Let’s start with the CIA, the acronym for Central Intelligence Agency, the main information agency of the US government. She was born to succeed the OSS (acronym for Office of Strategic Services), a spy agency that operated only during World War II. Before the OSS, information activities in the United States were not centrally controlled. At the end of the war, with the extinction of the agency, the government felt the need to maintain centralization and, in September 1947, created the CIA. To this day, it both produces information on its own and coordinates a huge intelligence system that includes other agencies. The FBI, on the other hand, stands for Federal Investigation Agency, has a longer history.
“It was President Theodore Roosevelt who created it, in 1908, to investigate suspected corruption, not only in relation to the tax authorities, but also in the political sense, in addition to taking care of dealings with public lands in the West”, says historian Antonio Pedro Tota , from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP). Today, one of the FBI’s official responsibilities is to investigate federal crimes, such as cases of kidnapping or theft of confidential government information. But he can also act in defense of the internal security of the United States, doing espionage inside the country, while the work of the CIA is carried out abroad. This distinction, however, has already been disrespected several times, as in the Watergate scandal, between 1973 and 1974, when the press denounced that former CIA agents were spying on American citizens inside the country – the case led to the resignation of then American president Richard Nixon. . The controversial episodes involving the two bodies do not stop there.
In the early 1970s, one of the most famous directors of the FBI, John Edgar Hoover, was accused of obtaining compromising information about American politicians in order to blackmail them. More recently, the CIA has come under fire for failing to obtain information to prevent the September 11, 2001 attack in New York. As a result, it faces a profound overhaul, which will affect not only its structure and strategy, but also its relationship with other US agencies.
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NSC
The National Security Council advises the US President, who also chairs the NSC. The other members of the council are the vice president of the United States and the secretaries of state and defense.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
It is the equivalent of the Ministry of Justice here in Brazil. The direction of the FBI reports directly to the United States Secretary of Justice, their Minister
NSA
Although little known, the National Security Agency has the largest budget among agencies. It does electronic espionage, operating satellites, reconnaissance planes and listening posts in several countries.
CIA
The director of the CIA is one of the advisers to the NSC. The agency makes recommendations about the intelligence activities of other agencies, evaluates the information collected, and ensures that it circulates within the government.
NFIB
The National Committee on Foreign Information is subordinate to the CIA and produces a dossier known as the National Intelligence Estimate, containing the best information available throughout the government on various international topics.
OTHER AGENCIES
• Defense Intelligence Agency
• Army Information Service
• Navy Service
• Air Force Service
• Department of State Service • Department of Energy Information Unit
FBI
It has an Intelligence Division and a Criminal Division, which has also increased its intelligence involvement and collaboration with the CIA following the growing fight against terrorism.