-
First US woman intelligence agency chief appointed
The US government has appointed its first female chief of a major intelligence bureau, with Letitia Long taking over Monday as director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
The NGA is responsible for collecting and analyzing information from satellite imagery and works with the Pentagon and other departments on defense issues, homeland security, and navigation safety. It's motto is "Know the Earth, shows the way."
Part of its mission is to support combat operations by providing timely Geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, to soldiers and officers on the battlefield or in theater.
Long has spent more than three decades in military and intelligence fields, beginning her career in the US Navy in 1978.
Prior to her appointment, Long served from 2006 until July 2010 as deputy director of the larger Defense Intelligence Agency, which specializes in military intelligence-gathering abroad, and before that as deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
An engineer by training, she was also number two in US Naval Intelligence and worked for the CIA director.
According to statistics from the office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the country's largest spy agencies, women represent 38 percent of staff employed by the intelligence community.
