The Central Intelligence Agency, also known as CIA, is the main American intelligence agency. Created in the forties, the CIA is located in Langley, Virginie. It is in charge of gathering and analyzing informations or data on foreign governments and companies, and on foreigners, as opposed to the FBI which also targets its investigations on the American people. These informations are transmitted to the US government, as evidences used in the homeland security.

The CIA hunts down the enemies of the United States in a very complex world. The agency takes the pulse of the world, and even tries to change the course of history in favor of the American (when sometimes pulling the string of foreign takeovers...). The myths surrounding it are numerous, but for instance, a CIA agent may legally kill someone if the US president tells him to do so.

Its operations were first conducted against the Soviet Union to prevent communism from spreading in the US territory.
The gathering of informations is a complex process, and the CIA uses many techniques to achieve its ends. Espionage abroad is a common practice: the CIA sends secret agents to infiltrate in foreign organizations. Some clandestine operations, the ints and outs of which remain unknown from the public, are sometimes conducted.

The whole purpose of such an agency is to carry out its operations very secretly, so secretly that should a mistake occur, it would be hard to take the case in the court.
Thus, the identity of secret agents is never revealed. No official records on the number of employees working on behalf of the CIA is held. As the CIA works for the homeland security of the US, the agency is practically given full authority to conduct its operations.

The Washington Post recently revealed that the CIA established clandestine prisons abroad to detain foreign suspects, bypassing at the same time the US laws on abusive detentions. Nobody knew that, but it didn't surprise people much...