Intelligence organisation originally in North America (4)
I believe the answer is:
nous
'intelligence' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'organisation originally in north america' is the wordplay.
'originally' indicates taking the first letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'north' becomes 'N' (abbreviation).
'america' becomes 'us' (United States).
The initial letter of 'organisation' is 'o'.
'n'+'us'='nus'
'o' inserted into 'nus' is 'NOUS'.
(Other definitions for nous that I've seen before include "Savvy" , "Common sense - intellect" , "Native wit" , "Abroad we" , "we recognised in Nancy" .)