BIOGRAPHIC COLLECTION PROGRAMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00951R000400040022-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 31, 2000
• Sequence Number: 22
• Content Type: OPEN

name
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An important intelligence
resource and how it works.
BIOGRAPHIC COLLECTION PROGRAMS 25X1A9a
This article is concerned with the care and feeding of the intelli-
gence community's main repositories for positive biographic informa-
tion, the Central Reference Service of CIA and the Biographic
Branches of DIA's Production Center. It is by a collector, for collec-
tors. In other words, it is an exhortation to all who anticipate assign-
ments abroad-for all such qualify as potential collectors of the in-
formation needed by the community to ensure an adequate bio-
graphic data base for each country.
Something About the Repositories
CIA's Central Reference Service and DIA's Production Center
derive their authority in the biographic field from DCID No. 1/9.
The former keeps the files and produces biographic intelligence on
foreign political, economic, scientific, technical, social, and cultural
personalities; and the latter is similarly responsible for foreign mili-
tary personalities. It is. indeed a rare intelligence officer or analyst in
Washington-or official concerned in any way with US foreign
policy-who has not made some substantial use, direct or indirect,
of the services of these two biographic repositories. These offices
handle the daily flow of requests for name check data or special
biographic reports on personalities of immediate concern to com-
munity members (CIA/CRS alone deals with close to 35,000 such
requests each year). They provide biographic data to supplement
articles appearing in the community's current intelligence publications,
and prepare profiles on prominent foreign visitors and on the non-US
delegations attending international conferences. They compile bio-
graphic briefing books to support top US officials on trips abroad.
They issue periodic intelligence memorandum on the appearances and
activities of Soviet and Chinese Communist leaders, as source ma-
terial for the community's political analysts. And they are the pro-
ducers of such community reference aids as the directory of key
personnel in foreign governments, revised and circulated monthly;
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the detailed directories of officials in Cor!imunist countries; the CIA
Fiographic Handbooks, containing finished biographic sketches on
the essential political leadership figures in each foreign country; and
the similar DIA Handbooks on key foreign military personalities.
Many of us have, in fact, paid these two offices the ultimate com-
pliment on numerous occasions. We ha'e simply taken them for
granted. We accept 'without question that: there should be a strong
community biographic capability at our beck and call for each foreign
country. The need is obvious: for who could follow and understand
the political forces at work in a foreign country without knowing
something of the character and proclivities of its leaders; or assess
the capabilities of its military forces (for war or coup) without con-
si dering the training, experience, loyalty, and outlook of its military
commanders; or estimate the likelihood of its achieving a nuclear ca-
pability without having some knowledge ri,f its scientific community?
Since CIA/CRS and the DIA Productio~i Center are supposed to
provide the biographic services of common concern for the commu-
nty, we accept a prompt and full report on the foreign personage
cirrently interesting us as only our propor due.
There are, however, those other occasiibns, when our request for
biographic data results in a report disappointingly thin in detail, or
in no report at all. If our need is not a critical one, we are merely
d.sturbed; we merely wonder how CIA/CRS or DIA could be without
a complete dossier on such a prominent Ruritanian figure. (We recall
q' cite clearly that he attended all of the Embassy's functions when
we were serving in Ruritania.) If our need is more pressing-if it's
coup-time in Ruritania and a prompt assessment is needed on the
now set of leaders-we are apt to be much more exercised. We may
even approach outrage when we learn later that the new Minister
o]' Interior spent two years at Amherst in the late fifties, and that the
colonel whose paratroops pulled off the coup learned some of his
trade from ITS advisors. We conclude sad~ly that something must be
wrong with the community's biographic set-up.
There is indeed something wrong in suc instances, but it is hardly
t1 e set-up. The fault is more likely to lie with' us and our poor bio-
gr aphic banking practices. All too often we do not make the necessary
regular deposits when opportunity allows,] and then there is nothing
tc withdraw from the biographic repositorids when the need is upon us.
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Collection Responsibilities
DCID No. 1/9 also assigns the primary responsibilities for the
collection of biographic information: to the Department of State for
collection on political, economic, scientific, technical, social, and cul-
tural personalities; and to the Department of Defense for military per-
sonalities, and for such scientific, technical, and economic personalities
as may be engaged in military-related activities. At the typical over-
seas post, these responsibilities are lodged with the Chief of Mission,
usually operating through the Embassy's Political Section, and the
Defense Attache. The Chief of Mission usually designates one officer
to serve as "Biographic Coordinator" to oversee the local Foreign
Service biographic collection and reporting effort.
The collection of biographic information at an overseas post is,
however, not a matter of specific assignment; it is rather one of op-
portunity. Virtually all officers who serve at the post will have at
least some of that opportunity; in fact, it will be almost impossible for
them to avoid acquiring useful biographic data in the course of carry-
ing out their primary assignments. The Political Attache in discussing
US-Ruritanian relations with Foreign Ministry officials will certainly
evaluate the professional capabilities of those officials and note their
attitudes toward the US, and probably pick up at least the bare out-
lines of their personal and career history. This he will undoubtedly
do for his own benefit, to increase his effectiveness in dealing with
them-even without considering the community's long-range bio-
graphic needs. Similarly, the Assistant Air Attache touring a Rurritanian
Air Force base will make every effort to "get to know" his hosts and
assess their flying experience and capabilities. The Public Affairs Officer
will do likewise in his encounters with local press and media executives,
the MAAG officer will cultivate his local contacts in the armed forces,
and so forth. Each will acquire much useful biographic data during
his tour without even trying, and much more will be available to
him with a minimum of effort.
Both the State and Defense Departments recognize the need to
draw all personnel at a post into the biographic collection effort. A
forthcoming revision of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual
(FAM) notes that biographic reporting is "an integral part of the
activities of overseas posts," and that "all officers should submit reports
or contribute information for use in reports, and furnish their im-
pressions of foreign personalities of actual or potential influence of
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iograp is o c son
whom they have knowledge." 1 Similarly, the Defense Intelligence
C )llection Requirements Manual (DIRM) declares its basic guidance
of i biographic reporting to be applicable "to all Department of Defense
activities that have a basic intelligence 'And/or counterintelligence
misson, as well as other departmental activities that have a collection
cs pability with regard to biographic data." 2 And the community's
recently established joint program with regard to potential leaders
even more explicitly calls for the collection of the desired information
by all "Foreign Service personnel (including USIS and AID officers),
Department of Defense personnel (including Attache, MAAG, and
other personnel represented on the Country Team).
Targets: The Question of Who
The key consideration for the biographic collector is not what, but
w.ro. Most of us are pretty much aware of what constitutes useful
biographic data on a given personality; 4nd, if our memory needs
some jogging on that score, we can always refer to the carefully
detailed rundowns on types of information needed appearing in the
FAM or the DIRM. But what we really need-especially at the outset
of an overseas tour (new as we then are to the area)-is some specific
guidance as to who is important enough to bother with. In narrow
to -ms, we want to know who is important: enough among the con-
ta 2ts we will have (or can make) locally to justify our preparing and
fil.ng a biographic report.
Such guidance will. be available to us through three programs
do signed to focus biographic collection and reporting efforts on those
ta:-get personalities of essential interest to the community. The first
of these, the CIA Biographic Handbook Program, covers a country's
current leadership, is essentially political in its orientation, and is of
prime concern to Foreign Service collectors. The second, the DIA
Biographic Handbook Program, involves military and military-related
b5graphic targets and is of main concern to military attaches and
11 FAM 311 and 313c. (State's "Biographic Information Program" is presently
co"ered in Chapter 500, Volume 11 of the Foreign'Affairs Manual, but will appear
as Chapter 300 in the forthcoming revision.)
DIAM 58-2, Volume II, Part Nine, Chapter 2. (Two separate sections of the
DIRM deal with biographic collection: the afore,-cited one covering biographic
reporting responsibilities and procedures; and DIRM 5.8-2, Volume I, Part One,
Cl apter 7, which delineates military and military_ related targets.
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c ion
other collectors present at the post. And the third, the Potential Leader
Biographic Reporting Program, deals with a country's potential leader-
ship and is a joint enterprise for all collectors. This last program will
be accorded special attention in the descriptions to follow since it
is the newest of the three and the most ambitious community effort
25X1 Bto date at developing specific target guidance in the biographic field.
But first a few words about the other two.
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