Despicable person from CIA engineered dispute (7)
I believe the answer is:
caitiff
'despicable person' is the definition.
(historical term for a despicable person)
'cia engineered dispute' is the wordplay.
'engineered' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen 'engineer' mean this).
'dispute' becomes 'tiff' (tiff is a kind of dispute).
'cia' anagrammed gives 'cai'.
'cai'+'tiff'='CAITIFF'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for caitiff that I've seen before include "Base" , "Despicable fellow" , "Cur" .)