Intelligence and Espionage

Between Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, and the commencement of military action in January 1991, then President George H.W. Bush raised the specter of the Iraqi pursuit of nuclear weapons as one justification for taking decisive action against Iraq. In the then-classified National Security Directive 54, signed on January 15, 1991, authorizing the use of force to expel Iraq from Kuwait, he identified Iraqi use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against allied forces as an action that would lead the U.S. to seek the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.

Today, October 16, 2002, the National Security Archive publishes on the Web a comprehensive documentary history of U.S. aerial espionage in the Cold War and beyond. This publication comes 40 years to the day after CIA analysts briefed President John F. Kennedy on what is probably the most famous overhead reconnaissance photograph of all time.

Washington, D.C., August 5, 2013 – Today, on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, the National Security Archive posts an update to its 2001 electronic briefing book on Science, Technology and the CIA. The posting adds 20 new items to the 45 documents in the previous version. The new records cover all eras of the CIA's exploitation of science and technology, from its initial involvement during the tenure of Allen Dulles (1953-61) to its post-Cold War activities.

Washington, D.C., September 10, 2001 – Mention of the Central Intelligence Agency generally elicits visions of espionage and covert action operations. It may also produce images of the multitude of finished intelligence products the agency turns out – from the tightly controlled President's Daily Brief, available only to the president and a select circle of advisers, to a number of less restricted intelligence assessments. The CIA's role in the application of science and technology to the art of intelligence is far less appreciated.

Related Postings

Torture Report Finally Released
December 9, 2014

The Pentagon’s Counterspies
September 17, 2007

The Interrogation Documents
July 13, 2004

More Archive Resources on U.S. Intelligence:

U.S. Intelligence Project

Operation Desert Storm: Ten Years After

The NRO Declassified

The National Security Agency Declassified

U.S. Satellite Imagery, 1960-1999

The US Intelligence Community By Jeffrey T. Richelson
The US Intelligence Community By Jeffrey T. Richelson
 

Washington, D.C., May 23, 2001 – A key part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s mission, since its creation in 1947, has been the conduct of human intelligence operations – which have included the recruitment of foreign nationals to conduct espionage as well the debriefing of defectors and other individuals with access to information of value. The primary focus of such HUMINT operations has been strategic – the collection of information relevant to national policymakers.

Washington, D.C., April 23, 2001 – On Friday, April 20, 2001, a Peruvian Air Force jet, acting on intelligence supplied by a U.S. intelligence plane, shot down a civilian aircraft that was mistakenly suspected of being part of a drug trafficking operation. An American missionary and her infant daughter were killed in a hail of gunfire, and the Bush administration immediately suspended all U.S. drug interdiction flights over Peru.

Washington, D.C., April 9, 2001 –The ongoing Chinese-American controversy over the EP-3 aircraft that landed on Hainan Island on 31 March 2001 is the latest moment in a long and complex history of U.S. aerial reconnaissance activity over and near Chinese territory. During the Cold War days of the 1950s and 1960s, the CIA flew U-2 and other aircraft over Chinese territory, with many of the flights piloted by Taiwanese airmen.1 Other military agencies, the U.S. Navy and the U.S.

Washington, D.C. -- During the early morning hours (Baghdad time) of January 17, 1991, the United States and its allies initiated Operation Desert Storm in accord with United Nations resolutions and U.S. government policy directives that authorized the use of force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The National Security Archive is today placing a collection of declassified and unclassified documents concerning Desert Storm on its web site. The documents primarily focus on the intelligence, space support, Scud-hunting, and stealth (F-117A) elements of the conflict.

Washington, D.C., November 29, 2000 – The CIA history of operation TPAJAX excerpted below was first disclosed by James Risen of The New York Times in its editions of April 16 and June 18, 2000, and posted in this form on its website at: http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html This extremely important document is one of the last major pieces of the puzzle explaining American and British roles in the August 1953 coup against Iranian Premier Mohammad Mossadeq.