CIA, at 50, re-evaluates its mission

From Correspondent Garrick Utley

LANGLEY, Virginia (CNN) -- In the spy business it is known as The Company. And in this era of downsizing, restructuring, and above all coming up with a new mission statement, no company faces a greater challenge than the CIA, the U.S. spy agency which is celebrating its 50th birthday.

With the Cold War over, the agency is now working to reshape and refocus its energies and devise what its next mission should be.

"I think the biggest threat to the United States by far is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists or renegades or outlaw states, which is a huge threat," said Evan Thomas, author of "The Very Best Men."

50th anniversary of the CIA

That terrorist threat didn't exist 50 years ago, when President Harry Truman signed the legislation that led to the creation of the CIA, a measure to keep the threat of communism in check.

Soon, the U.S. agency was operating everywhere.

It put the pro-Western Shah back on the throne and in power in Iran. The CIA backed a coup d'etat in Guatemala, and decades later the agency supplied weapons to Contras, Nicaraguan guerrilla groups.

In its desire to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the CIA offered to pay the Mafia $150,000 to carry out the hit, a slaying that never fully developed.

But it was Soviet military power that dominated the CIA's mission.

One of its top agents was Col. Oleg Penkovsky, who provided detailed military information from within the Kremlin during the Cuban Missile Crisis. With his help, the CIA and President Kennedy knew precisely what kind of Soviet missiles were in Cuba.

"I have directed the armed forces to prepare for any eventuality," Kennedy said at the time.

And then there were the public failures.

The disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The shooting down of a U2 spy plane over the Soviet Union and the capture of its pilot. And most humiliating, the discovery of a Soviet mole, Aldrich Ames, at the very heart of the CIA.

The future role and size of the CIA will not be determined by its won-lost record but rather by what the United States needs in a world where the old enemies and threats no longer exist.

On its Web site, the CIA advertises for psychologists, economists, and even specialists in leather and fabric craft. And of course, there are still opportunities in the clandestine arena of the agency.

Increasingly, the CIA will focus on terrorists and the potential for nuclear weapons to fall into the wrong hands.

"I think in our lifetime there is a probability that one of these weapons is going to go off in New York or Washington or some big city like that," author Thomas said. "The CIA needs to be doing everything it possibly can to penetrate terrorist cells and outlaw states."

Related sites:

• Central Intelligence Agency Web Site
  • About the CIA
• National Security Agency Web Site
  • History of the National Security Agency

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