CIA Events

1953 Aug 19 1953 coup d'etat in Iran
The 1953 Iranian coup d’état deposed the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq. The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew t...
1961 Apr 18 Second Day of Bay of Pigs Invasion
By about 10.30 on 18 April, Cuban troops and militia, supported by tanks, took Playa Larga after Brigade forces had fled towards Girón in the early hours. During the day, Brigade forces r...
1967 CIA Initiates Controversial Phoenix Program
The Phoenix Program (Vietnamese: Chiến dịch Phượng Hoàng, a word related to fenghuang, the Chinese phoenix) was a military, intelligence, and internal security program designed by the Uni...
1970 Jul 23 President Nixon Approves Plan to Expand Domestic Intelligence-Gathering
July 23, 1970 Nixon approves a plan for greatly expanding domestic intelligence-gathering by the FBI, CIA and other agencies. He has second thoughts a few days later and rescinds his app...
1976 Jan 30
to 1977 Jan 20
 George H.W. Bush Serves as the Director of Central Intelligence
In 1976, Ford brought Bush back to Washington to become Director of Central Intelligence. He served in this role for 357 days, from January 30, 1976 to January 20, 1977. The CIA had been ...
2001 Oct CIA Learns of bin Laden Courrier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti
Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, detainees in the CIA's secret prison network told interrogators about an important courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti...
2002 Jul 10 CIA Operatives, Joined by JSOC, Prepare the Iraqi Battlespace for the US-led Invasion
The first CIA team entered Iraq on July 10, 2002. This team was composed of members of the CIA's famed Special Activities Division and was later joined by members of the U.S. Military's e...
2003 Apr Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Under Interrogation, Revealed that He Was Aquainted with al-Kuwaiti
According to an American official familiar with his interrogation, Mr. Mohammed was first asked about Mr. Kuwaiti in the fall of 2003, months after the waterboarding. He acknowledged havi...
2004 Jan 22 Key CIA Prisoner Hassan Ghul Detained by Kurdish Police
One official said Ghul was "definitely in Iraq to promote an Al Qaeda, Islamic extremist agenda." Ghul is described by officials as a facilitator known in terrorist circles as "the Gateke...
2005 May 2 Key CIA Prisoner Abu Faraj al-Libbi Arrested by Pakistani's Inter-Services Intelligence
The Pakistani military, working with the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence, has captured Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a man both U.S. and Pakistani officials believe is the current operations d...
2006 Sep 9 Abu Faraj al Libi Transferred to Guantànamo Bay
Mr. Libi [was] transferred from a secret C.I.A. prison to Guantánamo Bay in September 2006, discusses his interactions with a courier for Bin Laden — who is identified in the document by ...
2007 U.S. Interrogators Learn al-Kuwaiti's Real Name
“We knew that it was likely that if we were ever to get Osama bin Laden, it would be because we somehow came upon somebody closely associated with him that he trusted,” said Charles D. St...
2009 Jun 26 CIA Director Leon Panetta Acknowledges that the CIA Misled Congress
CIA Director Leon Panetta told lawmakers in a recent briefing that the intelligence agency he heads misled Congress on "significant actions" for a "number of years," a group of Democrats ...
2011 Mar 29 US Intelligence Source Reveals CIA Operating in Libya
The Central Intelligence Agency has inserted clandestine operatives into Libya to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and to contact and vet the beleaguered rebels battling Col. M...
2011 Apr 24 Al-Kuwaiti's Supposed Fake Name Appears in Document Released by WikiLeaks
According to the document, Libi fled to Peshawar in Pakistan and was living there in 2003 when he was asked to become one of Bin Laden's messengers. The document says: "In July 2003, deta...
2011 May 7 Pentagon Releases Videos of Osama bin Laden Seized from Compound Raid
As a result of the raid, we've acquired the single largest collection of material from a senior terrorist ever," said the official, who spoke to reporters Saturday on condition of anonymi...