Counterintelligence Corps ( United States Army ) The Counter Intelligence Corps ( CIC ) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army . Its role was taken over by the U . S . Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and , in 1967 , by the U . S . Army Intelligence Agency . Its functions are now performed by the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command and by counterintelligence agents assigned to Army tactical units . The National Counter Intelligence Corps Association ( NCICA ) , a veterans ' association , was established in the years immediately following World War II by Military Intelligence agents who had served in every area of military and domestic operations . The organization meets annually . Its newsletter , the " Golden Sphinx " , is published quarterly . Origins . The CIC had its origins in the Corps of Intelligence Police founded by Ralph Van Deman in 1917 . This organization , operating within the USA and on attachment to the American Expeditionary Force in France , at its peak numbered over 600 men . However in the post - war period , the policy of isolationism , retrenchment of military spending and economic depression meant that by the mid - 1930s its numbers had fallen to fewer than 20 personnel . World War II . The looming threat of war in the late 1930s brought an expansion of the CIP back to its World War I levels , and the entry of the United States into World War II in December 1941 brought an even greater expansion , and a new name . On 13 December 1941 the Adjutant General of the Army issued an order renaming the CIP as the Counter Intelligence Corps , effective from 1 January 1942 . A new complement of 543 officers and 4 , 431 non - commissioned agents was authorized . The CIC recruited men with legal , police or other investigative backgrounds , and particularly looked for men with foreign language skills . Special CIC teams were created during WWII in Europe , in large part from the Military Intelligence Service personnel ( see Ritchie Boys ) . However there were never enough of these and local interpreters were often recruited . As most CIC agents in the field ( as well as Military Intelligence Service in Europe ) held only non - commissioned officer rank — corporals and various grades of sergeant — they wore either plain - clothes , or uniforms without badges of rank ; in place of rank insignia , and so as not to be perceived as privates , agents typically wore officer " U . S . " collar insignia . They were instructed to identify themselves only as " Agent " or " Special Agent " as appropriate , in order to facilitate their work . These practices continue among modern counterintelligence agents . Within the U . S . the CIC , in collaboration with the Provost Marshal General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) , carried out background checks on military personnel having access to classified material , investigations of possible sabotage and subversion , and allegations of disloyalty , especially those directed against Americans of Japanese , Italian or German ancestry . Despite the prohibitions in the delimitation agreement with the FBI , the CIC ended up devoting considerable effort to civilian investigations . As Volume 7 of " The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps " explains : " Espionage and sabotage , being enemy directed , involved more than one person . Usually there were a number in the chain extending from the agent in the United States back through cutouts and couriers to the enemy country . This inevitably involved civilians with military suspects and the case became connected with the FBI . The military aspect became minor , and major investigative effort was in the civilian community to locate the higher - ups who presumably were controlling more than one agent . " However the use of informants within the Army become politically controversial , and CIC was forced to curtail its activities . In particular , the CIC was ordered to cease its domestic investigations , to destroy its investigative records , and to ship its agents out to overseas theaters . The reason for this sudden and unprecedented expulsion has never been clarified . One leading theory was expressed in the official history of the Corps , “ the speed [ of these events ] left little doubt that someone — possibly Communists who still held key positions in government — was determined to halt CIC investigative activities in the United States . ” Another possible explanation is that the CIC mistakenly bugged the hotel room of Eleanor Roosevelt and incurred the President ’ s wrath . In any event , the CIC protected the investigative records it had so painstakingly accumulated . According to Sayer and Botting ( p . 47 ) “ When the command was given to cease any investigations of known or suspected Communists and destroy all files on such persons immediately , eight of the nine Corps Area Commanders took the remarkable step of disobeying this order . ” According to the official history of the Corps , this information proved highly valuable in controlling communism : “ the information acquired by CIC from May 1941 to September 1945 regarding communism and its adherents played a major part in keeping communism under control in the United States ever since . ” CIC units were also involved in providing security for the Manhattan Project , including duty as couriers of fissionable bomb materials from Los Alamos , New Mexico to Tinian . They also operated in 1945 at the United Nations Organizing Conference in San Francisco , over which Alger Hiss presided as secretary - general . Three years later , when Alger Hiss was accused of being a Communist and filed a libel suit against his accuser , his lawyers unwittingly hired an undercover CIC Special Agent as their Chief Investigator to help prepare his libel suit . In the European and Pacific theaters of operations CIC deployed detachments at all levels . These detachments provided tactical intelligence about the enemy from captured documents , interrogations of captured troops , and from para - military and civilian sources . They were also involved in providing security for military installations and staging areas , located enemy agents , and acted to counter stay - behind networks . They also provided training to combat units in security , censorship , the seizure of documents , and the dangers of booby traps . In some cases CIC agents found themselves acting as the " de facto " military government on the occupation of large towns before the arrival of Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories ( AMGOT ) officers . As the war in Europe came to a close , CIC were involved in the Operations Alsos , Paperclip and TICOM , searching for German personnel and research in atomic weapons , rockets and cryptography . Recruits after World War II included Klaus Barbie , also known as the ' Butcher from Lyon ' , a former Gestapo member and war criminal . Post - war operations . In the immediate post - war period , the CIC operated in the occupied countries , particularly Japan , Germany and Austria , countering the black market , and searching for and arresting notable members of the previous regime . Despite the problem of demobilization , with many experienced agents returning to civilian life , CIC became the leading intelligence organization in the American occupation zones , and very soon found themselves facing a new enemy in the emerging Cold War . The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 meant that CIC was once again involved in a military conflict , and it underwent a major expansion . However this proved to be CIC ' s last chance to enjoy resources and recruits . The proliferation of intelligence agencies had meant duplication of effort and disputes over responsibility , so in 1961 the CIC ceased to exist as an independent organization , as it was rolled into the Army ' s new Military Intelligence Branch . While serving in the U . S . Army in the 1960s , Christopher H . Pyle learned that “ Army intelligence had 1500 plain clothes agents watching every demonstration of 20 people or more throughout the United States . ” Pyle ’ s disclosures led to Congressional investigations and a crackdown on what was regarded as the Army ’ s investigative excesses . This ended what advocates regarded as the peak of counterintelligence efficiency : “ At the height of the disturbance period , a CIC agent could get a report from the street to Fort Holabird HQ in 20 minutes , from practically any city in the U . S . , seconds or brief minutes later the report was in Operations Center in a lower basement of the Pentagon . ” The " ratline " controversy . One of CIC ' s operations in post - war Europe was the operation of a " rat - line " – a conduit for spiriting informants and defectors out of the Soviet Zones of Occupation to safety in South America , via Italy , with false identities paid for by CIC . However in 1983 the arrest of former SS officer Klaus Barbie in Bolivia raised questions as to how the " Butcher of Lyon " had escaped . It was then revealed that Barbie had worked for CIC from 1947 , and in 1951 had been provided with the means of escape in return for his services as an agent and informant . A Department of Justice investigation also uncovered the CIC ' s dealings with Father Krunoslav Draganović , a Croatian cleric based in Rome , who while working for CIC , also operated his own clandestine rat - line to transport Ustaše war criminals to Latin America . A further report in 1988 also examined the CIC ' s use of Nazi war criminals and collaborators as informants in the years after World War II , " In June 1988 , Office of Special Investigations within the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice issued a public report which revealed that at least 14 suspected Nazi war criminals , a number of whom likely were involved in the murder of Jews in occupied Europe , had been employed as intelligence informants by the CIC in Austria " .