Federal Bureau of Investigation and Related Topics

Central Intelligence Agency

Civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT) and performing covert actions.

William Joseph Burns, the current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

Chart showing the organization of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The 113 stars on the CIA Memorial Wall in the original CIA headquarters, each representing a CIA officer killed in action

CIA director Allen Dulles on the cover of Time magazine, 1953

When democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz attempted a modest redistribution of land, he was overthrown in the 1954 CIA Guatemalan coup d'état

President Kennedy presents the National Security Medal to Allen Dulles, November 28, 1961

Suspended from the ceiling of the glass-enclosed atrium: three models of the U-2, Lockheed A-12, and D-21 drone. These models are exact replicas at one-sixth scale of the real planes. All three had photographic capabilities. The U-2 was one of the first espionage planes developed by the CIA. The A-12 set unheralded flight records. The D-21 drone was one of the first crewless aircraft ever built. Lockheed Martin Corporation donated all three models to the CIA.

The CIA recruited Sam Giancana (pictured), Santo Trafficante and other mobsters to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Lockheed U-2 "Dragon Lady", the first generation of near-space reconnaissance aircraft

Early CORONA/KH-4B imagery IMINT satellite

The USAF's SR-71 Blackbird was developed from the CIA's A-12 OXCART.

Operation Condor participants. Green: active members. Blue: collaborator (United States).

Critics assert that funding the Afghan mujahideen (Operation Cyclone) played a role in causing the September 11 attacks.

The CIA prepared a series of leaflets announcing bounties for those who turned in or denounced individuals suspected of association with the Taliban or al Qaeda.

US Special Forces help Northern Alliance troops away from a CIA-operated MI-17 Hip helicopter at Bagram Airbase, 2002

Former CIA director Robert Gates meets with Russian Minister of Defense and ex-KGB officer Sergei Ivanov, 2007

President Gerald Ford meets with CIA Director-designate George H. W. Bush, December 17, 1975

Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell (left) apologized to Colin Powell for the CIA's erroneous assessments of Iraq's WMD programs.

Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is a domestic security service, the CIA has no law enforcement function and is officially mainly focused on overseas intelligence gathering, with only limited domestic intelligence collection.

Federal agencies often work with each other and with local law enforcement during official events, such as presidential visits to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Pictured are members of the US Secret Service, Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

Federal law enforcement in the United States

The federal government of the United States empowers a wide range of law enforcement agencies to maintain law and public order related to matters affecting the country as a whole.

CBP Officers and Border Patrol Agents at a ceremony in 2007

A Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police (BEP) patrol car.

Two IRS-CI Special Agents conducting a search

2016 Ford Police Interceptor Utility belonging to the US Postal Police, NYC

It has handled most law enforcement duties at the federal level and includes the United States Marshals Service (USMS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), and others.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Seal. The FBI is the main agency responsible for investigating federal offenses.

Federal crime in the United States

Act that is made illegal by U.S. federal legislation enacted by both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives and signed into law by the president.

Numerous federal agencies have been granted powers to investigate federal offenses, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Secret Service.

Special agent

Investigator or detective for a governmental or independent agency, who primarily serves in criminal investigatory positions.

Regardless, most people holding the title of "Special Agent" are law enforcement officers under state or federal law (with some also being dual intelligence operatives such as with the FBI).

The spiked heads of executed criminals once adorned the gatehouse of the medieval London Bridge.

White-collar crime

The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals.

By the type of offense, e.g., property crime, economic crime, and other corporate crimes like environmental and health and safety law violations. Some crime is only possible because of the identity of the offender, e.g., transnational money laundering requires the participation of senior officers employed in banks. But the FBI has adopted the narrow approach, defining white-collar crime as "those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence" (1989, 3). While the true extent and cost of white-collar crime are unknown, the FBI and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimate the annual cost to the United States to fall between $300 and $660 billion.

J. Edgar Hoover

American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States.

Hoover investigated ex-Beatle John Lennon by putting the singer under surveillance, and Hoover wrote this letter to Richard Kleindienst, the US Attorney General in 1972. A 25-year battle by historian Jon Wiener under the Freedom of Information Act eventually resulted in the release of documents like this one.

July 24, 1967. President Lyndon B. Johnson (seated, foreground) confers with (background L-R): Marvin Watson, J. Edgar Hoover, Sec. Robert McNamara, Gen. Harold Keith Johnson, Joe Califano, Sec. of the Army Stanley Rogers Resor, on responding to the Detroit riots

President Lyndon B. Johnson at the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. White House East Room. People watching include Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, Senator Hubert Humphrey, First Lady "Lady Bird" Johnson, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover, Speaker of the House John McCormack. Television cameras are broadcasting the ceremony.

Hoover with Bebe Rebozo (left) and Richard Nixon. The three men relax before dinner, Key Biscayne, Florida, December 1971.

Hoover and his assistant Clyde Tolson sitting in beach lounge chairs, c. 1939

He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation – the FBI's predecessor – in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director for another 37 years until his death in 1972 at the age of 77.

The FBI Field Office in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

List of FBI field offices

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operates 56 field offices in major cities throughout the United States.

Director of National Intelligence

Senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) and to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program (NIP).

Earlier in his career, he was an assistant director at the FBI, in charge of their Laboratory Division from 1997 to 2001.

John Dillinger

American gangster during the Great Depression.

Display of newspaper clippings of the capture of John Dillinger and his gang in the old lobby of the Congress Hotel.

The John Dillinger House in Tucson, Arizona

The crowd at Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, shortly after Dillinger was killed there by FBI agents.

FBI photograph of the Biograph Theater taken July 28, 1934, six days after the shooting, the only night Murder in Trinidad played

A Dillinger death mask made from an original mold, one of four made. A second is on display at the Alcatraz East museum in Pigeon Forge, TN. Note the bullet exit mark below the right eye.

Grave at Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana – at least the fourth marker to be replaced since 1934, due to souvenir seekers chipping away at them.

Lester Joseph Gillis ("Baby Face Nelson")

In response, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), used Dillinger as a campaign platform to evolve the BOI into the Federal Bureau of Investigation, developing more sophisticated investigative techniques as weapons against organized crime.

United States Secret Service

Federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of state or government.

Secret Service agents conducting electronic investigations

Sign at the Obama family home in 2021 stating the area is protected by the Secret Service

Secret Service analyst examining counterfeit documents

Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF)

Secret Service Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Task Force (AFMLTF)

Secret Service Cyber Intelligence Center (CIS)

Secret Service agents responding to the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. on March 30, 1981

Secret Service agents to guard President George W. Bush in 2008.

Secret Service agents protecting President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama

Secret Service agents executing a protective operation

Secret Service agent trainees at the James J. Rowley Training Center (RTC)

Secret Service agent trainees practice executing a search warrant.

Secret Service officer and his police dog as part of the Emergency Response Team (ERT)

Secret Service snipers protect Vice President Mike Pence in Indianapolis in 2017.

Secret Service counter-sniper marksman on top of the White House's roof, armed with a sniper rifle

Secret Service agent in business suit working President Obama's protection detail

Ford Taurus of the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service.

An Allegheny County Police officer and his working dog screening a US Secret Service vehicle for explosives.

The Secret Service is also a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) which investigates and combats terrorism on a national and international scale.