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CIA

 

Description

 

The Central Intelligence Agency is one of the primary external intelligence agencies of the United States. It has three main activities. 1. All-source intelligence analysis. 2. Intelligence collection, usually using human sources. 3. Covert operations including supporting rebel forces, overthrowing hostile governments, and exerting political influence.

 

There are numerous examples of CIA covert operations being publicly acknowledged, including CIA support for the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan against the Soviet Army, and the CIA spearheading the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan post-9/11. CIA support of the KLA in Kosovo, however, has not been acknowledged mainly due to US policy changing rapidly against the Albanian insurgents after the Kosovo war. Embarrassingly for the US, some Albanian radicals tried to replicate their success in Kosovo by exporting their war into Macedonia and Serbia.

 

 

 

PRIMAL Assessment

 

The CIA has been criticized for analytical failures such as not predicting the ‘Arab Spring’ and inaccurate pre-war assessments about Iraq’s WMDs. It’s also been criticized for letting its HUMINT capabilities atrophy since the Cold War. The fact is the CIA is the world’s most heavily resourced and capable global HUMINT and covert action agency. It could be a serious threat to PRIMAL, particularly when operating in Latin America.

Read more on the CIA here.