Although the CIA had a high degree of independence, it still had to be responsible to the President, and besides, that was the purpose of their establishment from the beginning—to be responsible for helping the President make decisions.
It was just that after the Cold War, they took on quite a few more tasks—such as carrying out subversive operations abroad.
After the Cold War, the United States seized the opportunity to turn itself into an intelligence powerhouse, but the divisions between the various intelligence agencies were quite unclear, and the relationships between them were quite subtle.
There were over a dozen intelligence agencies in the United States, and while they were nominally managed by the Director of National Intelligence, in actual operation, they usually did their own thing, especially the CIA.
With the support of the Osborn company, Norman could certainly continue to incite wars, allowing his son and family to make plenty of money.
But war was clearly harmful to national development; the only ones who benefited were those members of the military-industrial complex.
And Harry didn't want to make that money, so the foreign policy had to change.
With Osborn's technology, the status of resources and energy had undergone a transformation, so seizing these things no longer held much significance. If they were to seize anything, it would be in outer space. Resource monopoly would be very difficult to achieve in the future; the key was technology and cultural aspects.
Therefore, the CIA had to be reorganized; this agency was truly notorious.
So Norman spoke up.
"I am going to reorganize the CIA. Hostile actions against other countries must cease. The times have changed."
Marion immediately jumped up: "No, Mr. President, the existence of the CIA is necessary. We..."
However, under Norman's gaze, she felt her confidence drain away and choked mid-sentence.
Norman rested his chin on his hands and said: "From any perspective, the existence of the CIA has caused this country to lose face. I have already signed the relevant executive orders, and the CIA will complete its reorganization with the help of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence."
"The mission of the CIA has ended, Director Marion."
Facing Norman's verdict, Marion opened her mouth.
What she cared about most was the CIA, and for its sake, she could even concoct excuses like, "In order for the vast majority of United States citizens to sleep well, they must do these dirty deeds," to comfort herself.
But when Norman nonchalantly spoke of its end, she felt as if her entire life had been negated.
It was like a piece of waste paper that had been used up and was gently tossed onto the ground.
Seeing her in this state, Norman smiled and continued:
"But thank you for the loyalty you have shown to the United States for so many years. Although the CIA is gone, there is another organization that needs you, Ms. Marion."
Hearing this, a spark of life returned to Marion's eyes.
Norman continued: "I intend to establish a department specifically responsible for outer space affairs. You will be incorporated into this department to be responsible for collecting intelligence regarding Alien affairs."
"Outer space?" Marion was stunned. She could say she was well-versed in gathering intelligence abroad, but Aliens?
"Yes, broaden your horizons. It is quite clear that those guys called S.H.I.E.L.D. have mastered quite a bit of this information, but they have never made it public. You can start with them."
With things put this way, Marion understood what he meant.
It meant having her first gather intelligence on S.H.I.E.L.D.
"And then, Mr. Raffi, I hope you can declassify the relevant details of the Prism Program."
Now it was Raffi's turn to be bewildered—although the Prism Program had been exposed, it hadn't stopped. Declassifying this program meant abandoning it?
The Prism Program appeared illegal, but in reality, within the framework of the Patriot Act, it didn't strictly violate the law.
Moreover, according to polls, although a large number of the public opposed the government collecting ordinary people's phone records, more people believed that this program had a certain necessity.
"We are cancelling the Prism Program and promoting ctOS," Norman said. "Use ctOS to replace wiretapping, building a transparent information network nationwide to prevent terrorist attacks and crime."
In reality, it was just changing wiretapping into blatant surveillance, and then narrowing the scope to the entire United States, no longer relying on multinational companies' products to wiretap foreign entities and powers.
Cancelling the Prism Program was the public's demand, and preventing terrorist attacks and reducing crime rates were also the public's demands.
Raffi thought for a moment and roughly understood what Norman meant.
He hesitated and asked: "But this will cause us to lose our intelligence advantage; it might not be a good thing for the country."
Norman handed all the documents that needed to be signed to his secretary, and then answered his question:
"Struggles between nations are no longer important, Director Raffi. You will see this soon, and it all depends on to what extent we can perform our work going forward."
Seeing that the meeting was about to end, Marion suddenly thought of a question:
"Mr. President, you said I would be responsible for the intelligence work of a department, so what is the name of this newly established department?"
Norman smiled and said: "S.H.I.E.L.D."
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