INTELLIGENCE PANEL OF THE NSCIC WORKING GROUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01082A000200080002-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 18, 1974
• Content Type: MIN

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18 November 1974
INTELLIGENCE PANEL OF THE NSCIC WORKING GROUP
Second Meeting, 1400 hours, 18 November 1974
Minutes
Members Present: Lt. Gen. Samuel V. Wilson, D/DCI/IC
Mr. Paul Walsh, D/DDI/CIA
(for Mr. Edward Proctor DDI/CIA)
Mr. Richard Curl, INR/State
(for Mr. McAfee, DD/INR/State)
NSA/CSS
Lt. Gen. Eugene F. Tighe, Jr., DD/DIA
NIO
(for Mr. George Carver, D/DCI/NIO)
(Ret), DCI/IC/CS
Executive secretary or part of meeting
IDCI/IC/CS
Executive Secretary tor part of meeting
Agenda Item 1: Minutes of the 25 October Meeting
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All members concurred in the draft minutes. Responding
to General Wilson's question, most members considered detailed
minutes were appropriate for initial sessions of the Panel,
but should become more terse over time. Mr. Curl and[ I 25X1
requested that principal topics of discussion anu
action items be highlighted. Mr. Walsh considered the
minutes useful as a means of indicating NSCIC activity.
Agenda Item 2: Intelligence Warning
General Wilson reported he had received no comments in
response to his request on the draft distributed 25 October.
I land Tighe said their comments had been forwarded. 25X1
Mr. Curl will check on the State response. General Wilson
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indicated he considered this paper posed a problem the Panel
should involve itself with, and he would be in touch with
the members after the comments had been reviewed.
Agenda Item 3: Congressional Action Relating to Intelligence
General Wilson provided members copies of a Memorandum
for Record prepared by on this subject and
reported it would be given working Group members on 20
November. This was for information only, and the Chairman
said he would insure that arrangements would be made for any
action papers to be distributed well before Panel meetings.
Agenda Item 4: Critique of Intelligence Product
Gen. Wilson said this would be the primary topic at the
NSCIC Working Group meeting of 20 November and that at a
minimum he hoped the session would provide "pump priming"
for future actions.
Gen. Tighe said it is important to identify who the
customer is and what he actually sees and absorbs. He
mentioned one senior customer who said his intelligence
support was excellent and would be outstanding if only he
could articulate what it was he wanted.
Gen. Wilson cited Mr. Clement's comments that the
Intelligence Community provided him "inadequate help." The
Chairman asked for suggestions as to how user criticisms of
a specific nature could be elicited. He said his goal was
to have the Working Group develop 10 to 15 clear statements
of what could be described as "intelligence deficiencies" on
which action could be taken. If it turned out this could
not be done he would not waste time pursuing the matter
further, but he wanted, at a minimum, to document that an
effort had been made to get intelligence users to focus on
the problem.
Mr. Curl felt that policy-level consumers were generally
not receptive to crisis post-mortems because it was "too
much like finger pointing." He suggested the NSCIC needs a
panel of representative users who would be responsibile for
producing judgments on selected intelligence products. This
would pin responsibility on the users themselves and institu-
tionalize product judgments. He considered the NSCIC could
assign this responsibility, with the Working Group serving
as the monitor.
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saw a need for an evaluation system which
would involve users with requirements. This would promote
an understanding that if requirements are added other require-
ments will have to be deleted.
Mr. Curl considered it was necessary to "shock" users
into helping with respect to reductions in intelligence
resources. He felt that if users were advised as to what
would have to be eliminated in terms of products a serious
response could be evoked. He suggested the Working Group be
advised as to the impact of particular cuts in resources and
be requested to assist in identifying choices, partly based
on the impact reductions would have on the final intelligence
product.
Gen. Wilson commented that using "market mechanisms" in
intelligence production might prove helpful, i.e., what
would particular users "buy" if it came out of ther own
budget instead of coming to them as a "free good." The
"free good" situation does not push users toward any focus
on choices.
Gen. Tighe again emphasized that the Community needed
to know what consumers actually consume.
Mr. Walsh felt that to do this it was important to get
to the key staff personnel who brief and summarize documents
for senior policy makers.
Mr. Curl considered that t ess encourages
proliferation of requirements. again said that
those who want to add new requirements should be forced to
eliminate an equivalent number.
I suggested that a list of 12 "big topics"
(such as the Middle East, Strategic Weapons, etc.) be drawn
up and users asked to indicate where they considered intelli-
gence support was weakest. From that starting point, users
could then be pushed for specific criticisms. This would
require the consumers to staff the problem and bring key
staff personnel into the project.
suggested the NIOs be involved in this
process. He wondered whether the Working Group members were
fully familiar with the KIQ/KEP process and with the role of
the NIOs.
Gen. Wilson said that the Working Group must develop a
sense of responsibility. Recognition that the Group must
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report to the NSCIC should lead them to do their homework
properly. He thought that the 20 November meeting might be
only the first of several needed to bring out a full response.
He noted that there had been discussion at the 25
October meeting about Panel members attending the Working
Group session to hear the criticisms expressed, but he did
not consider this appropriate since it might inhibit dis-
cussion. He said he would raise the matter of Panel attend-
ance with the Group at a later time.
Gen. Tighe said it would be interesting to note how the
level of attendance at the Working Group is maintained.
Agenda Item 5: "The Fact of" Photographic Satellite
Reconnaissance
Gen. Wilson reported on the Working Group action,
opposing declassification, and his memorandum to the NSCIC
Chairman. No further action will be required until Mr.
Colby has again discussed his position at the NSCIC level.
The Chairman advised the Panel of a possible problem
which may arise from an unclassified Murphy Commission paper
which discusses satellite reconnaissance. He said the DCI
would have to deal with this problem, and that at the present
he had three options - (1) ignore it, which has obvious
disadvantages (2) confront the Commission head-on and insist
on deletion of the references, or (3) endeavor to reach a
reasonable compromise by rewording of the paper. Several
members indicated interest in the problem and offered any
help their agencies might provide.
Agenda Item 6: Minutes of the 30 October Working Group
Meeting
Gen. Wilson asked if any Panel members had identified
follow-on actions.
said he saw nothing wrong with referring the
"Perspectives" to consumers for comment, providing it did
not become a coordination exercise. He felt that the number
of KIQs should be kept to the absolute minimum. Mr. Walsh
said that expanding the KIQ list would kill it, and Gen.
Wilson agreed. Mr. Curl thought the Working Group should be
made aware of the KIQ evaluation process.
The matter of customer satisfaction in crisis situations
poses special problems in the SIGINT field, said,
since the volume of SIGINT skyrockets. Any attempt to
search out and analyze the "gold nuggets" in this increased
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volume of material requires additional resources and transfer
of analysts from other works, which NSA may not be able to
afford.
Mr. Walsh felt that assigning the Omnibus NSCID to the
Working Group to prepare a recommendation was a "convoluted
route" to the NSCIC, but Gen. Wilson pointed out that this
was what the NSCIC had directed.
Gen. Wilson closed the session with a comment that he
still was not certain whether papers could move from the
Panel directly to the NSCIC or would have to go through the
Working Group. He felt it was possible the Panel would be
able to achieve considerable autonom
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