In early April 2025, In-Q-Tel announced its 800th investment since the CIA venture capital arm’s founding in 1999, marking a major expansion of intelligence community financial entanglement with private technology companies. The milestone investment came as In-Q-Tel broadened its focus beyond …
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By 2008, the Bush administration had privatized 70% of the intelligence budget to private contractors, creating a ‘shadow intelligence community’ with unprecedented corporate access to classified information. Associate DNI Ronald Sanders confirmed that 37,000 ‘core’ …
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Marsh & McLennan acquired Kroll Inc. for $1.9 billion in July 2004, absorbing the ‘private CIA’ into a major insurance conglomerate. The acquisition represented the full corporatization of intelligence capabilities, with Kroll’s 3,000 employees in 65 offices worldwide …
In September 1999, the Central Intelligence Agency established In-Q-Tel (IQT), a groundbreaking not-for-profit venture capital firm designed to bridge Silicon Valley innovation with intelligence community needs. The initiative was championed by CIA Director George Tenet, who recognized that …
Central Intelligence AgencyGeorge TenetGilman LouieNorman AugustineIn-Q-Telciain-q-telintelligence-privatizationsurveillance-infrastructureventure-capital
The U.S. Senate voted 82-to-4 on January 27, 1975 to form the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Senator Frank Church of Idaho. Created after Seymour Hersh’s December 1974 NYT revelations about CIA assassination attempts, the …
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Jules Kroll launches Kroll Associates in New York, building a pioneering commercial model for corporate investigations and risk consulting. Kroll recruited many former government investigators from intelligence agencies like the CIA, FBI, Mossad, and MI5. The firm became known as the “CIA of …