WASHINGTON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is planning to create new units in a series of reorganizations, aiming to "cover the entire universe" amid modern threats and crises, CIA Director John Brennan said Friday.
Announcing the restructuring to the 67-years-old agency Friday, Brennan said the move comes after nine outside experts spent three months analyzing the agency's management structure, including what CIA deputy director David Cohen called "pain points", organizational areas where the CIA's bureaucracy does not work efficiently.
Briefing reporters at CIA headquarters earlier this week, Brennan said officers will be reassigned to 10 newly created " mission centers," a move to concentrate the agency's focus on specific challenges or geographic areas, such as weapons proliferation or Africa.
"I know there are seams right now, but what we've tried to do with these mission centers is cover the entire universe, regionally and functionally, and so something that's going on in the world falls into one of those buckets," he told reporters.
"I've never seen a time when we have been confronted with such an array of very challenging, complex and serious threats to our national security, and issues that we have to grapple with," he said.
The CIA chief also noted that he is establishing a new " Directorate of Digital Innovation" to lead the agency's efforts to track and take advantage of advances in cyber technology.
Brennan said the new digital directorate will have equal status within the agency with four other directorates which have existed for years.
"Our ability to carry out our responsibilities for human intelligence and national security responsibilities has become more challenging" in today's digital world, Brennan said. "And so what we need to do as an agency is make sure we're able to understand all of the aspects of that digital environment."
Founded in 1947, the CIA consists of four major directorates. Two - the Directorate of Science and Technology, which among other activities invents spy gadgets, and the Directorate of Support, which handles administrative and logistical tasks - will retain their names.
The Directorate of Intelligence will be renamed "Directorate of Analysis" to reflect its function as the home of agency experts who collate and analyze information from secret and open sources, Brennan said.
The National Clandestine Service, home of front-line agency undercover "case officers", who recruit spies and conduct covert actions, will be renamed Directorate of Operations, which is used to be called in the agency's history.
The 10 new "mission centers" will bring together CIA officers with expertise from across the agency's range of disciplines to concentrate on specific intelligence target areas or subject matter, said the CIA chief.
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