DEAR GENERAL FAURER FROM W.E. COLBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R001300140007-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 10, 2006
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: April 11, 1975
• Content Type: LETTER

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Approved For Relea,
THE DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20505
IC 75-1444/1
17 APR1975
opecial Assistant to the DCI for
Strategic Warning
Washington, D. C. 20301
I have reviewed the Strategic Warning Staff's first Monthly Report
and want to commend you, and the other members of
the staff for a fine piece of work. was particularly impressed by the
Executive Surnmary....its crispness and clarity in identifying the key
issues relevant to strategic warning. I believe the report as a whole
will serve well (and more effectively than the former weekly Watch
Report) its purpose of alerting the community to those international
developments which have strategic warning implications.
I am inclined to think that the relevance to strategic warning of
some of the articles in the report.-.-for example those on Portugal,
the US Trade Bill, and Brezhnev's health--.is somewhat tenuous.
The line between big-W and small-w issues cannot be easily drawn,
and there is perhaps some justification for the SWS to err on the
side of overlap into the small-w area. I am concerned, however,
that in surveying the whole gamut of international developments the
SWS not lose focus with respect to its central mission. I would
suggest that perhaps the best way of ensuring this focus is to make
more explicit in the Monthly Report articles the relevance of each
to strategic warning.
in his transrpittal note accompan
ing the M
th
y
on
ly
Report, asked my views on its distribution outside the intelligence
community. I do not thirds this would be appropriate. The primary
function of the SWS, short of issuing a strategic warning notice,
25X1
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is to keep the intelligence community on its toes with respect to
strategic warning issues. Its "steady state" products--the Alert
Lists and Monthly Reports--are not designed as finished intelligence
for policy consumers and, in any event, largely duplicate current
intelligence products which are designed for consumers. Of course,
I have no objection if USIB principals chose to pass SWS products
to their policy-level superiors.
As you are aware, I have asked Sam Wilson to maintain a
continuing review of the strategic warning process, and he is
planning to discuss with you the points I have raised above., In
the meantime, I want you to know that I am most pleased with the
fine beginning you have made in carrying out this difficult task.
Sincerely,
is/ W. F. Co1b
W. E. Colby
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