Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981

Executive Order 12333, signed on December 4, 1981 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was an

Executive Order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

intended to extend powers and responsibilities of U.S. intelligence agencies and direct the leaders of U.S. federal agencies to co-operate fully with

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

requests for information.Ronald Reagan
"Executive Order 12333—United States Intelligence Activities,"
''US Federal Register,'' Dec. 4, 1981. This executive order was titled ''United States Intelligence Activities''. It was amended by Executive Order 13355: Strengthened Management of the Intelligence Community, on August 27, 2004. On July 30, 2008, President George W. Bush issued

Executive Order 13470 Executive Order 13470 was issued by U.S. President President Bush on July 30, 2008. It amended Executive Order 12333 to strengthen the role of the Director of National Intelligence. See also *Executive order *List of United States federal e ...

amending Executive Order 12333 to strengthen the role of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

Part 1

"Goals, Direction, Duties and Responsibilities with Respect to the National Intelligence Effort" lays out roles for various intelligence agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Energy, State, and Treasury.

Part 2

"Conduct of Intelligence Activities" provides guidelines for actions of intelligence agencies.

Collection of Information

Part 2.3 permits collection, retention and dissemination of the following types of information along with several others.

Proscription on assassination

Part 2.11 of this executive order reiterates a proscription on US intelligence agencies sponsoring or carrying out an assassination. It reads:

No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.

Previously, EO 11905 (Gerald Ford) had banned political assassinations and EO 12036 (Jimmy Carter) had further banned indirect U.S. involvement in assassinations. As early as 1998, this proscription against assassination was reinterpreted, and relaxed, for targets who are classified by the United States as connected to terrorism.

Impact

Executive Order 12333 has been regarded by the American intelligence community as a fundamental document authorizing the expansion of data collection activities.Spencer Ackerman
"NSA Reformers Dismayed after Privacy Board Vindicates Surveillance Dragnet: Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Endorses Agency's So-called '702' Powers, Plus Backdoor Searches of Americans' Information"
'

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' (London), July 2, 2014. The document has been employed by the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collect ...

as legal authorization for its collection of unencrypted information flowing through the data centers of internet communications giants

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

and

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

. In July 2014 chairman David Medine and two other members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a government oversight agency, indicated a desire to review Executive Order 12333 in the near future, according to a report by journalist Spencer Ackerman of ''

''. In July 2014, former State Department official John Tye published an editorial in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', citing his prior access to classified material on intelligence-gathering activities under Executive Order 12333, and arguing that the order represented a significant threat to Americans' privacy and civil liberties. In April 2021, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board published the results of its six-year review of EO 12333. A letter from two senators has been partly declassified.

References

External links

Metadata concerning Executive Order 12333
'' US Federal Register'' – indicates other executive orders that this E.O. amends, revokes, and is amended by.
Executive Order 12333 Documents Redefine 'Collection,' Authorize Majority Of Dragnet Surveillance Programs
Techdirt, 2014/09/29

''

Milnet In computer networking, MILNET (fully Military Network) was the name given to the part of the ARPANET internetwork designated for unclassified United States Department of Defense traffic.DEFENSE DATA NETWORK NEWSLETTEDDN-NEWS 26 6 May 1983 MILNE ...

'' – (a 5k summary of eo12333)
Executive Order 13355: Strengthened Management of the Intelligence Community
''

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

'', August 27, 2004.
Executive Order 13355: Strengthened Management of the Intelligence Community
'' US Federal Register'', September 1, 2004.
Procedures Governing the Activities of DoD Intelligence Components that Affect United States Persons
December 1982.

''

'', September 29, 2005. * * * * * {{US Intelligence Reform Attempts 1947-2005 1981 establishments in the United States 1981 in law 12333 American intelligence gathering law