The 16 Spy Agencies of the USA

AC
Posted : 2007-07-24

Whenever Americans hear talk about weapons of mass destruction, reasons for going to war with Iraq, or the blindside attack of 9/11 they may grow angry or at least not put much faith in the agencies supposedly responsible for either ignoring or misleading with information. The President of course gets a lot of the blame as well. However, whenever a new terrorist cell is stopped or military act goes right, who should get the praise? The same agencies behind the failures? Whether they are hit and miss or not the agencies pushing the information that runs the United States Intelligence divisions are considered amongst the elite of the world. The USA is generally known to have a spy network consisting of 16 main agencies, however there are all sorts of companies getting involved in the turning of the intelligence gears. Here is an overview of the main 16 Intelligence Agencies operating for the United States of America.

The AIA - Air Intelligence Agency is an agency of the United States Air Force, which was firstly activated in 1993.The AIA delivers multi-source intelligence products, applications, services, and resources. As well as provides IO forces and expertise in information warfare, command and control warfare, security, acquisition, foreign weapons systems and technology, and treaty monitoring, to support Air Force major commands, Air Force components, and joint and national decision makers.

Army Intelligence - Shares information with all other agencies, however its main focus involves military knowledge needed during missions or military based warfare. The resources are not just used during war, but also during peace time to help assess potential threats or keep the peace steady. The Army's Intelligence divisions develop a variety of intelligence products, such as threat assessments, that are used by weapons systems developers and senior decision makers.

The CIA - The Central Intelligence Agency is a well known agency, created in 1947 under President Truman. The CIA has all-source analytical capabilities that cover the entire world outside US borders. It produces a range of studies that cover virtually any topic of interest to national security policymakers. CIA also collects intelligence with human sources and, on occasion, undertakes covert actions at the direction of the President.

Coast Guard Intelligence - This agency's skills were deemed special enough to have it listed as one of the Intelligence Community 16 even though it does fall into the same division and work under the Department Of Homeland Security. The Coast Guard Intelligences main goal is to protect the public, the environment, and U.S. economic and security interests in any maritime region in which those interests may be at risk, including international waters and America's coasts, ports, and inland waterways.

The DIA - The Defense Intelligence Agency was established in 1961 and in 1986 became designated as a "combat support" agency. The DIA provides military intelligence to warfighters, policymakers, and force planners with the agency's Director being the primary advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on military intelligence matters.

The DOE - This is The Department Of Energy. This departments goal is to maintain a secure and reliable energy system that is environmentally and economically sustainable, to be a responsible steward of the Nation's nuclear weapons, and to support continued United States leadership in science and technology.

The DHS - The Department of Homeland Security is an agency mandated to reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism and to detect, to prevent and to respond to terrorist attacks. This department is considered to be divided into 5 main directories, however its work with a countless amount of departments and agencies seems to change the makeup of Homeland Security on a timely basis.

The Department of State - This department relies on the Bureau of Intelligence and Research or the INR for intelligence support. This department is a major player in intelligence involved with the conduct of foreign relations throughout the world.

The Department of the Treasury - The Department of the Treasury promotes the conditions for prosperity and stability in the United States and encourage prosperity and stability in the rest of the world. The OIA operates within this department, or the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. The duties of this department cover a wide range of financially motivated things such as: how terrorist get their funding.

The DEA - The Drug Enforcement Administration has the main objective of attacking and stopping the flow and creation of illegal drugs.

The FBI - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is another more than familiar name to most of the American public. The FBI's mission is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners.

Marine Corps Intelligence - Marine Corps Intelligence exists to support Marine Corps Service and operational missions in maritime, expeditionary, land, and air warfare. Marines are considered some of the toughest when it comes to military divisions, and therefore much of their intelligence tends to revolve around wartime procedures and operations.

The NGA - The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency supports U.S. national policy makers and military forces by providing geospatial intelligence derived by the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess, and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. The NGA work force is in fields such as cartography, imagery analysis, the physical sciences, geodesy, computer and telecommunication engineering, and photogrammetry.

The NRO - The National Reconnaissance Office ensures that the technology and spaceborne assets needed to acquire timely intelligence worldwide are always available to national policymakers and military warfighters. This means the NRO is concerned with "space" intelligence. The agency was founded in 1960 and uses a lot of satellites and satellite technology to help operations on the ground; such as tracking arms shipments, ect.

The NSA - The National Security Agency is another name you've probably heard in Hollywood films. It is
the nation's cryptologic organization and as such, coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to produce foreign intelligence information and protect US information systems. A high-technology organization, NSA is on the frontiers of communications and information technology. NSA is also one of the most important centers of foreign language analysis and research within the US Government.

Navy Intelligence - Naval Intelligence is geared towards providing intelligence that will help the US strengthen its armed forces, particularly those of the seas. Established in 1882, Naval Intelligence is the oldest continuously operating US Intelligence service. There missions statement is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas.

There you have the main 16 spy agencies of the United States of America. Each of these agencies in part has its own divisions and branches which may lead to plenty of confusion, but then again that is what one would expect from the spy world.