Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

force contracts spanning 145 launches. CORONAcameras were de-

veloped by Itekand used Eastman Kodak film. Resolution in early

flight years was in the range of 35 to 40 feet. By 1972, CORONAde-

livered resolutions of 6 to 10 feet.

The CORONA program ended with a launch on 25 May 1972.

President William J. Clintonsigned an executive order on 22 Feb-

ruary 1995 directing the declassification of CORONA imagery as

well as its later iterations, ARGON and LANYARD. The order pro-

vided for the declassification of more than 860,000 images of the

earth’s surface, collected between 1960 and 1972.

Recently released national intelligence estimates(NIEs) reveal

that CORONA covered virtually all Soviet military developments

and provided superb verification capabilities for the Strategic Arms

Limitation Talks(SALT) I treaty, including its antiballistic missile

(ABM) provisions. It also allowed coverage of People’s Republic of

China(PRC) missile-launching sites.

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE (CI).Counterintelligence is the ana-

lytic and operational process of identifying and neutralizing foreign

intelligence activities against the United States. Counterintelligence

has three facets: the physical security of information, from guarding

buildings to compartmentinginformation on the “need to know” ba-

sis; identifying and catching American citizens who spy for foreign

governments; and identifying foreign agents working against U.S. in-

terests and either turning them into double agents or prosecuting

them for espionage. Although responsibility for counterintelligence

in the intelligence community (IC) is shared between the Federal

Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at home and the Central Intelligence

Agency (CIA) abroad, virtually all American intelligence elements

engage to some degree in counterintelligence activities. Congress has

also mandated that the IC work to identify and help American com-

panies neutralize industrial espionageperpetrated against them. See

also NATIONAL COUNTERINTELLIGENCE EXECUTIVE;

NEGATIVE INTELLIGENCE.

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE CENTER (CIC). Established on 1

April 1988 by William H. Webster, the director of central intelli-

gence (DCI), the CIC was the second fusion centercreated to bring

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE CENTER•41

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