Weekly Online Lesson Online Lesson Archives Grade: 6-12 Subject: Government Studies/Geography

Can you keep a secret?

The CIA or United States Central Intelligence Agency made news amid allegations that they had used UN weapons inspections as a way to spy on Iraq's security forces. At first the CIA would only concede that intelligence regarding Sadaam Hussein was a "byproduct" of information gathered about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. Later the CIA admitted that intelligence agents had been placed as members of UNSCOM, the UN weapons inspection team, and that they had gathered intelligence independent of their work as arms inspectors.

For an agency dedicated to keeping secrets, you wouldn't expect to learn much about the CIA on the Internet. But visit the official CIA site on the World Wide Web and you'll be surprised by how much there is to know.

Everything that's not classified, that is . . .

Just the Facts

When you point your browser to the main URL of the CIA at www.cia.gov, you'll discover that the Central Intelligence Agency actually maintains six different Web sites, all of which are linked to the main page. Included are the Central Intelligence Agency site, Directorate of Intelligence site, Directorate of Science & Technology site, the Intelligence Community site, the The Center for the Study of Intelligence site, and the Freedom of Information Act site. In this activity you'll be paying a visit to the first of them, but feel free to go back and visit others later.

Central Intelligence Agency

When you follow the link to the Central Intelligence Agency you'll be reminded that you are entering an official site, and that you aren't allowed to tamper with anything. Yes, you are being monitored. Click at the bottom to go to the friendly CIA Welcome page with links to more resources.

Click the About the CIA link. You can learn more about the CIA here. And since you can't tour the CIA building (nobody can), the CIA has created a virtual tour you can take online—no security clearance necessary. You'll also have fun visiting the CIA Exhibit Center, with CIA artifacts throughout history.

Another site you can visit from the CIA Welcome page is the CIA's Home Page for Kids. Once the secret combination on the Kid's Zone safe is entered (automatically), click on the safe to enter the Kid's Secret Zone. Younger visitors can learn about the history of the CIA from Harry Recon: Aerial Photography Pigeon, or pay a visit to the CIA Canine Corps and print out the virtual badge of your favorite guard dog. Older kids may be more interested in following the History link to learn a little more about the famous (and not-so-famous) people of the CIA. Or click the Geography link to test your geography skills.

Directorate of Intelligence

The Directorate of Intelligence, the analytical arm of the CIA, has the job of providing accurate, timely, and objective analysis of intelligence. In short, their job is to figure out what it all means to the US. You can read all about the DI's mission and organization, find out about key events in its history, and learn about the DI's methods of intelligence analysis.

The World Factbook

Perhaps the best part of the Directorate of Intelligence site, and the most useful for students, is the 1997 World Factbook (the 1998 World Factbook was released on January 7th and will soon be available online).

The World Factbook, prepared by the Directorate of Intelligence, is a collection of "basic intelligence on all areas of the world." It was first published in August of 1962, and the first unclassified version was published in June of 1971, with sales through the US Government Printing Office.

The Factbook was written for use by US Government officials, but as a public domain document you are free to read and print any information you care to. To get right to the information, click Countries. The countries are listed alphabetically on the left. Click the country you want to find out about, and read the information in the frame on the right.

For example, scroll down to the country of Yemen (yes, there is a place called Yemen) on the right and click the link. On the right you will see the country's flag and a map, followed by information under these respective headings: Geography, People, Government, Economy, Communications, Transportation, Military, and Transnational Issues.

If you didn't know much about Yemen before, you'll be an expert by the time you finish reading about it in the World Factbook.

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