{"id":113554,"date":"2024-07-14T02:09:24","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T23:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/?p=113554"},"modified":"2024-07-14T02:09:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-13T23:09:41","slug":"from-glittering-capitals-to-dangerous-locations-cia-operations-officers-are-at-work-right-now-across-the-globe-to-uncover-the-information-needed-to-keep-americans-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/?p=113554","title":{"rendered":"From glittering capitals to dangerous locations, #CIA operations officers are at work right now, across the globe, to uncover the information needed to keep Americans safe."},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/h3>\n

New York – Rashad Alkhader \u00a0– Free Yemen Eye – From News CIA<\/p>\n

While many fictional films, TV shows, and books have been written about the history of spies and spying, most are widely fantastical and bear little resemblance to the actual work of gathering human intelligence.<\/p>\n

The World\u2019s Second Oldest Profession<\/h3>\n

Spying, some say, is the world\u2019s second oldest profession. At CIA, we\u2019ve been perfecting the art and craft of intelligence gathering since our founding in 1947.<\/p>\n

At our core, the Agency is first and foremost an espionage organization engaged in the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence. We always have been. Key to that mission is the collection of human intelligence\u2014or HUMINT, in intel lingo.<\/p>\n

In the simplest terms, HUMINT is intelligence collected by human beings\u2014by spies operating on the ground\u2014as opposed to intelligence gathered through technical means, like a satellite or a microphone.<\/p>\n

Collecting human intelligence demands courage, discipline, guile, and wit. It is and always will be a very risky yet essential business. Often, it is the only way to get the information and insight our government needs to safeguard our country.<\/p>\n

Technical forms of intelligence, such as overhead imagery, can tell you a lot about things that are large or hard to hide, such as the size of a nation\u2019s army or whether a country is testing a new missile system. But they are not always well-suited to telling you what a government plans to do with those things.<\/p>\n

Likewise, communications can reveal what someone has said or written, but the topics may be irrelevant, or the communications impossibly difficult to comprehend, without knowing the context.<\/p>\n

Paraphrasing former CIA Director Richard Helms, gadgets cannot divine a person\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n

On a recent episode of our podcast, The Langley Files<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span>, CIA\u2019s Chief Spymaster, the Deputy Director for Operations, explained the importance of HUMINT this way: \u201cThe secrets often lie in plans and intentions, the mood, and the context. When we talk about human intelligence, it really is the collection of everything that goes into how our adversaries are thinking, acting, and the context in which those decisions are being made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with all the technological advances of the 21st century, there are still some secrets that exist only in people’s minds.<\/p>\n

To successfully collect HUMINT, you need a collection of operations officers with diverse backgrounds and skillsets. In any mission you may have: case officers who recruit foreign assets; targeting officers who are experts at pulling key information from vast pools of data; language officers with deep cultural and linguistic expertise; collection management officers who figure out what information we should be seeking, what questions we need to ask, and what to do with the intelligence once we collect it; and staff operations officers who provide strategic guidance and operational case and program management.<\/p>\n

Espionage, in other words, is a team sport.<\/p>\n

The Evolution of the Directorate of Operations<\/h3>\n

Collecting the secrets only HUMINT can reveal is the purview of CIA\u2019s Directorate of Operations. The DO, which reports to the Director of CIA, is responsible for the Agency\u2019s human source collection, covert action, and counterintelligence activities and for coordinating and deconflicting HUMINT operations across the U.S. Intelligence Community.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the DO wasn\u2019t always known as the DO. Throughout CIA\u2019s history, the DO has any many names and iterations:<\/p>\n

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