1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Paris OlympicsUS election 2024Israel-Hamas

Central Intelligence Agency, CIA

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a foreign intelligence service of the US Government. It is focused on overseas intelligence gathering and analyzing security information.

Skip next section All Content on this topic

All Content on this topic

Uniformed, armed persons in bright yellow jackets. In the background a US transport aircraft

European nations complicit in CIA 'black site' torture

European human rights judges have slammed Lithuania and Romania for past hosting of secret CIA 'black' detention sites
CrimeMay 31, 2018
US President Donald Trump and CIA Director Gina Haspel

Gina Haspel becomes first woman to head CIA

She's the first woman to head the CIA, but she faced criticism allegations she was involved in torture programs.
PoliticsMay 21, 2018
CIA Director Gina Haspel

US Senate confirms Gina Haspel as CIA head

The US Senate has controversially confirmed Gina Haspel as CIA director despite her role in a torture program.
PoliticsMay 18, 2018
USA Senator John McCain

White House aide dismisses McCain views because 'he's dying'

After John McCain urged senators to reject Gina Haspel, a White House aide has dismissed his view because he has cancer.
PoliticsMay 11, 2018
Gina Haspel

McCain urges Senate to reject Haspel as CIA pick

Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, has urged lawmakers to reject Gina Haspel.
PoliticsMay 10, 2018
Gina Haspel, the new CIA director | BESSERE QUALITÄT

Haspel controversy is about more than the new CIA chief

Should Gina Haspel, despite her role in the CIA's rendition program, become the agency's new head?
PoliticsMay 9, 2018
Kane Gamble arrives to court in January 2018

UK teen Kane Gamble gets two years for hacking CIA ex-chief

The judge said Gamble engaged in "politically motivated cyber terrorism."
CrimeApril 20, 2018
CIA Director Mike Pompeo

CIA boss Mike Pompeo secretly met North Korean leader

CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend and met with Kim Jong Un, US media said.
PoliticsApril 17, 2018
Khaled al-Masri

German CIA victim gets Macedonian apology

The German government has not yet responded to the apology offered by Macedonia to a German citizen abused by the CIA.
Human RightsApril 6, 2018
Gina Haspel, nominated for CIA Director

Nomination for CIA director under fire

Haspel would be the first woman in the position, but she has already attracted controversy in a former role.
PoliticsMarch 14, 2018
Großbritannien Prozess Kane Gamble, Hacker

British teen accessed accounts of top US officials

Kane Gamble accessed highly senstive information and harassed American officials from his mother's home in England.
CrimeJanuary 20, 2018
Lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Ex-CIA agent charged with having secret documents

No espionage charges have been filed, but the case is thought to be linked to a CIA field operation in China.
PoliticsJanuary 17, 2018
Trump and Putin at Vietnam APEC-Gipfel

Putin thanks Trump for helping foil attack on St. Petersburg

Putin has thanked his US counterpart for supplying intelligence to Russia's security body on an "Islamic State" cell.
PoliticsDecember 17, 2017
Symbolbild erste Verhandlungen gegen Putschisten in der Türkei

Turkey issues arrest warrant for ex-CIA agent

Officials accuse the former high-ranking CIA agent Graham Fuller of having links to last year's failed coup.
CrimeDecember 1, 2017
Osama bin Laden Zeitung Nachricht Zeitungsartikel

The forgotten case of the 'bin Laden doctor'

Bin Laden was killed in 2011, but the person who allegedly helped the CIA find him has been in jail for over six years.
SocietyNovember 16, 2017
GPS Satellit

German intelligence agency gets spy satellite funds

Hundreds of millions of euros have been earmarked for the Federal Intelligence Service to get its own presence in space.
PoliticsNovember 6, 2017
Niederlande - Internationaler Strafgerichtshof

ICC prosecutor asks for probe into war crimes in Afghanistan

An international war crimes prosecutor has said she will seek an official probe into violations in Afghanistan.
ConflictsNovember 4, 2017
Poster of Osama Bin Laden held by protester

CIA releases new trove of bin Laden files

The US has published some 470,000 files from bin Laden's PC, including a personal journal of the late terror chief.
TerrorismNovember 2, 2017
Former US President John F. Kennedy

US withholds some JFK files

US President Donald Trump has decided to keep some files on the JFK killing secret after appeals from the FBI, CIA.
PoliticsOctober 27, 2017
external

@dwnews - Kennedy files welcomed with jokes, conspiracy theories

PoliticsOctober 25, 201704:15 min
Lulu looking a bit unhappy

CIA drops bored Labrador recruit Lulu

The US intelligence agency has dropped a puppy from its K9 training program for failing to enjoy detecting explosives.
LifestyleOctober 20, 2017
Campaign Let's #BuyTwitter and#BanTrump

Ex-CIA agent looks to kick Trump off Twitter

Valerie Plame Wilson is trying to purchase a controlling Twitter stake to take the US president offline.
PoliticsAugust 24, 2017
Afghanistan Taliban Kämpfer

70 years of proxy jihad

70 years since the partition of India, the jihadist network has become so huge that it threatens both states.
PoliticsAugust 14, 2017
Syrien Bürgerkrieg Aleppo Wandbild Assad

Trump scraps CIA plan to arm Syrian rebels

US President Donald Trump has decided to end a covert CIA program supporting Syrian rebels, US media reported.
ConflictsJuly 20, 2017
Pakistan Raymond Allen Davis

A look at complex CIA-ISI ties

Ex-CIA contractor Raymond Davis' book narates story of his Pakistan arrest and subsequent release in 2011.
PoliticsJuly 3, 2017
Symbolbild - CIA

German NGO seeks arrest over CIA torture

A human rights organization has called on German prosecutors to issue an arrest warrant for the CIA's deputy director.
Law and JusticeJune 7, 2017
USA ehemaliger FBI-Chef Comey

Comey will testify on Russia probe on June 8

Former FBI director Comey plans to testify that Trump pressured him to drop Flynn's Russia ties probe, CNN said.
PoliticsJune 1, 2017
Ehemaliger panamenischer Diktator Manuel Noriega (Getty Images/AFP/R. Arangua)

Manuel Noriega: death of a dictator

Ex-Panamanian military strongman Manuel Noriega has died in hospital at the age of 83.
PoliticsMay 30, 20176 images
China Peking - Tiananmen Square

China 'killed CIA sources, crippled spying'

Beijing "systematically dismantled" the work of US spies in China from 2010 to 2012, according to The New York Times.
CrimeMay 21, 2017
Nordkorea Kim Jong Un

North Korea wants South to extradite spy chief

Pyongyang has demanded the extradition of the Seoul's top intelligence chief, saying he planned to poison Kim Jong Un.
ConflictsMay 12, 2017
USA Mike Pompeo in Washington

CIA chief brands WikiLeaks a 'hostile' agency

"WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service," Pompeo said.
PoliticsApril 14, 2017
WikiLeaks CIA - Julian Assange

Assange: More CIA material to come

In a DW interview, Julian Assange lobs harsh criticism at US tech firms - and says he will publish more CIA files.
TechnologyMarch 23, 2017
IFA Berlin 2014 - Smarthome-Oberfläche Einfamilienhaus

Keeping the CIA out of your home

In light of WikiLeaks' revelations about remote espionage, how can people protect their data?
TechnologyMarch 12, 2017
Julian Assange London Großbritannien

WikiLeaks announces tech firm cooperation

The anti-secrecy platform WikiLeaks has said it would work with firms to fix security flaws before publishing them.
Digital WorldMarch 9, 2017
Symbolbild CIA

Trump 'extremely concerned' by WikiLeaks CIA release

The White House has vowed that those behind the leaks will face serious consequences.
PoliticsMarch 9, 2017
external

WikiLeaks publishes more than 8000 classified CIA files

The Wikileaks revelations aim to provide insight into alleged cyber espionage practices by the CIA.
PoliticsMarch 8, 201701:19 min
external

'It's wrong to point fingers at the US'

New WikilLeaks revelations: DW spoke with Green Party Internet Policy Spokesman Konstantin von Notz.
March 8, 201702:08 min
US-Generalkonsulat in Frankfurt am Main

CIA hacking base in Frankfurt - WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks documents reveal CIA agents were given cover identities and diplomatic passports to enter the country.
Law and JusticeMarch 7, 2017
Ägypten Allexandria Imam Abu Omar

Ex-CIA agent gets partial pardon for kidnapping

Sabrina de Sousa was found guilty of unlawfully kidnapping imam Abu Omar in Milan.
TerrorismMarch 1, 2017
Zentrale des Bundesnachrichtendienstes (BND)

German spies get new mission plan

Germany's equivalent of the CIA, the BND, has been given a new set of tasks, three years too late.
PoliticsFebruary 1, 2017
Symbolbild Cyber Security

Cyber arrests in Russia

Rumored arrests of cyber experts in Russia have been acknowledged by the Kremlin. The accused reportedly face treason.
PoliticsFebruary 1, 2017
Symbolbild Guantanamo

Trump says torture 'works,' CIA disagrees

In an interview, Trump said waterboarding and other torture techniques used in "black site" prisons "absolutely" worked.
PoliticsJanuary 26, 2017
US-Präsident Donald Trump besucht das CIA-Hauptquartier

Trump blasts media over crowd pictures

The president recently likened the disclosure of a possible Russian dossier on Trump to Nazi-like tactics.
PoliticsJanuary 22, 2017
Symbolbild CIA

CIA releases declassified documents

The CIA has made about 930,000 declassified documents, totaling some 12 million pages, available online.
HistoryJanuary 18, 2017
CIA-Direktor - John Brennan

CIA boss pleads with Trump to focus on his job

The director of the CIA says Donald Trump should tweet less and keep his eye on Russia.
PoliticsJanuary 15, 2017
Russische Puppen Putin und Trump

GOP: Trump believes Russia involved in DNC hacking

An aide to US President-elect said Donald Trump believes Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee.
PoliticsJanuary 9, 2017
Clapper testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on foreign cyber threats, on Capitol Hill in Washington (REUTERS)

Spy chiefs say Russia disrupted US election

US intel chiefs reiterate claim Russia mounted a bid to disrupt the US election.
PoliticsJanuary 6, 2017
Deutschland FBI Logo in der US-Botschaft in Berlin

CIA and FBI implicate Russia in election hacks

The CIA and FBI have concluded that Russia interfered in the US election in support of President-elect Donald Trump.
PoliticsDecember 16, 2016
Symbolbild US-Wahl - Donald Trump & Wladimir Putin

Trump spars with senators over Russian hacking probe

The president-elect finds himself at odds with the White House, the CIA and, increasingly, Republicans in the Senate.
PoliticsDecember 13, 2016
Ines Pohl

Putin in the White House?

Ines Pohl
Concern is growing in America that Putin’s influence will in future be more direct.
PoliticsDecember 12, 2016