Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian intelligence organization tasked with foreign intelligence in service of the federal government of the United States. The CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) as required by the Intelligence Reform and Terorrism Prevention Act of 2004.

Not being a domestic intelligence agency, the CIA has no domestic law enforcement powers.

Organizational Structure

Timeline of Organizational Changes

In 2004, under President George W. Bush, the CIA began reporting to the DNI.

Online Documentation

  • The CIA Reading Room is the CIA's reposity of documents released from FOIA requests.(online here)
    • Warning: the fonts are…not exactly friendly.

Human Experimentation

CIA Labs

(Policy date unknown first Wayback save Policy Brief Oct 2020 VIA Labs site Jan 2021)

Who We Are

CIA Labs is a chartered member of the Federal Laboratory Consortium that brings CIA officers together with the private sector and academia to research and develop science and technology solutions in support of CIA’s mission. Through this work, CIA officers have access to leading researchers and unique facilities as well as exposure to stimulating national security challenges. What We Do

CIA Labs conducts multidisciplinary research, development, testing, and engineering to address new challenges; adapt, improve, or accelerate the production of existing solutions; and solve persistent scientific and technological problems in new ways. Our research areas include:

  • advanced materials and manufacturing;
  • artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics;
  • bioscience and biotechnology;
  • distributed ledger/blockchain-enabled technologies;
  • virtual and augmented reality;
  • high performance and quantum computing;
  • future wireless and telecommunications technologies; and
  • robotic, autonomous, and human interface systems.

How You Can Participate

As a federal laboratory, CIA Labs seeks collaboration with other federal labs and academia and is interested in outreach from such partners. Please submit your ideas for partnerships and consortium research projects via this form. If inquiring about Cooperative Research and Development Arrangements (CRADA), please include the following details in your submission:

  • Organization’s name and physical address
  • Principal Investigator contact details including name, office and mobile phone numbers, and email
  • A one to two paragraph description of the desired CRADA research and development effort, including the desired CRADA tasks and the potential benefits for each collaborator 1)

Public Daily Brief

Developing science and technology solutions in support of CIA’s mission

The Central Intelligence Agency has official launched CIA Labs , a federal laboratory and in-house research and development arm, which brings CIA officers together with the private sector and academia to research and develop science and technology solutions in support of CIA’s mission.

CIA Labs joins the community of more than 300 U.S. federal labs and establishes CIA as a research partner for other labs, academia, and industry in disciplines spanning from artificial intelligence and biotechnology to quantum computing and advanced materials and manufacturing.

The federal lab mechanism also enables officers to obtain patents and licenses for intellectual property they develop while working at the Agency and provides internship and externship opportunities.

Interested? Find out more about how you can get involved at CIA . gov. 2)

John Kiriakou: CIA Should Get Out of the Laboratory

Scheerpost - December 28, 2022

The C.I.A. has long had labs, whether overt or covert, where terrible things happened.

When I was at the C.I.A. through the 1990s and into the middle of the next decade, the deputy director for whom I worked was fond of saying (over and over again) that the job of the C.I.A. was simple: “Recruit spies to steal secrets and then analyze those secrets so that policymakers could make the best-informed policy possible.” 

That was fantasy at best and disingenuous propaganda at worst. The truth is that the C.I.A. for decades has been active in areas, including “labs” and experimentation, from which it should have stayed away.3)

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