REPORT OF WORKING GROUP ON OPERATIONS CENTERS, INFORMATION FLOWS, ETC.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000600120010-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: June 30, 2005
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: April 13, 1973
• Content Type: MF

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13 April 1973
MEMORANDUM FOR: CIA Management Committee
SUBJECT Report of Working Group on Operations
Centers, Information Flows, etc.
1. Attached herewith is the Working Group re-
port. A second report will deal with the reports
function.
2. We recommend the transformation of the pres-
ent Operations Center into a true Operations Center,
using the full data-processing facilities of the
Agency as they develop. Our specific recommendations
are in Paragraphs 18-21. If accepted, they will pro-
vide a single, central point for:
--Scanning of electrical narrative traffic
arriving in Headquarters from all sources
for items of immediate concern.
--Alerting of senior Agency officials, ac-
tion officers, and external consumers.
--Selection of important traffic for senior
Agency officers.
--Response to queries from other govern-
ment agencies when no established channel
exists.
--Crisis management and task force activ-
ities.
--Monitoring of all Agency activities in
non-duty hours.
3. We believe the steps recommended for im-
mediate action (Phase 1) with the exception of the
recommendation (181) to negotiate a National Intel-
ligence Operations Center, are desirable in themselves
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and will meet these objectives in the short term.
NIOC, however desirable, will probably not be ob-
tainable unless a decision is made to continue into
Phase III (computerized dissemination system). On
the other hand, the Agency can, and we believe should,
proceed toward Phase III whether or not NIOC is es-
tablished.
4. We are agreed on our recommendations as they
stand, but we believe there is an issue which the
Management Committee itself should decide. The last
point in Para 2 uses the word "monitoring." The
Committee should decide whether this should be "com-
mand," "control," "supervise," "monitor," "be cognizant
of," or whatever. The problem is not semantic; it is
whether the Deputies want to impose a command struc-
ture, however nominal, over their various non-duty
hours activities. An orderly mind would argue that
there should be such a structure: the rebuttal is
that we have gone along very wel without. My view
is that the present arrangement would suffice if we
never had to face another major crisis, but October
1962 should have taught us that haphazard arrange-
ments,will not hold up under real stress.
5. DDM&S has decided not to have a duty officer
because of the presence of duty officers in several
of his components. These officers are in contact with
the Operations Center, however, and the practical ar-
rangements are workable.
6. We believe our recommendations are adaptable
to any major changes in the Agency structure that may
be coming, but changes in detail will of course be
necessary.
7. Estimated costs can be summarized as follows:
Phase I - A maximum of 20 people to man four
24-hour positions (six of these are absorb-
able; ten are interim); approximately
in one-time costs; no space.
Phase II - No additional CIA personnel;
in one-time costs, depend-
ing on study of FMSAC/SSOC move (these
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estimates are tentative); 3,000-5,000 square
feet of space.
Phase III - Dependent on CDS.
8. We recognize the bind on space. Recommenda-
tion 18j can only be carried out by displacing SAVA,
although as a temporary quick fix some OCI staff space
across the corridor from the present Center could be
cleared.
9. The Report has five annexes.
--Annex A is our charter from the Manage-
ment Committee.
--Annex B is the notebook containing an in-
ventory of Agency centers and their inter-
relations.
--Annex C is an initial estimate of resource
requirements.
--Annex D contains specific recommendations
for disposition of the Agency's secondary
24-hour centers.
--Annex E is the NIOC prospectus of 8 Janu-
ary. (The cost estimates in this paper are
out of date and should be ignored.)
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Director of Current Intelligence
xicnara e man
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13 April 1973
Report of Study Group on Operations Centers
1. The Study Group was charged with examining
Agency 24-hour activities and related message flows
with a view to consolidation and rationalization.
(See Annex A) Our recommendations are contained in
this report. A separate report will deal with the
role of the "reports" function in handling Agency-
collected raw intelligence.
2. We took as our objective the creation of a
24-hour system which would provide a single, central
point for:
--Scanning of electrical narrative traffic
arriving in Headquarters from all sources
for items of immediate concern.
--Alerting of senior Agency officials, ac-
tion officers, and external consumers.
(This function, of course, is usually car-
ried out through command channels during
duty hours.)
--Selection of important traffic for senior
Agency officers.
--Response to queries from other government
agencies when no established channel exists.
--Crisis management and task force activities.
--Monitoring of all Agency activities in
non-duty hours.
Present Arrangements
3. By this yardstick, the present situation is
not too bad. The Agency has a number of more or less
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autonomous duty officers and other activities, but
cooperation among them is good. The present Opera-
tions Center: scans most incoming traffic; alerts
some Agency officers an most external consumers;
selects some important traffic, is the point of
reference for other agencies; houses DDI crisis ac-
tivities, but not those of the other D rectorates;
monitors most Agency 24-hour activities but controls
none. More important, however, is the fact that all
these activities take place within the traditional
framework o the Agency; the individual baronies pre-
serve their frontiers.
4. The Operations Center is the most compre-
hensive and most nearly "central" of the Agency's
24-hour activities. The DDI is executive agent for
the Operations Center. DDI and DDO have duty offi-
cers there, each of whom answers to his Deputy. The
DDI officer as the senior represents the DCI to a
limited, but undefined, degree. Each is generally
cognizant of most out-of-hours activities of his
Directorate. The DDI officer in addition controls
some housekeeping functions of the DDM&S.
*Manned by OC
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