CIA Organizational Layout

[Gerry Down]

According to Victor Marchettis book “The CIA and The Cult of Intelligence” the “Covert Action Staff” and “Counterintelligence” are located inside the Directorate of Operations (which used be called the Directorate of Plans in the 1960s).

 

SOURCE: The CIA and The Cult of Intelligence

A recent podcast by John Newman however caught my attention. In it he talks about the “staff level units” which were above the directorates. He said that the counterintelligence department was one of these “staff level units” putting it above the above, and hence outside, the Directorate of Operations (aka the Directorate of Plans):

“Below the Director and Deputy Director and his immediate staff and offices you have a sprawling thing called the Central Intelligence Agency …So you have a number of staff level units. And below the staff level units you have the operations directorate, intelligence directorate, the science & technology directorate. In those directorates you have divisions and branches. But the staff level units are important because they are at the very top of the organization. So you have all kinds of staff – covert action staff for one, but they have another one, well they have several, but one of them is counterintelligence …of all the staffs, the counterintelligence staff is probably the most important. There is a staff level office that doesn’t have the word staff in it and that’s called the office of security.”

SOURCE: 44 minutes in on this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/user/7338953/197-october-16-2022-with-intent-to-suppr

Lets take two points here:

• Point #1: Victor Marchetti has the Covert Action Staff and Counterintelligence inside the Directorate of Operations. However John Newman says the Covert Action Staff and Counterintelligence was above all the directorates and was in the Staff Level Units above the Directorates.
• Point #2: Victor Marchetti has the Office of Security inside the Directorate of Management & Services. However John Newman says the Office of Security was above all the directorates and was in the Staff Level Units above the Directorates.

So who is correct – John Newman or Victor Marchetti?

As an added interest, where was the Office of Mail Logistics? (which anyone who has been following Malcolm Blunts work will be familiar with) Was this an office at the Staff Level Units too? One would imagine so as it was deciding where incoming cables would be dispersed inside the CIA.  

Edited April 17, 2023 by Gerry Down

[Gerry Down]

Bump.

So who is correct – John Newman or Victor Marchetti?

[Gerry Down]

I wonder if the "Office of Logistics" which is shown in the "Directorate of Management & Services" is the "Office of Mail Logistics" Malcolm Blunt often talks about. 

[David Boylan]

A partial Org Chart

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=229936#relPageId=2

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=57860#relPageId=2&search=jmwave_org chart

[Bob Ness]

On page 17 of this post by @Jim Hargrove are the two pages cited from October 9th/10th that was the presumed CIA stand down letter routed around in concert or simultaneously with the FBI "flash" removal prior to the assassination. I've been trying to work out the details of the letter and if anyone has good ideas let me know.  The memo states:

Originator is "C. Bustos". Charlotte - JFK Facts.

Unit: WH (Western Hemisphere?)/3/Mexico. Speaks for itself.

The memo was distributed within the CIA to ci, ci/ops, ci/sp, fi, sr 7, rf, vr. I believe these may be the corresponding distribution list:

CI: Counterintelligence Division
CI/OPS: Counterintelligence Operations Division
CI/SP: Counterintelligence Special Projects Division
FI: Foreign Intelligence Division (espionage staff)
SR7: Scientific and Research Division (not certain)
RF: Research and Analysis Division (not certain)
VR: Vietnam Research Division (not certain - this branch supposedly started in 1965)

I think this could lead to a smoking gun, if one exists, by triangulating the FBI flash removal (Gheesling), the SS stand down and this letter back to their sources. The reason why I post this here is that the org chart could reveal the final stopping place.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Bob Ness

[Gerry Down]

When I first looked at that diagram by Victor Marchetti, I thought the "Counterintelligence Staff" in the Directorate of Plans (DP) was some separate counterintelligence (CI) division the DP had much like the Navy and Army have their own CI departments to stop penetrations into their own organizations. However when i then looked at Marchettis diagram as a whole there is no sign of any other CI department in the CIA which leads me to think Marchetti is saying the "Counterintelligence staff" in the DP is the CIAs CI department and the one which Angleton was the chief. So this would mean that the CIAs CI was inside the DP. 

Recently Dan Alcorn of the ARRC explained that the Office of Security was set up when the CIA was first set up and then a few years later they decided to set up the CI department which Angleton was made head of. He states this in the context of the LHO mole hunt and explains that because the Office of Security was the primary security office in the CIA (it had been the first one set up) and the CI department was a secondary security office (it had been set up a few years after the CIA had been set up), that this is why Angleton is answering to the Office of Security regarding the handling of LHOs file while LHO was still in the USSR. 

Here is Alcorns explanation for anyone interested (5 minutes to 7 minutes in on the video). He explains how the Office of Security is the primary security office while the CI department is the secondary security office (but he does not specifically say what the role of the CI department is vs the Office of Security, in other words why there is a primary and secondary security office inside of just one):

 

Alcorns explanation leads me to interpret the following:

• The Office of Security: Morley has described the Office of Security as being like the police force inside the CIA and responsible for such things as making sure offices are locked at night and files have been properly shredded etc. Alcorns explanation leads me to interpret that the Office of Security was also responsible for penetrations of the CIA as a whole.
• The Counterintelligence Department (Headed by Angleton): Alcorns explanation leads me to interpret that while the Office of Security was responsible for penetrations of the CIA as a whole, the CI department (headed by Angleton and located inside the DP) maybe was responsible only for penetrations of the DP and its operations. And of course seeing how the DP is such a major body within the CIA this is why we always hear so much about its CI department (and its head Angleton). Because CI is in the DP, this would explain why Angleton was such god friends with Helms; its because the two work together inside the DP and have the same goal - to prevent the penetration of the DP and its operations by hostile forces. 

And of course it would be both of interest to the CI (inside the DP) and the Office of Security to make sure the DP itself was not penetrated. If the DP was penetrated, then it was not only an issue for Angletons CI, but also the primary security office in the CIA - the Office of Security. Hence the close relationship between the Office of Security and the CI. If there was a mole in the Soviet Russia division inside the DP it would be of interest not only to CI but also to the Office of Security 

Do you think that assessment is right? - that CI was only interested in penetration of the DP and its operations while the Office of Security was concerned with penetration of the CIA as a whole? 

[Bob Ness]

9 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

When I first looked at that diagram by Victor Marchetti, I thought the "Counterintelligence Staff" in the Directorate of Plans (DP) was some separate counterintelligence (CI) division the DP had much like the Navy and Army have their own CI departments to stop penetrations into their own organizations. However when i then looked at Marchettis diagram as a whole there is no sign of any other CI department in the CIA which leads me to think Marchetti is saying the "Counterintelligence staff" in the DP is the CIAs CI department and the one which Angleton was the chief. So this would mean that the CIAs CI was inside the DP. 

Recently Dan Alcorn of the ARRC explained that the Office of Security was set up when the CIA was first set up and then a few years later they decided to set up the CI department which Angleton was made head of. He states this in the context of the LHO mole hunt and explains that because the Office of Security was the primary security office in the CIA (it had been the first one set up) and the CI department was a secondary security office (it had been set up a few years after the CIA had been set up), that this is why Angleton is answering to the Office of Security regarding the handling of LHOs file while LHO was still in the USSR. 

Here is Alcorns explanation for anyone interested (5 minutes to 7 minutes in on the video). He explains how the Office of Security is the primary security office while the CI department is the secondary security office (but he does not specifically say what the role of the CI department is vs the Office of Security, in other words why there is a primary and secondary security office inside of just one):

 

Alcorns explanation leads me to interpret the following:

• The Office of Security: Morley has described the Office of Security as being like the police force inside the CIA and responsible for such things as making sure offices are locked at night and files have been properly shredded etc. Alcorns explanation leads me to interpret that the Office of Security was also responsible for penetrations of the CIA as a whole.
• The Counterintelligence Department (Headed by Angleton): Alcorns explanation leads me to interpret that while the Office of Security was responsible for penetrations of the CIA as a whole, the CI department (headed by Angleton and located inside the DP) maybe was responsible only for penetrations of the DP and its operations. And of course seeing how the DP is such a major body within the CIA this is why we always hear so much about its CI department (and its head Angleton). Because CI is in the DP, this would explain why Angleton was such god friends with Helms; its because the two work together inside the DP and have the same goal - to prevent the penetration of the DP and its operations by hostile forces. 

And of course it would be both of interest to the CI (inside the DP) and the Office of Security to make sure the DP itself was not penetrated. If the DP was penetrated, then it was not only an issue for Angletons CI, but also the primary security office in the CIA - the Office of Security. Hence the close relationship between the Office of Security and the CI. If there was a mole in the Soviet Russia division inside the DP it would be of interest not only to CI but also to the Office of Security 

Do you think that assessment is right? - that CI was only interested in penetration of the DP and its operations while the Office of Security was concerned with penetration of the CIA as a whole? 

I'm traveling and in LA right now but a couple quick thoughts.

I think your assessment of the Office of Security being like the CIA cops is pretty close. I believe there's overlap domestically with CI but the CIAs limitation regarding domestic operations could only be performed on internal concerns by the OoS otherwise it's the FBIs turf. In other words CI would cover foreign based operations in the IC, military, civilian and diplomatic realm and OoS would be primarily limited to the agency, both domestic and foreign.

I'll scratch my head a bit on this but I can't get  into much more detail until I get to a computer with some time.

[Gerry Down]

1 hour ago, Bob Ness said:

I'm traveling and in LA right now but a couple quick thoughts.

I think your assessment of the Office of Security being like the CIA cops is pretty close. I believe there's overlap domestically with CI but the CIAs limitation regarding domestic operations could only be performed on internal concerns by the OoS otherwise it's the FBIs turf. In other words CI would cover foreign based operations in the IC, military, civilian and diplomatic realm and OoS would be primarily limited to the agency, both domestic and foreign.

I'll scratch my head a bit on this but I can't get  into much more detail until I get to a computer with some time.

So you are suggesting that OoS would be responsible for making sure offices were locked and files properly shredded at Langley while CI would be responsible for these tasks at foreign US embassies where CIA agents would be operating out of.

This reminds me of the week long mole hunt investigation that was conducted at the Mexico city station in early Oct 1963 which if I remember correctly was headed by Angleton. So I guess Angleton was conducting this mole hunt in Mexico city and reporting back to the OoS on any developments. The OoS being the primary security office. Though I guess the possibility exists that the CI did this mole hunt all on its own.

[Gerry Down]

On 4/17/2023 at 3:41 AM, David Boylan said:

A partial Org Chart

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=229936#relPageId=2

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=57860#relPageId=2&search=jmwave_org chart

Thanks. The diagram in the second link has something called "Staff Elements" below the level of the DDP. I wonder if these are different than the "Staff Level Units" Newman talks about being above the level of DDP. 

I guess that diagram, if it was provided by the CIA, and Marchettis diagram would have to take precidence over Newman even though it's hard to see how Newman could have got the layout wrong considering his experience at reading CIA documents and thus being able to interpret the internal structure of the CIA from those documents.

[Pete Mellor]

11 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

If there was a mole in the Soviet Russia division inside the DP it would be of interest not only to CI but also to the Office of Security 

Gerry, The MUST read on this is Newman's 'Uncovering Popov's Mole'.  It explains EVERYTHING.

[Bob Ness]

6 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

So you are suggesting that OoS would be responsible for making sure offices were locked and files properly shredded at Langley while CI would be responsible for these tasks at foreign US embassies where CIA agents would be operating out of.

This reminds me of the week long mole hunt investigation that was conducted at the Mexico city station in early Oct 1963 which if I remember correctly was headed by Angleton. So I guess Angleton was conducting this mole hunt in Mexico city and reporting back to the OoS on any developments. The OoS being the primary security office. Though I guess the possibility exists that the CI did this mole hunt all on its own.

In theory the CIA is not supposed to operate domestically other than it's own internal investigations which is carved out due to the need to compartment their operations. I believe OoS fulfilled that role. IE when Frank Olson went off the reservation because of his objection to CIA programs OoS chucked him out the window, or so the theory goes.

[Chuck Schwartz]

There are organizational and character maps  relating to the JFKA in " Coup in Dallas" - see pages 566 to 569.  The credit for them goes to Pete Sattler.