SUMMARY OF POLICY FOR THE USE OF TALENT MATERIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP92B01090R002600210005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 7, 2003
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: November 25, 1957
• Content Type: SUMMARY

SECRET
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Copy! of ,?,Z,
NOW Series A
25 November 1957
SUMMARY OF POLICY FOR THE USE OF TALENT MATERIAL
The directive of 16 August 1956, establishing the UAB, gives its mission
as "stimulating the Agencies participating in the TALENT Control System to
exploit the AQUATONE product to the optimum benefit for intelligence production
without directly citing the source or the raw information produced by the source."
The directive also states; ""The Board ...should be guided but not necessari-
ly limited by the principles and procedures for the utilization of photography
and COMINT as recommended by the Ad Hoc Requirements Committee for Project
AQUATONE and approved by CIA."
The principles and procedures mentioned above were dated 22 May 1956 and
contained the following statements of basic policy:
"a. the materials will never be disseminated or utilized outside of the
Control System in their original state except in unusual cases where
specific authorization is granted by the DCI or in cases as provided in
the TALENT Control Manual."
"b. The process for extracting information from the original materials
for use outside the Control System must be done in such a way as to leave
no evidence or indication of its origin."
It was specified that exploitation would be accomplished to the maximum degree
at the Washington level, and the following procedures were also specifieds
"a. Information may be studied within the TALENT System by cleared key
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intelligence analysts., operations and planning personnel and used as background
without reference to source in situations where documentation is not required."
ffb. Through a final review within the TALENT System, of certain
finished intelligence materials such as Order of Battle documents and
estimates, by a panel of cleared intelligence analysts, within each
Department or Agency, having available to them information from all
sources., revisions and corrections may be made in order to reflect,
in documents which are disseminated outside the System, information
derived from TALENT photographyon
"c0 Through a process within the TALENT System, extractions from
the original photography may be used in the annotation of existing
photography and in the preparation of graphics, predications and simula-
tions which are disseminated outside the Systemo"f
ffd0 Written reports and graphic descriptions based on information
derived from TALENT photography may be prepared as IR's by cleared
analysts working within the TALENT System and may be released outside
the System provided (1) the description can be attributed to a cover
source or (2) inference of a cover source is introduced and collateral
information to support the information can be produced,}f
In meetings of the Utilization Advisory Board since 12 September 1956,
the following policy decisions have been made:
12 September 1956
ffoooeach Agency should, insofar as practicable, handle the blending
of TALENT materials with other intelligence information within the TALENT
System so that finished intelligence incorporating TALENT material would
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in general be a composite of so much other material as to minimize the
chance of non-cleared personnel deducing the TALENT ingredient."
6 December 1956
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IL4 Februax'y 1957
"The Board approved the proposal for the DDP/CIA to prepare reports
based on TALENT material, but attributed to other sources, for regular
dissemination outside TALENT Control Channels so that unique and signifi-
cant TALENT information will be available to appropriate analysts within
the intelligence community. It was emphasized that requests for such
DDP/CIA support should be submitted only in cases where the TALENT informa-
tion is highly significant from an intelligence point of view. Such
requests should be addressed to the Secretary of the Utilization Advisory
Board for forwarding to the TALENT Control Officer, DDP/CIA."
"The Board approved the ...adoption of an appropriate cover story
for discussions of TALENT material with non-TALENT cleared consultants,
"It was agreed that selected consultants should be given access to
quality-degraded samples of TALENT photography and advised that the
material was aerial photography obtained through clandestine means."
5-August 1957
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TALENT-COMINT MATERIAL
The criteria for the use of TALENT-COMINT material were set out on 11 June
1956 in an enclosure to a letter from the Project Director to the chiefs of
agencies associated in the TALENT System, They were.-
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*Now the Utilization Advisory Board
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