S.H.I.E.L.D.
(Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement
Division) is an extra-government intelligence and
security organization dedicated to protecting the
nations and peoples of Earth from all threats, terrestrial
or extraterrestrial. S.H.I.E.L.D. was organized in
the early 1960s to meet the threat of the highly technological
subversive organization called Hydra. The identities
of the organizations founders, its Executive
Board, have never been revealed. S.H.I.E.L.D.s
first known Executive Director was Colonel Nicholas
Fury, an ex-World War II commando and C.I.A.
operative. S.H.I.E.L.D.s Supreme Headquarters
is the huge mobile Helicarrier, but there are also
regional offices in all the major cities of the free
world and several secret bases in Communist countries.
Although most of S.H.I.E.L.D.s operations are
covert, the organizations existence is known
to general public. S.H.I.E.L.D. even maintains public
offices in several cities.
Only
a few of the several thousand S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives
active throughout the world are known.