU.S. interests.CIA excesses in the past have prompted a number ofcountermeasures against it on the part of the federalgovernment. In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford issued anexecutive order forbidding acts of assassination by theCIA, and Executive Order 12333, signed by President RonaldReagan in 1981, extended this prohibition to forbiddingindirect involvement in assassination. This order alsoexpressly prohibited CIA collection of foreign intelligenceon the domestic activities of American citizens. Today, theExecutive Office of the president monitors and investigatesCIA activities through the president’s Foreign IntelligenceAdvisory Board.In the mid-1970s, the Church Committee hearings inthe Senate and the Pike Committee hearings in the Houseled to the formation of the Senate Select Committee onIntelligence and the House Permanent Select Committeeon Intelligence. Congressional oversight of CIA throughthese and other committees is an ongoing activity.Some critics argue that the agency can find waysaround the executive and legislative authorities chargedwith oversight of CIA activities. However, those authoritiesare privy to information on the CIA far beyond thereach of ordinary citizens lacking an appropriate securityclearance and need-to-know, and it is likely that in manycases presidents or legislators have put a stop to activitiesabout which the general public never learned. In light ofthe increased atmosphere of scrutiny that has attended194 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security