Citizens who work for the CIA are officers — not agents or spies. All employees, from operations officers, to analysts, to librarians and public affairs, are considered CIA officers. So, who is a CIA agent? Our operations officers recruit well-placed human assets with access to information. These spies are agents.

CIA employees are called officers rather than agents, Robinson says. Within the CIA, the term agent is reserved for an informant outside the agency, usually a foreign national abroad who spies and provides information to the CIA, according to the CIA website.