Wiktionary
n. A governmental agency that is devoted to the information gathering (known in the context as "intelligence") for purposes of national security and defense.
WordNet
n. a unit responsible for gathering and interpreting information about an enemy [syn: intelligence, intelligence service]
Wikipedia
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information and intelligence in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. The assembly and propagation of this information is known as intelligence analysis or intelligence assessment.
Intelligence agencies can provide the following services for their national governments.
- provision of analysis in areas relevant to national security;
- give early warning of impending crises;
- serve national and international crisis management by helping to discern the intentions of current or potential opponents;
- inform national defense planning and military operations;
- protect sensitive information secrets, both of their own sources and activities, and those of other state agencies;
- may act covertly to influence the outcome of events in favor of national interests, or influence international security; and
- defense against the efforts of other national intelligence agencies ( counter-intelligence).
There is a distinction between "security intelligence" and "foreign intelligence". Security intelligence pertains to domestic threats (e.g., terrorism, espionage). Foreign intelligence involves information collection relating to the political, or economic activities of foreign states.
Some agencies have been involved in assassination, arms trafficking, coups d'état, and the placement of misinformation ( propaganda) as well as other covert operations, in order to support their own or their governments' interests.
Usage examples of "intelligence agency".
It was even a fun diversion for the former chief USAF analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency's headquarters building at Bolling AFB in Washington.
On impulse he got several additional panties on the assumption that they soiled more quickly than bras did, something he wasn't sure of despite being a field intelligence officer of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Shortly before he reached thirty, he was courted by an obscure Washington intelligence agency and appointed a special agent under contract.
Launched by Giordino and an old Air Force buddy who is now a professional burglar for an intelligence agency.
He was a field officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, perversely on assignment for the U.
They didn't need to know that he was an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency.
They were the bureaucratic tail in an intelligence agency, but at CIA the tail had become so massive that it wagged the dog without ever moving itself.
Well, it wasn't the sort of thing you got to do as a field officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, nor a Team-2 commander of Rainbow.
A job such as this, after all, had gotten him into the protective embrace of the Central Intelligence Agency in the first place, so many years before.
The Central Intelligence Agency's inability to get vital information to the White House wasn't exactly new either, was it?