# The Directorate of Intelligence > **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: "The Directorate of Intelligence," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-intelligence/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The CIA's analytic cadre, where John Kiriakou spent the first seven years of his career working on Iraq before switching to operations, a culture he describes as convinced it holds the smartest people in the room, and whose function he says is duplicated across a dozen other agencies.* - **Abbreviation:** DI - **Function:** Analysis; the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)'s analytic cadre - **Kiriakou's service:** Seven years, Iraq account - **One of:** The CIA's four directorates The **Directorate of Intelligence**, or DI, is the CIA's analytic arm and one of its four directorates, alongside Operations, [Science and Technology](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-science-and-technology) and Administration.[1] [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) entered it on joining the CIA and describes it plainly as *"the analytic cadre of the agency."*[2] He had multiple offers on entry, two offices in the Directorate of Intelligence and one elsewhere, and chose analysis first because he was a Middle East specialist, spending seven years on the Iraq account before switching to counterterrorism operations.[3] ## The culture Kiriakou's characterisation of the directorate is affectionate but pointed. Analysts, he says, believe *"that they're always the smartest people in the room. And most of the time, frankly, they're not."*[4] The contrast with the Directorate of Operations, where he later worked, is one he draws repeatedly: the two halves of the agency have wildly different cultures. Movement between the DI and the wider intelligence community was routine in his time, he describes liaising with the National Reconnaissance Office and NRO analysts transferring across into the Directorate of Intelligence.[5] ## In the abolition argument That duplication is exactly what Kiriakou uses when arguing that the CIA should be [abolished](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abolish-the-cia). Other bodies, he says, do precisely what the Directorate of Intelligence does, DARPA and NSA and half a dozen Defense Department organisations among them, so the analytic function could be distributed rather than housed in one agency.[6][7] ## The long view, and what displaced it Kiriakou describes the analytic side as the part of the agency licensed to think past the week. *"This was one of the things that I enjoyed the most when I was serving in the Middle East as an analyst, because your job was to look at the long-term view. I was interested in, let's say, Saudi stability over the next 30 years. That's interesting to me. What's not interesting is what's going to happen in the next 24 hours in Sudan."*[8][9] His objection is that the short view has crowded the long one out, and that this makes the product redundant: the policymaker *"can get that information by reading the New York Times or Al Jazeera or the Washington Post. So the CIA is not adding anything to the body of intelligence."* The other half of the problem is that the collectors will not answer the analysts' questions at all, the case he cites being [the hot dog lady cable](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-hot-dog-lady-cable).[10][11] ## See also - [The Directorate of Science and Technology](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-science-and-technology) - [Abolish the CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abolish-the-cia) - [Targeting analyst](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/targeting-analyst) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-06), at 29:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK1t_d0FWLg&t=1743s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. Radio Liberty interview, 4-15-10, John Kiriakou (former (2019-06-19), at 05:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPfqguIwcqU&t=306s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-06-19-soundwaves-2000/ 3. S1E2 The New Recruit (2025-10-20), at 31:48. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/68f68334888566c5b0104f66/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-20-dead-drop-s1e2-the-new-recruit/ 4. The Scholars: John Kiriakou (2015-05-21), at 05:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfsdrNvEuL8&t=305s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-21-the-scholars-john-kiriakou/ 5. DeProgram (Ted Rall) (2025-11-21), at 37:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uyLgnRHjk4&t=2271s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-21-deprogram-ted-rall-deprogram-ted-rall/ 6. Favorite CIA Work, NATO Espionage, Is Privacy Dead? & More I Going Deeper with JK - DEEP FOCUS (2026-02-10), at 19:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL3hLxeEA1E&t=1140s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-10-deep-focus-favorite-cia-work-nato-espionage-privacy/ 7. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou EXPOSES Truths About 911, JFK, and Middle East! (2025-09-11), at 1:33:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fOKjdGGHQ4&t=5635s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-11-wisenuts-cia-whistleblower-john-kiriakou-exposes-truths-about-911-jfk/ 8. Charlie Kirk's Story Cracks — Hegseth (2025-12-09), at 18:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2Sh1zpgfU&t=1105s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-09-dialogue-works-charlie-kirk-s-story-cracks-hegseth/ 9. Charlie Kirk's Story Cracks — Hegseth (2025-12-09), at 18:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2Sh1zpgfU&t=1135s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-09-dialogue-works-charlie-kirk-s-story-cracks-hegseth/ 10. Charlie Kirk's Story Cracks — Hegseth (2025-12-09), at 19:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2Sh1zpgfU&t=1167s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-09-dialogue-works-charlie-kirk-s-story-cracks-hegseth/ 11. Charlie Kirk's Story Cracks — Hegseth (2025-12-09), at 23:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2Sh1zpgfU&t=1417s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-09-dialogue-works-charlie-kirk-s-story-cracks-hegseth/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/directorate-of-intelligence/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt