THE PRODUCTION OF POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE IN CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000700080006-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2005
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: June 23, 1973
• Content Type: SUMMARY

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The Production of Political Intelligence in CIA
I.' CIA now has four major functions in the field of political
intelligence production. These are not totally distinct, but rather
arbitrarily divided sections of a spectrum.
a: Current reporting. This runs from the alerting
telephone call through situation reports and current
periodicals to substantial background memoranda
and short-range assessments.
b. Estimative writing. This begins at relatively
current assessments and runs through estimates
proper to the policy-oriented Intelligence Brief.
c. Research. This is here defined as deep, usually
long-range, analysis by Highly trained country specialists.
It is carried out in support of policy and seeks primarily.
to develop an understanding of the decision makers and
the decision-making process in countries of major interest
to the US. The results may occasionally be published as
Briefs, but usually as Memoranda or Reports, and often
may not be published at all.
d. Basic. This can be defined as the description of the
political. processes and institutions of each country by
the specialist for the non-specialist. Basic intelligence
differs from the "research" product in being encyclopedic
and factual rather than selective, speculative and deeply
analytic. .
2. The Agency is not organized to perform all of these functions
with equal effectiveness. Analytic resources in the political field are 25X1
divided among six organizations on the intelligence side of the house:
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a. The great majority on the ONE Staff are political
analysts. They divide their time between drafting and
coordinating estimates and writing estimative memoranda
on current topics:'
b. OCI's analysts, with a few exceptions, are political,
although they have military and economic responsibilities
on countries OSR and OER do not cover. Their primary.
tmission is current reporting. They are also required produce political chapters of the NIS and encouraged to
produce more sophisticated research studies. The latter,
unfortunately, compete with current production for the
best analysts. OCherforalways beieved mance land hashallocateda is or
falls on its current p
resources accordingly.
c. OBGI has a limited political analysis capability in its
Country Profile Staff and among the better of its NIS editors.
d. The only organization fully devoted to political research
is SRS. Its people are among the best in the Agency as
country experts and as deep researchers. Its concept of
political research activities, however, is isolated from
the intelligence mainstream wiyih an emphasis on historic
reconstruction that is not directly useful to the policy maker.
25X1
f. CRS mass-produces biographic materials as a service
of common concern. This product is appropriate as
reference material but is not adequate for the needs of
senior officials who need deeper and broader insights
into the factors affecting the conduct of high-ranking
foreign officials.
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3. The first four of these organizations overlap in function
and use many of the same materials. OCI and ONE do. "current"
work. OCI, ONE, and SRS do "estimative" work. OCI and SRS
25X1
4. These activities compete for roughly similar professional
personnel. There are, however, two measures to be considered.
One is competence. Most in-depth political research requires
different types of writing skills, analytical capabilities, and more
specialized knowledge than is typically required for current reporting
and NIS writing. The second measure, however, is equally important,
and that is temperament. There are common factors among the OCI
and ONE analysts who are writing on current issues and policy-oriented.
problems which are not shared by the SRS and NIS analysts who work
on longer range problems, usually on a project basis. The former
at least are more or less interchangeable. There is a lesson here
in how to organize the task more logically. There is also a warning
that human resources are not infinitely malleable..
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Remarks:
For discussion at a future Management
'Committee meeting. An earlier version
of this proposal was previously distributed
in conjunction with MCA-44.
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