American Spies: How the US collects intelligence around the world
Sandboxx | July 23, 2021
With a budget of more than $60 billion a year, the U.S. Intelligence Community is a behemoth of agencies, offices, and capabilities. The Intelligence Community is the nation’s first line of defense, ensuring that policymakers are promptly aware of threats against U.S. national security. But which agency spies better?
The Two Giants of the Intelligence Community
Usually, when someone talks about the U.S. Intelligence Community, two agencies come to mind: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). Both have been around for a while, spearheading different aspects of America’s intelligence efforts. The agencies, however, approach the intelligence game through different paths. While these paths may converge from time to time, for the most part, each is in a league of its own.
The CIA is America’s primary Human Intelligence (HUMINT) collection agency. It has four missions: collect foreign intelligence, provide objective analysis, conduct covert action, and help safeguard American secrets (counterintelligence). The CIA is composed of five directorates (Directorate of Analysis, Directorate of Operations, Directorate of Science and Technology, Directorate of Support, Directorate of Digital Innovation) but operates under mission centers, which bring officers together from across the directorates to tackle issues.
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