CIA Agent

U.S. spies have been in existence since the country's beginning, as far back Revolutionary War and a man named Nathan Hale. However, the Central Intelligence Agency is a comparatively new organization. It was established by President Truman by the signing of the National Security Act in 1947. The purpose of the CIA is: "to collect, evaluate and disseminate foreign intelligence" and "to engage in covert action at the president's direction". The agency formerly carried out many more undercover secret actions, many of which were in Central America.

The CIA does not make policies, but rather gives policy makers (i.e. the President, and the National Security Agency) the information they need to make informed decisions. Recently the agency has taken on new responsibilities, tracking nuclear and chemical weapons, drug producers and terrorists. To sum it up, the Central Intelligence Agency is what generates the United State's "intelligence" regarding world issues.

As the factbook of the CIA explains, the CIA finds responsibility in:

• Providing accurate, timely, comprehensive, evidence-based, foreign intelligence associated with national security; and
• Conducting special activities, counterintelligence activities, and other functions related to national security, and foreign intelligence, as directed by the President.