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About the CIA, Directories, Operations
About the CIA • Vision, Mission, Ethos & Challenges Vision
CIA Vision, Mission, Ethos & Challenges Vision
CIA’s information, insights, and actions consistently provide tactical and strategic advantage for the United States.
Mission
Preempt threats and further US national security objectives by collecting intelligence that matters, producing objective all-source analysis, conducting effective covert action as directed by the President, and safeguarding the secrets that help keep our Nation safe.
Ethos
The officers of the CIA are guided by a professional ethos that is the sum of our abiding principles, core values, and highest aspirations. This ethos holds us on course as we exercise the extraordinary influence and authorities with which we have been entrusted to protect the Nation and advance its interests. CIA’s ethos has many dimensions, including:
Service. We put Nation first, Agency before unit, and mission before self. We take pride in being diverse, inclusive, agile, responsive, and consequential.
Integrity. We uphold the highest standards of lawful conduct. We are truthful and forthright, and we provide information and analysis without institutional or political bias. We maintain the Nation’s trust through accountability and oversight.
Excellence
We bring the best of our diverse backgrounds and expertise to everything we do. We are self-aware, reflecting on our performance and learning from it. We strive to give all officers the tools, experiences, and leadership they need to excel.
Courage. We accomplish difficult, high-stakes, often dangerous tasks. In executing mission, we carefully manage risk but we do not shy away from it. We value sacrifice and honor our fallen.
Teamwork
We stand by and behind one another. Collaboration, both internal and external, underpins our best outcomes. Diversity and inclusion are mission imperatives.
Stewardship. We preserve our ability to obtain secrets by protecting sources and methods from the moment we enter on duty until our last breath.
Key Challenges
Close intelligence gaps with enhanced collection and analysis on the countries, non-state actors, and issues most critical to the President and senior national security team. Fulfill our global mission to give customers decision advantage as they confront an unprecedented volume and diversity of worldwide developments that affect US interests.
Leverage technological advances for better performance in all mission areas—collection, analysis, covert action, and counterintelligence—while protecting against technological threats to the security of our information, operations, and officers. Improve the ways we attract, develop, and retain talent to maximize each CIA officer’s potential to contribute to achieving mission.
Better manage Agency resources during a period of fiscal austerity.
Credit: CIA
Posted: Apr 04, 2007 03:54 PM
Last Updated: Nov 01, 2018 11:30 AM
CIA • Chiefs of State, Cabinet Members
Click this link to read the CIA's Directory on Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments, updated WEEKLY.
Animal Partners
CIA • Animal Partners and Spies
Throughout history, trained animals have been used in security roles to fulfill mission requirements, notably by the armed forces, whether for transport, communication, or threat detection. From carrier pigeons in World War I to today's explosives-detecting dogs, government agencies have turned to animals to do the important jobs human couldn't do. CIA is no exception, and it once worked on developing ways animals could help with intelligence collection.
This collection of declassified documents highlights the diverse programs involving the feasibility of using marine and avian animal capabilities in support of intelligence operations. For a variety of technical and other reasons, none of the programs ever became operational. Yet these documents provide a window into the innovative thinking applied to the intelligence mission aimed at countering increasingly sophisticated foreign adversaries.
Credit: CIA
Communist China
Cuba
CIA • Cuba Files
Click this link to read the CIA's files on Communist Cuba and Fidel Castro.
Germany
CIA • Germany Files
Click this link to read the CIA's files on modern Germany, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and the Russian controlled Communist East Germany during the Cold War decades.
Click this link to read the National Security Archive's collection of files on East Germany. This link is included here because it contains CIA files. Just tye in the term East Germany into their search box.
Iran
Iraq
JFK's Assassination
CIA • JFK Assassination Files
The murder of American President John F. Kennedy still remains today, the most widely believed "conspiracy" by the American people. Click this link to read the CIA's files.
Russia
CIA • Russia Files
Click this link to read the CIA's files on Russia, both during the Cold War decades, World War II and after the Cold War ended.
CIA • Vladimir Putin
Click this link to read the CIA's files on former KGB Lt. Colonel, Prime Minister and President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
UFOs
CIA • Unidentified Flying Objects Files
Click this link to read the CIA's files on Unidentified Flying Objects.
Israel
Afghanistan
Directories
Palestinians
CIA • Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Click this link to read the CIA's files on the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Operations
Osama bin Laden
