THE THREAT AND THE NEED FOR INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000201090001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 1, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/16: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201090001-5
APTICLE APPEARED
ate PAGE //
SIGNAL
JOURNAL OF THE. AR*MD FORCES C0*L"1UNICATIONS
AND ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION
Octot r iP '
The Threat and the Need
for Intelligence
William J. Casey
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
T A BUSINESS and a world of few
L absolutes. one thing is certain:
our need as a nation for superior
intelligence continues to grow.
Throughout the world, our country
faces serious threats to its security
and national interests. These
threats include social, economic
and political instability, as well as
outright military aggression.
Today. we need to be concerned
about a greater variety of intelli-
gence problems. In addition to the
traditional military and political
analysis of different countries, we
are beginning to focus more arten-
tion on global issues-terrorism.
political insurgency, nuclear prolif-
eration and the pilfering of our
technology-that cut across na-
tional boundaries.
The Soviet Union is still our
number one intelligence problem.
Its military build-up continues re-
lentlessly: vet the threat from the
Kremlin is much broader than just
direct military aggression. En-
hanced Soviet military power will
be used as 2 political weapon giving
additional force and thrust to diplo-
matic and propaganda initiatives.
With a skillful array of associates.
Moscow is using a variety of tac-
tics-political. diplomatic. subver-
sive and insurgent-to expand So-
viet influence and destabilize gov-
ernments. Right now, in concern
with Cuba. we see them attemptinc
to bring the struggle to our own
backyard in Central America.
As the demands for more infor-
mation grow, so do the demands on
our intelligence collection systems
increase. We need a sufficient vari-
ety of modern collection methods,
both human and technical. We can-
not emphasize one method above
the other since they only act well in
concert. Each collection method
answers its own special questions.
None can stand alone. The validity
of intelligence assessments de-
STAT
pends upon multiple sources of in-
formation.
Nev" systems must have two ma-
jor charactenstics: flexibility and
timeliness. 1 t is not enough that we
give our national leaders the right
information; we must give it to
them at the right moment. it is not
enopgh that we know all there is to
know about today's problems: we
must be able to anticipate tomor-
row's crises and be able to shift our
resources appropriately.
We have been hard at work re-
building our nation's intelligence
service since the draw down of the
1970s. We will continue doing our
best to keep our country's leaders
apprised of the dangers and oppor-
tunities. to help them bring timely
and effective initiatives to bear. In
today's complex world we cannot
afford to have an intelligence ser-
vice that is anything but the best.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/16: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201090001-5 .