Q 01/05

The CIA's headquarters is in which Virginia community, whose name is shorthand for the agency itself?

A) Langley

B) Quantico

C) Arlington

D) Fort Meade

Answer · why

A) Langley

Fort Meade is the NSA's home and Quantico the FBI's academy; the CIA compound sits in unincorporated Fairfax County.

Q 02/05

The CIA was established by which 1947 law?

A) the Espionage Act

B) the National Security Act

C) the Central Intelligence Agency Act

D) the Smith Act

Answer · why

B) the National Security Act

The separate CIA Act of 1949 then exempted the agency from most congressional oversight.

Q 03/05

Which wartime organisation, abolished by Truman in 1945, was the CIA's predecessor?

A) the Office of Naval Intelligence

B) the Signal Intelligence Service

C) the Office of Strategic Services

D) the Bureau of Investigation

Answer · why

C) the Office of Strategic Services

Truman replaced it with the short-lived Central Intelligence Group in 1946 before creating the CIA a year later.

Q 04/05

Which 'Wild Bill' headed the OSS and drafted the plan for a US intelligence service modelled on MI6?

A) William Casey

B) William Colby

C) William Stephenson

D) William Donovan

Answer · why

D) William Donovan

Roosevelt first appointed him 'Coordinator of Information' in July 1941; the British officer Dick Ellis has been credited with writing the blueprint.

Q 05/05

Since 2004 the head of the CIA has reported to which official?

A) the Director of National Intelligence

B) the Secretary of Defense

C) the Attorney General

D) the National Security Adviser

Answer · why

A) the Director of National Intelligence

Before that reform the Director of Central Intelligence ran both the agency and the whole intelligence community.