INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY STAFF ASSESSMENT: 'INTELLIGENCE PRODUCTION IN SUPPORT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVES OF THE US GOVERNMENT'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00171R001200180001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 17, 1977
• Content Type: MF

COiFDENjJAj
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Acting Deputy to the DCI for the
Intelligence Community
25X1A FROM:
SUBJECT:
DCl/IC 77-2530
17 AUG 77
27q`?
e-br?c/1
t7
Director of Performance Evaluation and Improvement
Intelligence Community Staff Assessment: "Intelligence
Production in Support of International Human Rights
Initiatives of the US Government"
1. Attached is an assessment prepared within the Production
Assessment and Improvement Division of the Office of Performance
Evaluation and Improvement concerning user satisfaction with Intelli-
gence Community products relating to human rights. Also attached is
a memorandum forwarding the assessment to the DCI should you consider
such action appropriate.
2. As the Key Judgments indicate, there appears to be a high
degree of satisfaction with Community production relating to human
rights. Some suggestions were received from users within the National
Security Council staff and the Department of State as to specific
topics on which reports or studies might be produced, and these have
been passed along informally to, as the DCI's special 25X1A
representative for human rights. ...inWss, users are pleased with
Community products and consider the current level of analytical and
production effort adequate.
3. We have pointed out in the attached memorandum for the DCI
that the level of user approval of Community production on human rights,
as determined by this assessment, should provide a framework for inte-
grating this topic more formally into Community requirements/collection
mechanisms as well as developing guidelines for future analysis and
production.
Attachment:
DCl/IC 77-2531
DOWNGRADED TO UNCLASSIFIED
UPON REMOVAL OF ATTACHED
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DCl/IC 77-530
Distribution:
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1 - D/OPEI
1 - PAID Subject
1 - PAID Chrono
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1 -
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DCl/IC 77,725.31
18 AUG ''!9,.77
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
FROM:
SUBJECT:
John N. McMahon
Acting Deputy to the DCI for the
Intelligence Community
Intelligence Community Staff Assessment: "Intelligence
Production in Support of Human Rights Initiatives of
the US Government"
1. Action Requested: None, for information only,
2. Background: Human rights is a new topic of concern to this
Administration that does not fit neatly into the traditional intelligence
subject compartments. This study was self-initiated by the Intelligence
Community Staff (ICS) to see if users are satisfied with production in
this potentially sensitive area, The results of our survey are:
a. Users rate the timeliness, quality, and coverage of
intelligence products on the human rights issue as good to
excellent and consider the output of the Intelligence Community
on this topic to have been properly focused and of considerable
value in the formulation of US foreign policies,
b. User/producer interaction is good. Informal but effective
mechanisms exist for users to critique intelligence products on
human rights to make reporting more responsive to their needs.
c. The content of intelligence products on human rights
suggests that guidance being provided to intelligence collectors
is adequate to produce a data base sufficient to support analysis
and reporting.
d. Intelligence reporting is only one useful source of
information about international human rights, and users are able
to integrate intelligence products with other information already
in their possession from non-intelligence sources,
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UPON REgkiithvelaIMITROVEM-2001/12/0__KIR 00120
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e. In using limited analytical resources in support of
the development and implementation of US policies on human
rights, the Community should emphasize current reporting
supplemented by near to mid-term analyses with Qorrespondingly
less expenditure of resources for production of long-term
research studies.
3. With the addition of human rights as a specific topic in
DCID 1/2, we believe that the subject is receiving satisfactory coverage
and treatment within the Intelligence Community and make no specific
recommendations.
is/ JOHN N. Mc:MAHON
John McMahon
Attachment
Assessment of Community Products
relating to Human Rights
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DCl/IC 77-2531
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee
1 - ER
1 - AD/DCl/IC
1 - D/OPEI
1 - PAID Subject
1 - Paid Chrono
1 - IC Registry
25X1A 1 - PAID/OPEI
/ ?
25X1A DCVIC: (16 Aug 77)
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CONFIDENTIAL . ATTACHMENT
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INTELLIGENCE PRODUCTION IN SUPPORT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN
RIGHTS INITIATIVES OF THE US GOVERNMENT
Key Judgments:
1. (U) Users rate the timeliness, quality, and coverage of intelli-
gence products on the human rights issue as good to excellent and consider
the output of the Intelligence Community on this topic to have been
properly focused and of considerable value in the formulation of US
foreign policies.
2. (U) User/producer interaction is good. Informal but effective
mechanisms exist for users to critique intelligence products on human
rights to make reporting more responsive to their needs.
3. (U) The content of intelligence products on human rights suggests
that guidance being provided to intelligence collectors is adequate to
produce a data base sufficient to support analysis and reporting.
4. (U) Intelligence reporting is only one useful source of information
about international human rights, and users are able to integrate intelli-
gence products with other information already in their possession from
non-intelligence sources.
5. (U) In using limited analytical resources in support of the
development and implementation of US policies on human rights, the Com-
munity should emphasize current reporting, supplemented by near to mid-term
analyses, with correspondingly less expenditure of resources for production
of long-term research studies.
BACKGROUND
(U) Efforts to promote international respect for human rights have
become an integral part of US foreign policy; consequently, monitoring
and reporting on human rights is now a requirement of US establishments
abroad, both diplomatic and intelligence. In view of these factors, the
Intelligence Community Staff has conducted a survey of producers and users
of intelligence on human rights to review and assess Community analytical
and production efforts, assess consumer satisfaction and needs, and to
determine whether human rights reporting is properly focused. The survey
has been directed toward identifying possible gaps in user/producer
interaction, particularly with respect to intelligence product critique
and collection guidance.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF INTELLIGENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS:
(U) To place the human rights issue in perspective, iS should be
viewed as one of several non-traditional intelligence topfcs including
technology transfer, arms transfers, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation,
on which information is needed to support US global policy concerns.
Unlike the more traditional intelligence areas such as strategic inten-
tions or military-related research and development, much information on
international human rights developments is openly available. This is
the case even with communist or other adversary countries because media
and other extra-governmental channels provide for the dissemination of
a continuing flow of information concerning human rights. Thus, the
preparation of timely and accurate reports on this topic requires
analysis of voluminous data from overt and semi-overt sources, as well
as information collected through the use of intelligence assets.
ORGANIZATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INTELLIGENCE:
(C) The bulk of human rights-related intelligence reports are derived
from human sources, although technical collectors, namely NSA, have con-
tributed to finished intelligence production. For this reason, the
overall quality of Intelligence Community product on human rights depends
to a great degree on the guidance provided US embassies and CIA stations
abroad. The Department of State has transmitted instructions making
human rights a priority subject for reporting by embassies and consular
posts in countries of interest. CIA/DDO has also alerted its stations
to provide information on significant human rights events. These formal
requirements are supplemented by guidance obtained informally by field
reporting officers from briefings in Washington, discussions with official
visitors to foreign posts, and from their own professional knowledge of
US interests in the area.
(C) Within CIA, the International Issues Division (IID) of the Office
of Regional and Political Affairs (ORPA) produces a "Watching Brief" on
a weekly basis, summarizing significant human rights events. Designated
human rights referents within ORPA's area divisions are responsible for
contributing items suitable for inclusion in the "Watching Brief." In
addition to internal Intelligence Community dissemination, the "Watching
Brief" is distributed to selected recipients wtthin the State Department
and the National Security Council. To supplement the "Watching Brief,"
ad hoc analytical reports have been produced by ORPA on human rights
related issues within specific geographical and topical areas.
(C) State/INR reporting parallels CIA's with the issuance by INR's
Directorate for Research of a weekly publication summarizing current
international events pertinent to human rights and by the production of
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ad hoc products by the INR area divisions. The State Department uses
Intelligence Community products, together with Foreign Service reporting
and other overt sources, in preparing its annual report to the Congress
on human rights practices in countries proposed for US military aid under
the Arms Export Control Act of 1976.
(C) Responding to internal Defense Department requirements for
intelligence reporting on factors which may affect US multi and bilateral
military relations with other countries, security assistance policies,
or other concerns of the military services and the Secretary of Defense.
DIA has produced both current and mid range evaluations of foreign
perceptions of US human rights policies and of the intentions of other
countries to react, respond to, or accommodate US initiatives.
ASPECTS OF USER REQUIREMENTS:
(C) User demand for intelligence information concerning human rights
has called for concise field reporting on current developments, near-term
analyses on selected geographic and topical issues of immediate concern
to policymakers, and less emphasis on in-depth studies of the long-term
effects of developments and trends. Working relationships between users
and producers have not been institutionalized, and production by the
Intelligence Community has, to a significant degree, been the result of
self-tasking. The offices of the Deputy Director for National Intelligence
and the DCI's representative on human rights offer mechanisms through
which users may alert intelligence producers concerning specific policy
issues relating to human rights requiring intelligence support.
(C) User requirements have been fulfilled for the most part by receipt
of current finished intelligence products, supplemented by CIA/DOD, attache,
and foreign service field reporting. Much unclassified information on inter-
national human rights events is generally available through governmental and
non-governmental channels, and users have been able to integrate intelligence
products with information already in their possession from non-intelligence
sources.
SUMMARY
(U) Users rate the timeliness, quality, and coverage of intelligence
products relating to human rights issues as good to excellent and consider
the output of the Intelligence Community of this topic to have been of value
in the formulation of US foreign policies. Users endorse the present produc-
tion mix, which favors current reporting over long range analysis, provided
sufficient analytical resources remain available to balance current reporting
with ad hoc mid-term analyses on selected geotopical subjects. Users consider
the level of the Community's analytical effort to be adequate and the informal
mechanisms now utilized for user/producer interaction both responsive and
sensitive to user needs.
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