ABSTRACT
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the main foreign intelligence agency of the United States. The CIA was created in 1947 to be a defender of the civil liberties and rights of the American people. However, the CIA is a powerful two-edged sword. Its practice of secrecy can as easily protect or do harm to civil liberties. Many of the CIA's first personnel were former members of the World War II Office of Strategic Services who had conducted many special operations. Despite the revelations of spy tools, poisons, and attempts to use the Mafia to assassinate Castro, the CIA was not found to be a "rogue elephant." President William J. Clinton issued executive orders banning the CIA from using people with criminal records for intelligence gathering. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, radically changed conditions. Critics charged the CIA with incompetence, saying the terrorist attacks were an intelligence failure.
