"If you look at [Absolute Resolve], you know that operation was only made possible by a flawless intelligence picture, and that flawless intelligence picture was built on cyber operations enabled by our CCI team," CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis told attendees at the Billington Cybersecurity Conference in Washington, D.C.
Ellis’ account: CIA cyber work as the decisive link
Speaking publicly Tuesday, Michael Ellis described a central cyber role for the agency’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) in Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. mission that seized deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January. Ellis said CIA cyber operatives provided intelligence that helped U.S. forces locate and capture Maduro within four minutes of landing on the ground. He credited CCI with building a "flawless intelligence picture" and tied that result to the agency’s recent decision to elevate CCI to a mission center.
Operation Absolute Resolve: timeline and interagency support
The capture of Maduro, Ellis said, unfolded quickly once forces landed — a four‑minute window from touchdown to apprehension that officials say depended on prior intelligence work. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine has previously described months of intelligence collection on Maduro’s movements and daily routines and acknowledged participation by Cyber Command while crediting the CIA, the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial‑Intelligence Agency with supporting the Venezuela mission. During the seizure, multiple intelligence agencies established crisis action teams to support Special Operations Command and Southern Command.
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See what we buildWhat other agencies contributed: Cyber Command, NSA and NGA
The public record assembled around the operation names several distinct contributions. Gen. Dan Caine acknowledged Cyber Command’s participation and cited support from the CIA, NSA and NGA. A U.S. official familiar with the operation told reporters that the NSA provided geolocation support and monitored communications and signals that could reveal troop movements or plans to activate radar. Ellis’ remarks expand the public attribution by explicitly describing a CIA cyber role, but he did not detail the technical methods used.
Center for Cyber Intelligence elevated to a mission center
Ellis framed his disclosure about Absolute Resolve in the context of organizational change inside the agency. He said elevating CCI to a mission center "gave our cyber operators greater priority and helped align resources around intelligence needs." That realignment, he argued, has allowed the CIA to "bring cyber operations to bear to solve these tough intelligence problems." Ellis did not, however, identify the systems targeted or explain how the cyber operations produced the location data that enabled the rapid capture.
What this means for Special Operations Command, Southern Command, and CIA cyber operators
- Special Operations Command and Southern Command: These combatant commands relied on crisis action teams from multiple intelligence agencies to convert collected intelligence into operational advantage; the four‑minute capture window is presented by officials as an indicator of how tightly integrated targeting and operational execution were in this mission.
- CIA cyber operators and CCI: The elevation of CCI to a mission center, Ellis said, has given cyber teams "greater priority" and aligned resources to intelligence needs—an internal change the agency links directly to its ability to support complex overseas operations.
- NSA and Cyber Command: Public statements and reporting attribute geolocation and signals monitoring to the NSA and acknowledge Cyber Command participation, underscoring a multiagency effort in intelligence collection and operational support for Absolute Resolve.
The account offered by Ellis narrows the public narrative about how U.S. intelligence supported the Maduro seizure but leaves concrete operational techniques unspecified: Ellis "did not specifically identify the systems targeted or explain how the cyber operations revealed Maduro's location." That omission frames a central, concrete question remaining from the public record — which authorities and technical methods produced the actionable location data that allowed forces to apprehend a targeted individual within minutes of landing?
