I just thought of another pretty cool example. My area of focus is primarily centered around space program history, and I always loved this story, because this one was also a major coup for the CIA.
Back in the early 1960s, during the heart of the Cold War and as the "Space Race" was really ramping up, there were obviously plenty of questions within the USA about just how advanced the very secretive Soviet space program really was.
There were numerous "space exhibitions" held around the globe at this time, where different nations (primarily the USA and USSR obviously) would show off some of their space hardware to the world for publicity and propaganda reasons.
So, during one of these space exhibitions (held in Mexico City), the Soviets sent their brand new Lunik/Luna moon probe to the exhibition to show it off. Originally, the USA thought that this example the Soviets had sent was just a full scale model of the actual spacecraft, but were shocked to discover during the exhibition that this Soviet Luna probe was actually the real deal! It was a nearly complete and operational example of the actual spacecraft, missing just the engines and some of the electronics.
When the exhibition ended, the Soviets crated their Luna probe up to ship it onto the next exhibition destination. Unfortunately for them, shipping issues meant they had to leave the crated satellite aboard a truck for an extra day at a railyard until they could get it aboard a rail car and shipped out of country. That is when the CIA moved in.
The CIA actually managed to steal the shipping truck that the satellite was put on and sneak away with this unguarded Soviet Luna probe for a period of about 12 hours. Working in the back of the truck, a CIA science team very carefully unpacked the Soviet probe from its shipping crate, and then the CIA agents proceeded to even dismantle portions of it throughout the evening and night, photographing and measuring every part of the spacecraft very closely and gleaning every bit of info they could from it.
Then, they just as carefully put it all back together, gently returned it to its shipping crate (making sure to even use the same original crate screw holes and being careful to put it back exactly as they had found it), and drove it to the railway station the next morning, where it was then shipped out on schedule. The Soviets were apparently never the wiser.
This was also a major coup for the CIA obviously, because this kind of unfettered, nearly 12-hour's worth of access to a piece of the Soviet Union's highest technology of the day meant the USA was able to glean valuable data about just how good (or poor) the Soviet satellite tech really was. Even things like the satellite's serial numbers on different components allowed the CIA to estimate how many Luna satellites had actually been built by the USSR.
So, the CIA actually STOLE a Soviet satellite, dismantled and studied it, and then put it back together again without the USSR ever even knowing it!
Just as one example from the early 1960s, the CIA's covert acquisition of large amounts of titanium from the Soviet Union for use by Lockheed in their amazing mach 3+ A-12/SR-71 high-altitude spyplane was recognized as a pretty solid achievement when the US intelligence agency pulled it off.
The USA obviously did not want the USSR to know that they needed and were using this rare material for their most advanced spy plane (the structure of the SR-71 was comprised of roughly 85% titanium, and its precursor test bed, the A-12, was 93% titanium alloy).
The USA did have the ability to produce titanium of their own at that time, but due to their refining process, American titanium was usually "hydrogen embrittled", meaning that it would tend to shatter easily and was not as purely refined. The Soviet titanium was definitely superior, and the CIA managed to covertly acquire a significant amount of the metal from the USSR without the Soviets ever knowing what its true end purpose was. In order to covertly acquire the required titanium from the USSR, the CIA and Lockheed Skunk Works had to set up multiple "front" or "dummy" corporations (mostly in Europe) and use various 3rd parties to do the titanium purchasing from the Soviets for them, and then covertly ship it to America.
This covert acquisition of large amounts of high quality titanium for the A-12/SR-71 was recognized as a major coup/accomplishment for the CIA to pull off, because the A-12/SR-71 could not have been built without it. The USSR did not learn where the titanium was really going, or what it was really being used for, until years later.
One of the ones I feel is relatively significant (and facinating for its breadth and complexity, as well as its implications to other events) is the CIA's ELINT program through the 60's, although this may be a bit outside your question because it also involves significant contributions from the NSA.
Basically, the CIA had collected enough information about soviet radar systems that they could intercept their radar signals, spoof it, and feed it back to the radar systems to
"simulate an aircraft of any radar cross section from an invisible stealth airplane to one that made a large blip on Soviet radar screens - and anything in between, at any speed and altitude, and fly it along any path."
In other words, they could (and did) create false aircraft flying in and around soviet airspace, or mask real aircraft as they flew around soviet airspace.
This eventually advanced to include (reportedly) any Soviet radar around the world, including ground bases, ships, and submarines.
As was reported:
by now, we felt we knew at least as much about the Soviets' radar air defenses as they did. We also knew that their radars were excellent, state of the art, and that their operators were equally proficient. We also knew which of their radars had low power, maintenance problems, or were otherwise not functioning up to par - and where the US Air Force might safely penetrate in wartime.
The outcome of this was (among many other things):
Anyways, this FOI report is a fun and interesting read (only about 9 pages) that details more of the methods, challenges and outcomes of the early ELINT programs.
One other pretty significant achievement for the CIA was being indirectly responsible for the capture and execution of Che Guevara.
After the CIA had attacked Che and his forces of Cubans and Simbas in the heartland of Africa, near Lake Tanganyika, Che fled across the Atlantic to Bolivia, which had recently been taken over by a CIA-backed, right-wing general named Rene Barrientos.
General Barrientos had told the American ambassador in April of 1967 that his forces were tracking the whereabouts of Che in his country, to which the Americans responded by sending two of their Cuban Bay of Pigs veterans to join the hunt with the Bolivians.
The Bolivians in charge of locating Guevara were known as the Bolivian Rangers, who were an elite squad of soldiers trained by the CIA. They spent several months tracking Che, finally capturing him after a brief clash on October 8, 1967. Che was ordered to be executed the following day, and died at 1:15 pm on October 9th.
It's important to note how pivotal a role the CIA played in forcing him to flee from Africa to Bolivia, as well as backing the government that would ultimately come to track him down, and sending their own veteran Cubans to participate with American-trained Bolivian Rangers. If it weren't for the CIA, Che may very well have lived for a while yet.
Source:
Weiner, Tim. "A Political H-Bomb." Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. New York: Doubleday, 2007. 323-26. Print.
TL:DR the question breaks our rules, but we're going to allow it just this once.
Ahhh, crikey. Yes - to all those who have reported this thread; the question does break our rules for questions. Specifically, it is a "throughout history" question - normally something like this would be deleted lickity-split.
Alas for we mods, however, this thread has gathered some excellent replies and locked us on the horns of a dilemma. We've got some good discussion going on. It would be a shame to remove it, yes? So we're not going to. But just this once. Mmkay? Read the rules before you post!
There are a lot of blurred lines. For instance, the Air Force had it's SR-71... But the CIA also had it's version of the SR-71, their 13 A-12s, and 2 drone carrying M-21s. And with satellites, there's the National Reconnaissance Office, but, of course, the CIA has access to satellite info.
So, one example, would be the cuban missile crisis. The intelligence that tipped the US off to the missiles came from one of their most valuable sources.
One thing that was particularly interesting to me. I read one of woodward's books about Iraq. The iraqi government was notoriously impenetrable. Global intelligence agencies couldn't get inside the government for decades. But there was an enormous breakthrough months before the invasion. The CIA was able to establish a large network in saddam's government before the war, giving them almost all the information they could possibly ask for, particularly about the iraqi military.
In fact, one of the first bombs dropped in the air campaign against Iraq was targeted at what was believed to be the location of Saddam himself, and iirc they believe he was wounded in the strike.