SHIELD
Contents
First Appearance
Details
Back in the early eighties, there was a real backlash following the Pike and the Church commissions, that involved the illegal use of both the FBI and the CIA in domestic spying and inititatives by the executives. On top of that, the NSA had been tied into improper disbursement of intelligence materials to other agencies. It was refered to as the 'Alphabet Soup' scandal, because of the acronyms of the agencies.
President Reagan, who would later face charges of using CIA contacts to illegally fund anti-communist terrorists, would follow through on the extensive recommendations of the Ford and Carter administrations and reordered and revised the roles of all the agencies with oversight.
Since at the time, the development of things like the internet, the first big computerized databases for information and transcripts were coming into Washington and these agencies. For the first time, that information became electronically transmitted and stored in early databases. The NSA in specific was largely involved in computer indexing from their inception. President Reagan, with his own priorities with the Cold War, decided that he wanted an agency that can provide revelent, contrasted, unfiltered data directly to the White House and a select group of lawmakers.
SHIELD was formed in 1983. It's existance is highly classified, known only to the executive and a limited five man oversight committee from the House. Shield's original mandate was simple; it had priority access to intelligence resources, both raw and analyzed, that superseeded all other agencies authority. There wasn't an agency or intelligence structure in the US that was permitted to withhold information or assets to SHIELD. For the first ten years, SHIELD was something of a joke. It was primarily staffed with technical weenies and analysts. However, it showed itself to have the ability to big picture intelligence information, tracing the wide range of issues and crisis through overlapping agency territory. It was also used as a dumping ground for personnel who were considered either too disruptive or unorthedox for their respective agencies.
Following the first Gulf War, President Bush appointed newly minted General Nick Fury to the head of SHIELD. Fury, an incredibly effective but very unconventional commander of special forces units during the war, had officially topped out with his promotion, and his views and actions had left him no room for advancement. Bush appointed him as a sort of farewell hollow honour.
Much like how the Secret Service went from solely an anticounterfitting squad to the primary protective detail of the Presidency, SHIELD grew by accident. Their original charter had given them first authority over other agencies. It was meant to just be data, but hadn't been defined as such. Fury, realising this, and having one of the most multidisciplinary staffs of any agency, began to do fieldwork. He was smart enough to not try to do what the CIA or the FBI already could. What he did was do that next step, where the other agencies' limitations and bureaucracy prevented them from doing. Because the chain of command and oversight was so incredibly short, Fury was able to push the envelope as he saw fit. Still, if it hadn't have been for a series of spectacular but classified successes in the early ninties, he likely would have been removed.
Since then, SHIELD has grown into a larger yet still mostly classified organization. Like the CIA, it's operating budget is classified and not released to the public. It also hides funding through multiple other departments. It has the authorization to work both inside and outside the United States, and when they respond, they have the authority to assume command of a scene. The only place they don't automatically have that authority is in situations involved the US military, but they do hold the same intelligence oversight with military intelligence.
There are three main branches of SHIELD. The intelligence gathering and analysis section, which is by far the largest. They communicate and share information with groups like STRIKE, Britian's version of SHIELD. There is an operations section, which are agents in the field and response team. Typically, SHIELD keeps a very low profile on the operations side, working with local and national groups in an oversight capacity. However, as said, due to the nature of the agency, they have the ability to respond very quickly. Finally, there's the research and development side. SHIELD sponsers a lot of R&D, as well as often seizing that of other countries and agencies. When President McKenna ordered the complete disbanding of all secret mutant testing, most of that information ended up in the hands of SHIELD.
SHIELD has been developing a series of programs designed to respond to the growing number of mutants in the world. In their minds, eventually China or Russia is going to start weaponizing mutants, and they need to capacity to respond. These programs could include technological research from groups like Stark and Shaw, genetic research, and mutant recruitment and training. The programs are known to the President and the oversight committee, but they are classified so not open to the public. Most of this is currently housed in Triskalion, SHIELD's headquarters and R&D centre in New York.
