FUSION CENTERS.Fusion centers are interdisciplinary and intera-
gency units established to address specific intelligence issues. The
first fusion center was the Counterterrorism Center(CTC), set up
in 1986 to bring together government assets to combat international
terrorism. Successive directors of central intelligence (DCIs) since
then have established nearly a dozen fusion centers focusing on such
issues as nonproliferation, counter narcotics, counterintelligence,
the environment, arms control, and the like. Some of the centers are
analytic, in that they focus on producing intelligence assessments.
Others are operational, engaged in designing and conducting opera-
tions against targets. Although personnel from relevant intelligence
community (IC) agencies staff the centers, most are located within
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and rely on CIAinformation
and beneficence for their activities. See alsoARMS CONTROLIN-
TELLIGENCE STAFF; COUNTERINTELLIGENCE CENTER;
DCI CRIME AND NARCOTICS CENTER; DCI ENVIRONMEN-
TALCENTER; DCI NONPROLIFERATION CENTER.– G –
GATES, ROBERT M. (1943– ). Fifteenth director of central intelli-
gence (DCI), serving between 6 November 1991 and 20 January- Robert M. Gates, the first DCI from the analytic ranks of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and an expert on the Soviet
Union, assumed office at a time of great change in global politics. Fol-
lowing DCI William J. Casey’s resignation in 1987, President
Ronald Reaganhad nominated Gates as DCI, but questions about his
role as Casey’s deputy in the Iran-Contra Affairforced Gates to
withdraw his nomination. Four years later, President George H. W.
Bushagain nominated Gates, to succeed DCI William H. Webster.
This time, Gates faced charges that he had politicized intelligence es-
timates to conform more closely to his own worldviews and to those
of the Republican president he had served. After committing himself
to unbiased and objective intelligence analysis and to a more forward-
looking and open CIA, Gates received the Senate’s confirmation.
DCI Gates realized that the CIAneeded to prove itself to an Ameri-
can public that now questioned both its necessity and its highly secre-
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