CIA transnational activities in
counterproliferation
This article deals with activities of the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency, specifically deal-
ing with arms control, weapons of mass de-
struction (WMD) and weapons proliferation.
It attempts to look at the process of tasking
and analyzing, rather than the problem itself,
other than whether the CIA’s efforts match
its legal mandate or assists in treaty compli-
ance. In some cases, the details of a coun-
try’s programs are introduced because they
present a problem in analysis. For example, if
Country X’s policymakers truly believe in cer-
tain history that may not actually be factual,
an analyst trying to understand Country X’s
policymakers needs to be able to understand
their approach to an issue.
CIA organizations have had involvement in
strategic weapons intelligence since the U-2
program in the late fifties, and that the rela-
tionships and names of organizations fre-
quently change. Some of the assignments
and reports have been, or may still be, classi-
fied. Note, for example, that the full Rums-
feld Committee or Iraq Intelligence Commis-
sion reports are available only in executive
summaries or in heavily redacted documents.
Counterproliferation covers a variety of
disciplines, some in the current CIA, some
previously in the CIA and now in the DNI,
and others in other Federal organizations
with mission statements or enabling legisla-
tion that give them responsibilities. In US
military doctrine,
counterproliferation
is
defined as "Those actions (e.g., detect and
monitor, prepare to conduct counterprolifera-
tion
operations,
offensive
operations,
weapons of mass destruction, active defense,
and passive defense) taken to defeat the
threat and/or use of weapons of mass de-
struction against the United States, our milit-
ary forces, friends, and allies."[1]
The National Counterproliferation Center,
now in the DNI but formerly a part of CIA,
and having CIA personnel detailed to it, "will
coordinate strategic planning within the In-
telligence Community (IC)