CIA or FBI?

[valerief]

I hope someone can answer this for me.

I have a story set in 1961. A subplot involves a U.S. agent who goes to Mexico, because he suspects he'll find an elusive German spy who spied on the Allies during WWII. This spy is an American, and he wants to arrest her. Or detain her so she'll be arrested.

Would the agent be FBI or CIA? FBI is domestic but they're enforcement. CIA is international but they're intelligence.

Please don't tell me I'm stupid for not knowing this. I know I'm stupid. Thanks.

[Skittles]

1. I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DON'T KNOW THAT

OK I don't either but you sure as f*** should, valerief

[valerief]

2. Arrrgh! Maybe I should just make up an agency. What the hell. nt

[MissB]

3. FBI doesn't have arrest powers outside US.

They can operate outside US but it has to be within the other country's laws. CIA can operate outside US but I don't know for sure if they can arrest or not. FBI can't.

[MissB]

4. And CIA doesn't arrest

As it is only considered an investigative agency not an enforcement agency.

Consider having the FBI agent lure the person to a US territory. Is an embassy considered American soil?

[valerief]

5. Thanks. Hell, it seems spies can't get arrested! Unless the spy is arrested for

some whatever charge in Mexico and then extradited to the U.S.

[malthaussen]

6. Scotland Yard

It's probably neither. However, FBI is a criminal enforcement agency, so they could probably concoct some excuse (long-distance pursuit, maybe?) to arrest the woman. Although I really expect they'd just kill her.

If the alleged crime took place in the US, the FBI would be within it's jurisdiction to pursue outside the borders, I should think.

-- Mal

[valerief]

10. Yes, I found on the fbi page they can.

What authority do FBI special agents have to make arrests in the United States, its territories, or on foreign soil?

In the U.S. and its territories, FBI special agents may make arrests for any federal offense committed in their presence or when they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed, or is committing, a felony violation of U.S. laws. On foreign soil, FBI special agents generally do not have authority to make arrests except in certain cases where, with the consent of the host country, Congress has granted the FBI extraterritorial jurisdiction.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/faqs

[dmr]

14. The next question is: when did Congress grant

the extraterritorial jurisdiction power?

I'm not sure, but after watching one of those FBI docudramas on TV, I got the impression they didn't always have this power. I could be wrong. It's worth checking it out.

Wasn't there an organized group hunting down Nazis?

Your story sounds interesting. Are you writing a novel? Will we get to read it? Hope so.

My best to you.

[valerief]

18. Yes, I write novels but they're not very good (although they've gotten better over the last decade).

I'm sure it won't be worth reading. It's just fun writing.

I'm doing the final edits on my last novel and will give Kindle Scout a chance. Rejection is fine. I can always self-publish.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

7. Was the target of the crime a civilian or military organization?

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was founded in October of 1961. Might make an interesting tie-in to the story.

[valerief]

9. Interesting about the DIA. In my story (not a spy novel at all), the WWII spy would have

spied against the Americans/Allies to give info to Germany, so military, I guess.

I may just have him describe himself as a U.S. agent and use the local authorities to detain the spy. I don't need to go beyond that, since my story is about someone not involved in spying at all.

Thanks.

[fizzgig]

11. i would guess they'd get the federales involved

but i'm guessing it would go through cia rather than fbi. i am, however, pulling this out of an orifice.

[NightWatcher]

12. Have him be an agent of the OSS

The Office of Strategic Services was the forerunner of the CIA.

"Some people" think they left a few agents active and allowed the former agency to operate in the dark after the formation of the CIA.

Traditionally, there were some agents of the formal CIA that hunted Nazis in foreign lands in conjunction with (and sometimes without) the assistance and knowledge of other countries where they were doing the hunting.

[jmowreader]

22. OSS was disbanded in 1945

The OSS Wiki page describes what happened to the OSS agents after that agency was dissolved; they didn't "leave a few agents active" but rather split the organization into an intelligence-gathering arm and a direct-action arm. One of those agencies would be okay to use.

[irisblue]

13. I like the OSS angle/Nazi Hunter

I would bet that there were OSS agents dispatched after the war officially ended, to retrieve spies and enemies of the Allies. Does the subplot character have to be a US agent? Could they be working with Elliot Wells and the B'nai B'rith? They were active during that time.
and you are not stupid.

[Generic Brad]

15. Puppy, the Bounty Hunter

Dog was pretty young in 1961.

[lastlib]

16. (only in human years........)

[madinmaryland]

17. Huh? Cooking Institute of America or Food and Beverage Institute?

[olddots]

19. come on ........

This would be U.N.C.L.E. and who knows what that stands for ?????

[lovemydog]

20. I'd suggest having him deputized, or authorized to have local authorities

make the arrest. I see that you said a similar thing in another post on this thread. Just wanted to say that's what I'd suggest too.

[jmowreader]

21. Put your US officer in the Army Intelligence Agency

The Army used to have two intelligence arms: the Army Intelligence Agency (AIA), which did all intelligence work that was not signals intelligence or signals security, and the Army Security Agency (ASA), which did the two disciplines the AIA didn't do.

Richard Nixon used the ASA to tap the phones at the Watergate, and in the fallout of the Nixon Administration the Army was ordered to roll the ASA and AIA into the Army Intelligence and Security Command so that the SIGINTers would have adult supervision. (If you'd like to see a good and true tale of off-duty life in any ASA Field Station, break out your copy of National Lampoon's Animal House.)

Since no one living today who wasn't in Army Intelligence knows about the AIA, you can pretty much have your officer do anything you want him to.

[Fearless]

23. Who's asking??