# CIA directorates

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "CIA directorates," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-directorates/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The four-part internal division of the CIA as John Kiriakou describes it to lay audiences — the Directorate of Intelligence that analyses, the Directorate of Operations that recruits spies and steals secrets, the administrative arm that makes the trains run on time, and the Directorate of Science and Technology that supplies the scientists, forgers and disguise makers — the structure that determines which training a new officer receives.*

- **Directorate of Intelligence:** The analytical arm; writing training
- **Directorate of Operations:** 'Out there actually recruiting spies to steal secrets'
- **Administration:** 'The ones that make the trains run on time' — accountants, logistics
- **Science and Technology:** 'The scientists, the forgers, the disguise makers'
- **Why it matters:** Which directorate you enter determines the training you get

The **CIA directorates** are the four internal divisions [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) uses when explaining to general audiences that there is no single job called working at the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia). Which one an officer enters, he says, decides what training follows.[1]

The Directorate of Intelligence is the analytical arm. The Directorate of Operations is the side *"out there actually recruiting spies to steal secrets."* Administration is the third — *"they're the ones that make the trains run on time, the accountants, the logistics people."* The fourth is the Directorate of Science and Technology, which he glosses as *"the scientists, the the forgers, the disguise makers."*[1][2]

His own path ran across the line. He started in the Directorate of Intelligence and went through all of its writing training, then after seven and a half years made what was at the time a very unusual move to counterterrorism operations.[2] Because half his career was already behind him, he was spared the introductory syllabus — *"what we used to call CIA 101"* — and went directly into defensive driving, then counterterrorist driving, then the accelerated version of the operations course that teaches the step-by-step of recruiting spies and stealing secrets.[3][4]

## See also

- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [CIA Training Doctrine](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-training-doctrine)
- [Kiriakou's transfer to the Directorate of Operations](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-transfer-to-operations)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. REVEALS the Dark Reality of Intel Ops (2026-06-08), at 03:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5osl-M9do&t=189s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-the-sharpe-exchange-reveals-the-dark-reality-of-intel-ops/
2. REVEALS the Dark Reality of Intel Ops (2026-06-08), at 03:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5osl-M9do&t=219s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-the-sharpe-exchange-reveals-the-dark-reality-of-intel-ops/
3. REVEALS the Dark Reality of Intel Ops (2026-06-08), at 04:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5osl-M9do&t=251s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-the-sharpe-exchange-reveals-the-dark-reality-of-intel-ops/
4. REVEALS the Dark Reality of Intel Ops (2026-06-08), at 04:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5osl-M9do&t=283s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-the-sharpe-exchange-reveals-the-dark-reality-of-intel-ops/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-directorates/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt