The Forces that Monitor and Protect

The nation's intelligence system is unquestionably large but it is anything but monolithic. It is a loose aggregation of agencies, each with a specific role and place, wary of any encroachments on its prerogatives. The principal members:

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY. Director-designate: William Colby. Estimated number of employees: 15,000. Estimated budget: $750 million. Established by the National Security Act of 1947 to replace the World War II Office of Strategic Services. Officially supervised by four congressional committees, but largely autonomous and excused by a 1949 law from any accounting of the funds it gets or spends. In charge of espionage and clandestine operations abroad as well as overt intelligence-gathering activities; forbidden by law to exercise any police, subpoena or law-enforcement powers, or internal security functions in the U.S., but has occasionally interpreted these laws freely. Grown somewhat fat over the years, was ordered this year to cut its staff by 10%, but cuts are still not completed.

The director of the CIA also serves ex officio as chairman of the U.S. Intelligence Board, which reports to President's National Security Council (see diagram). The board coordinates and supervises major American intelligence activities, and exercises supervisory control over every other security system.

DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY. Director: Vice Admiral Vincent P. dePoix. Number of employees: 5,000. Budget: $129,300,000. Set up by Robert S. McNamara in August 1961, after the CIA intelligence for Bay of Pigs invasion proved disastrously inadequate, and because the three military services' operations suffered from a lack of overall evaluation. The agency operates under the direction of the Secretary of Defense. Charged with assessing the worldwide military situation, the Defense Intelligence Agency coordinates the conflicting and not infrequently self-serving intelligence operations of the three armed services--Army's G2, Office of Naval Intelligence and Air Force's A2. DIA men tend to view CIA men as the spoiled darlings of the intelligence community. The CIA, which once dealt directly with military intelligence services, resents DIA'S role as middleman, and tends to look upon its members as minor-league spies.

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY. Director: Lieut. General Samuel Phillips, U.S.A.F. Employees: 25,000. Budget: classified. Created in 1952 as a separate agency within the Defense Department. Makes and breaks codes, develops techniques for electronic surveillance of foreign troop and ship movements and construction of military facilities (NSA equipment was used on the U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia in 1960).

BUREAU OF INTELLIGENCE AND RESEARCH. Director: Ray S. Cline. Employees: 335. Budget: about $8,000,000. Intelligence arm of the State Department since 1947. Charged with gathering and analyzing information essential to U.S. foreign policy. Staffed by economists and academicians. Prepares studies on subjects as diverse and esoteric as Albanian public health system and the clove industry in Zanzibar. Generally considered a "clean," as opposed to "dirty" or covert operation.

ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION. Director: Dr. Dixy Lee Ray. Total employees: 7,000. Overall budget: $2,500,000,000. Established in 1946 to govern development of atomic energy. Also maintains a constant watch on the atomic capabilities of other countries, detecting and identifying nuclear tests.

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. Director: George P. Shultz. Total employees: 117,462; 100-200 directly involved in intelligence. Oversees Bureau of Customs and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Thus responsible for narcotics investigations. Department also includes Secret Service, which protects President and other top officials, maintains liaison with Interpol, the international criminal police organization.

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION . Director: William Ruckelshaus. Employees: 19,857 (including 8,700 agents). Budget: $336,300,000. Number of field offices: 59. Established in 1908 as investigative arm of the Justice Department, the closest U.S. equivalent to a national police force. FBI has jurisdiction over wide range of crimes from assassination of a President to bank robbery, kidnaping and transportation of stolen cars. Since 1936, has had jurisdiction over espionage and sabotage within the U.S. J. Edgar Hoover, director from 1924 until his death last year, expanded FBI authority to in vestigate Communists, Ku Klux Klansmen, radical students and other ele ments he considered a threat to national security. The bureau's latest assign ment: getting to the bottom of the so-called Watergate scandal.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.