1. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began operations on September 18, 1947.

2. The CIA’s primary mission is to collect, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence to assist the President and senior US government policymakers in making decisions relating to national security.

3. Its first covert operation occurred in 1947, influencing an Italian election to prevent Communists from gaining a foothold in the country.

4. The CIA budget is also classified, the most recent released figures of 1998 show a total budget of $26.7 billion (Dh98 billion).

5. They are forbidden to be directly or indirectly involved with assassination per Executive Order 12333 signed by President Reagan in 1981.

6. The only person capable of directing the CIA to conduct covert activities is the President of the United States.

7. They tried and failed numerous attempts on the life of Cuban leader Fidel Castro before the 1981 Executive Order, including planting bombs in his cigars.

8. They used a fake blood drive to gather intelligence before the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

9. The CIA has maintained some strong ties to the US media throughout the years, making many uneasy over their influence over the public. Though they use journalists abroad to gather intelligence on other countries, the Church Committee in 1976 revealed the CIA had been bribing journalists on the home front for years as well.

10. Sixteen known black sites — secret prisons run by the CIA on foreign soil — existed in Afghanistan, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Romania and Thailand.

11. Phoenix was a programme headed by the CIA, in conjunction with US Special Forces and Australian and South Vietnamese commandos, during the Vietnam War. Its purpose was assassination and although this was a military unit, their targets were civilian. From 1965 to 1972, Phoenix was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of thousands of citizens.

12. John F. Kennedy threatened to abolish the CIA and “scatter it to the winds” after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961.

13. The CIA once created fake pornography of Indonesian President Sukarno to discredit him among his people.

14. They helped train Afghanistan rebels in the late 1970s to fight the Soviet Union, many of whom would later form the backbone of Al Qaida.

— compiled by Rebecca Santhosh, intern at Gulf News