Fascinating Insider Details About The FBI And The CIA
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency are two of the most top-secret organizations in the country. Understandably, they are extremely tight-lipped about what goes on behind their closed doors and what it’s like to work there. Being an FBI or CIA agent is not your average job; that’s for sure. But even though these organizations are notoriously secretive about their operations, we do know a few insider secrets. Celebrity informants, mind reading, and top-secret coffee shops, anyone?
1. The FBI probably has your prints
Even if you've never committed a crime, it's possible that the FBI has a copy of your fingerprints. After all, its Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System holds at least 70 million sets of prints belonging to criminals, 73,000 prints belonging to potential terrorists, and a massive 31 million prints belonging to regular civilians. Biometrics can come from all over the world, too. The FBI can also identify your prints in as little as 12 minutes.
2. A celebrity anti-communist informant
In 1993 The New York Times claimed that Walt Disney served as an informant for the FBI for the last 26 years of his life. The paper said Disney would report on suspected Communists operating in Hollywood. And Disney was apparently pretty good at this job, as in 1954 he was reportedly named a full Special Agent in Charge Contact. In 1947 Uncle Walt also named names before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
3. A likely story
In 2013, after years of speculation, the CIA released a map and documents that confirmed the existence of a site 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas known as Area 51. The documents revealed that the area was a testing site for aerial surveillance programs, such as U-2 and OXCART. The U-2 program had been part of the government's international surveillance during the Cold War. But, come on, we all know what they're really keeping in Area 51...
4. It took a long time for the FBI to go digital
While you'd think the country's top law enforcement agency would be constantly adapting to the latest technology, the FBI continued to rely on paper files to track its thousands of cases up until 2012. But it wasn't for lack of trying. The agency was widely criticized for missing potential leads before 9/11 and a plan to go digital was swiftly put into place. But then the system called "Virtual Case File" was abandoned in 2005 — after $170 million in costs. A new system called Sentinel began development in 2006... and suffered major cost and technical issues before finally going online in 2012. The total spend? $451 million.
