The Company (Central Intelligence Agency or CIA nickname)
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to World War II’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The CIA has been nicknamed “The Company” since at least 1972, when that name was cited in print. This nickname was further popularized by former CIA agent Philip Agee’s book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary (1975).
The CIA has also been nicknamed “The Agency,” “Pickle Factory” (since at least 1965), “Christians In Action” (since at least 1978), “Capitalism’s Invisible Army” (by R. Buckminster Fuller in 1981), “Cocaine Importing Agency” (since at least 1988), “Capitalism’s International Army” (since at least 1995), “Virginia Farm Boys” (after its headquarters in Langley, Virginia, as used in the 1996 film Mission: Impossible), “Certified Idiots of America” (since at least 1996), “Clowns In America” (since at least 2010), “Crooks In Action” (since at least 2010) and “Catholic Intelligence Agency” (since at least 2012).
Wikipedia: Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a central intelligence agency of the United States government, reporting to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers. The CIA also engages in covert activities at the request of the President of the United States.
It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities against the Axis Powers for the branches of the United States Armed Forces. The National Security Act of 1947 established the CIA, affording it “no police or law enforcement functions, either at home or abroad”. One year later, this mandate was expanded to include[clarification needed] “sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures…subversion [and] assistance to underground resistance movements, guerrillas and refugee liberation movements, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world”. Through interagency cooperation, the CIA has Cooperative Security Locations at its disposal. These locations are called “lily pads” by the Air Force.
The primary function of the CIA is to collect information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and to advise public policymakers. The agency conducts covert operations and paramilitary actions, and exerts foreign political influence through its Special Activities Division. The CIA and its responsibilities changed markedly in 2004. Before December 2004, the CIA was the main intelligence organization of the US government; it was responsible for coordinating the activities of the US Intelligence Community (IC) as a whole. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 created the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), which took over management and leadership of the IC.
Today, the CIA still has a number of functions in common with other countries’ intelligence agencies (see Relationships with foreign intelligence agencies). The CIA’s headquarters is in Langley in McLean, unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, a few miles west of Washington, D.C. along the Potomac River.
Sometimes, the CIA is referred to euphemistically in government and military parlance as Other Government Agencies (OGA), particularly when its operations in a particular area are an open secret. Other terms include The Company, Langley and The Agency.
Google Books
The Dominican Republic:
Rebellion and Repression
By Carlos María Gutiérrez
New York, NY: Monthly Review Press
1972
Pg. 25:
The Dominican agents of the “Company” (as the CIA is called in the Dominican Republic and throughout Latin America) have always been in political decision-making positions.
Google Books
CIA: The Myth and the Madness
By Patrick J. McGarvey
New York, NY: Penguin Books
1973, ©1972
Pg. 160:
Chapter VIII
“I Owe My Soul to the Company Store”
Google Books
Inside the Company : CIA diary
By Philip Agee
New York, NY: Stonehill
1975
Pg. 6:
No one spoke of “CIA,” “Central Intelligence Agency,” or even “The Agency.” Every reference to the Agency used the word “company.”
5 March 1975, El Paso (TX) Herald-Post, “The Shadow World” by Henry J. Taylor, pg. 10, col.3:
In our embattled Central Intelligence Agency’s internal jargon it is called “The Company.”
Time magazine
THE CIA: An Old Salt Opens Up the Pickle Factory
Monday, June 20, 1977
No one knows whether CIA spooks wind up in heaven or hell when they die, but wherever they are, they must be rattling their bones in protest. Barely a decade ago, almost no high officials in Washington talked directly about the Central Intelligence Agency. It was obliquely referred to as “the pickle factory” or “our friends” or “across the river” or, more openly, “the agency” or “the company.”
Google Books
America’s Secret Power:
The CIA in a democratic society
By Loch K. Johnson
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
1989
Pg. 43:
The “Pickle Factory,” the “Company,” or simply the “Agency” — as CIA Headquarters is variously called by insiders — rises seven stories high and is topped by elaborate radio antennae for worldwide communications.
OCLC WorldCat record
The CIA files : secrets of “The Company”
Author: Mick Farren
Publisher: Godalming, England : CLB ; New York : distributed by Quadrillion, ©1999.
Edition/Format: Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary: An illustrated history of the Central Intelligence Agency, investigating allegations of murder, torture, drug experimentation, attempts at mind control, and other nefarious activities and schemes.
OCLC WorldCat record
The Company : A Novel of the CIA.
Author: Robert Litell
Publisher: California : New Millennium Audio, 2001.
Edition/Format: Book : English