Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

tive culture. He therefore quickly established a multitude of intelligence

community (IC) and CIAtask forces to improve performance. These

included interagency task forces on imagery intelligence(IMINT) and

human intelligence (HUMINT) collection and national intelligence

estimates(NIEs) as well as on coordinationof various activities within

the IC. DCI Gates also set up CIAtask forces to expand human intelli-

gence capabilities, improve support for military operations, provide

near-real-time intelligence to senior policymakers, and raise the quality

of intelligence publications. In addition, he announced CIAtask forces

to improve internal communication, increase openness, and address

concerns about real or perceived politicized intelligence.

By February 1992, DCI Gates had already adopted many of the

proposals of his task forces. He took dramatic steps to make the CIA

more open to the public and the media, increased contacts with aca-

demia, and instituted a more extensive declassification program of

CIArecords.

GEHLEN ORGANIZATION. Named after General Reinhardt

Gehlen, who headed German army intelligence activities against the

Soviet Unionduring World War II. Gehlen had amassed enormous

amounts of documentary information about the Soviet Union, which

he volunteered to turn over to the United States after the war, pro-

viding he and his colleagues were not prosecuted as part of the

denazification process. In fact, Gehlen successfully negotiated with

the Americans to allow him and his staff—known as the Gehlen

Organization—to continue intelligence activities against the Soviets.

At its zenith, the Gehlen Organization employed over 4,000 people,

mainly former army and SSofficers, and had nearly that many agents

inside the USSR. Western intelligence services, however, believed

the Gehlen Organization to be thoroughly penetrated by Soviet intel-

ligence. Yet, Gehlen participated in Operation Gold, the Berlin tun-

nel caper in 1956. That year, West Germany’s new intelligence or-

ganization, the BND (Bundesnachrichttendienst), absorbed the

Gehlen Organization, with Gehlen remaining chief of the BND until

his retirement in 1968. See alsoWISNER, FRANK G.

GENERAL DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM (GDIP).The

GDIPis an intelligence budget specifically funding the activities of

GENERAL DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM•79

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