THE CIRL--A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B01709A002200040003-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2001
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 25, 1968
• Content Type: MEMO

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25 November 1968
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: The CIRL - -A Review and Recommendations
1. This memorandum, prepared to provide a basis for IRAG
discussion, reviews the purposes of the CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
REPORTING LIST (GIRL) and the suitability of present procedures for
production and review, of design, and of content for these purposes. A
recommended program for the evolutionary improvement of the CIRL is
contained in paragraphs 20-27. The memorandum takes account of the
principal recommendations concerning the CIRL in the 1966 IG survey
on requirements. The attached Annex is a draft of "General Guidelines
for Contributors to the CIRL".
The Design of the CIRL
2. As the IG survey describes it, the CIRL is ".. , a collection
of questions of current interest... for which answers are requested if
a means already exists for acquiring them". The CIRL is produced in
seven separate editions, each of which covers a different geographic
area of the world and each of which is published three times a year to
maintain its currency. Each edition is formatted on the basis of
political, economic, scientific, and military areas of intelligence. All
2 7 N O V 1968
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CIA production offices contribute to some editions of the CIRL and some
offices contribute to all editions. All USIB agencies have been invited
to participate; the Department of State has begun to do so on a selective
basis, but DIA does not yet make any contributions.
3. Each of the seven area editions has unique characteristics
which reflect the peculiarities of intelligence interest and modes of
collection applied to that area. The concerns of each production office
will vary greatly among each of the areas. Therefore, the CIRL as a
whole can be discussed in terms of production schedules, format, etc. ,
but substantive content must be discussed in terms of a specific area
edition (i. e. , USSR, Latin America, etc. ).
The Value of the CIRL
4. Properly made up and used the CIRL is advantageous to the
contributing production offices and to the collectors concerned with
things that people say, write, do, and see.
The well-managed contribution by a production
office ought to reflect periodic reviews of both
our knowledge of and flows of information on
subjects within the responsibilities of the office.
Collectors concerned primarily with the activities
of people assert that the CIRLs, and especially
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the background statements in the CIRLs, are useful
or more. _and some DCS personnel state that
the CIRLs are essential in the direction of their
efforts.
The Use of the CIRL
5. The CIRLs are voluntary both as to producing and using
organizations. The management of collection units, however, may
assign authority to the CIRL. The producing units should recognize
ment makes directives from the voluntary CIRLs for operation of its
collection facilities.
6. Occasionally, the management of other collection units similarly
raises the role of the CIRL. There are examples of reporting which
demonstrate that an Ambassador received the CIRL, assembled the
"country team", assigned responsibility for the several questions on
the country, and attempted to provide complete and concise answers.
7. The contributing analyst and the management of the contributing
offices must recognize that the quality of the CIRL, especially the quality
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of the background statements and the specificity of the questions, is widely
regarded by the collector as the key to the importance of the question and
need for an answer. The quality and currency of the CIRL are also factors
in the ability of and effort by the collector to provide answers, in the
amount of excess information dumped into the intelligence collection
system, and in the general efficiency of using collectors.
Uniformity Among the Issues of the CTRL
8. Each CIRL is different for different reasons. These include
varying degrees of US interest in the area, the rates of change in
phenomena in the area, accessibility of information in the area, the
availability of US personnel to collect information in the area, the levels
of staffing on the area in the production offices within CIA, and the
varying managerially imposed effort on contributions to the various
CIRLs. Recognizing these differences, uniformity among the CIRLs
covering different areas is not desirable.
9. When one collector can be determined to be the pre-eminent
user of the CIRL on an area, the needs and capabilities of that user
should be pre-eminent in the minds of the officers drafting contributions.
_ for example, is apparently pre-eminent among the users of the
Soviet CIRL. DCS seems to use the Soviet issue less than other CIRLs.
The US Mission in Moscow apparently makes little or no use of it. The
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Soviet GIRL, therefore, should be more oriented to the actual users,
especially _ The tailoring of the CIRL to its use, of course, will
take time. The precise users and uses of each issue must be identified.
The contributors must then be informed of these identifications. The
capabilities of each user of the CIRLs must be understood by the
contributors to it. This research and educational process must,
presumably, stay within existing staffing and funding limits.
The Quality of the GIRL
10. Variations in quality within and between the several issues of
the CIRLs reflect, in large part, management on the division level.
"Validation" of the CIRLs is not yet a serious process and has little
real effect. That is, the difference in quality between a good and a
bad contribution to a GIRL results from the instructions (or lack thereof)
by division management on what to do in response to the IRS request for
contributions, not from division level-reviews of contributions on their
way from the analyst to IRS. This review, at best, can have a marginal
effect. Some additions and rewriting can be demanded, and considerable
excision can (but apparently does not now) occur. The basic form of
the contribution, however, is already set when the division-level review
is begun. Division-level management in the production offices must
review its attitude towards the GIRL with this finding in mind.
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Responsibility for the CIRL
11. The IG survey on requirements made a strong case for assigning
to OCI responsibility of overall reviews of each country listed in the CIRL
and for preparing all of the background statements in the CIRL. The
reviewers do not believe that this procedure is feasible. OCI personnel
on each desk would have to acquire sufficient expertise on the economics,
science, and military affairs of their country to be able to vet contributions
on these subjects. The OCI desk would also be required to attain sufficient
knowledge of these subjects to draft the summary statements on recent
significant developments and on changes in the state of knowledge. OER,
OSI, and OSR management and personnel would have to coordinate these
statements and would have to accept OCI authority to decide what questions
on what developments in the several non-OCI spheres warrant inclusion
in the CIRLs.
12. IRS, with a much smaller staff, would face even more problems
in attempting to vet substantively each contribution to the CIRL. IRS can,
however, implement procedural rules established by the DDI and DDS&T;
e. g. , reject out-of-hand any question not accompanied by, and tied to,
a background statement or drop any section not updated in accord with
such rules. Therefore, each office should be responsible for the substantive
content of its contributions, with IRS monitoring procedures and the
validation process.
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The Alternatives to the CIRL
13. The alternative to the multi-purpose CIRL is clearly a set of
lists of current information needs for each of the several collectors who
now depend on the CIRL for a significant part of their guidance. This
process would probably be more convenient for the collectors and would
result in more coherent, consistent, and logical documents. It would,
however, add new major burdens to those already carried by the production
offices. These lists, moreover, would be duplicative. Most importantly,
to make up several effective lists requires that the analyst know far more
about the capacity of each of the several collectors than is probably
feasible. Several lists would also put additional loads on IRS which
presumably would have to review each list to assure that the proper
questions for the proper collector are in the proper list and that they
are drafted in a manner most useful to that collector. This is probably
not an impossible task; it appears, however, to be a, task requiring more
effort than would be warranted by the resulting possible convenience for
the collector or by possible increased efficiency of collection.
Marginal Use of the CIRL
14. Despite all of the above, the CIRL remains the best place to
put a bad or marginal requirement. The CIRL does not demand collection,
it does not cost a lot, and it does not involve risks. There is, consequently,
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room in the CIRL for marginal requirement, e. g. , questions on the
Bulgarian production of automobiles. The analyst assigned for whatever
reason to a marginal responsibility must try to do his job as assigned. If
he writes interesting and informative requirements for the CIRL, someone
might forward a manual accidently discovered, report a cocktail party
conversation, or report a radio broadcast on the production of automobiles
in Bulgaria.
15. If the requirements on automobile production in Bulgaria are
not warranted, the fault lies neither with the requirement process nor
the analyst, but rather with the managerial process that assigned an
analyst to the topic. If this possibly misassigned analyst cannot put his
requirements into the CIRL, he cannot put them anywhere. If, as a result
of well-prepared CIRL contributions, he gets a response, it .might have
the beneficial effect of educating his peers and superiors to the usefulness
of well-drafted current requirements. The validation process might,
consequently, be utilized by division-level management for reviewing
what its subordinates are doing.
Abuse of the CIRL
16. The review of the CIRLs suggests that they are used as
protection against the possible post-mortem question, "What were your
requirements ? ". Perhaps this is a desirable use but the present
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reviewers doubt it. This misuse results in the degradation of the GIRLS
through a proliferation of questions for which answers are not really
desired, expected, or possible. This misuse, insufficient understanding
of the purpose of the CIRL, inadequate supervision of the task of producing
CIRLs contributions, and inadequate attention to the validation of the GIRL
tend to result in a "wish" book. The "wish" book lists all of the things
that an analyst would like to know in the best of all worlds.
17, Some DDP personnel consider that the GIRL is in part responsible
for the information explosion. To the degree that the considerations
listed above govern production of the GIRL, DDP appears to be correct
and division-level management to be at fault. Of the problems with the
CIRLs, those caused by inadequate attention on the part of division-level
management would seem to be most amenable to quick solution.
Priorities Within the GIRL
18. The 1966 IG survey on. requirements recommended that the
DDI and the DDS&T see that each issue of the GIRL carry a preface
identifying the most important information needs in that issue. On the
whole, the current reviewers doubt the validity of the suggestion. The
chief fault is that such a list would be irrelevant for the principal uses
and users of the seven issues of the GIRL. (It would be most relevant
to the Soviet issues and to the Chinese part of the Far East issue, but
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for these areas the CIRL is primarily of value tM and DCS who mostly STATSPEC
process existing sources for whatever they may contain. Even in these
areas, consequently, a priority list is of uncertain relevance. ) The lack
of relevance stems in part from the nature of the CIRL--covering existing
collection facilities and existing sources--and in part from the multitude
of areas covered. The individual country coverage (six pages on Japan,
four pages on Guatemala, one-half page on Malta) presents no real difficulty
on priorities to the users of that portion of the GIRL.
19. Desired improvements in the background statements, moreover,
should at least in part fulfill the intent of the IG-suggested priority list.
The statement, by putting the questions into a context, should make the
collector increasingly aware of the relative importance of the question to
the security of these United States.
A Program to Improve the CIRL
20, Publication of the CIRL must continue on an uninterrupted
schedule. A program to improve the CIRL must recognize this need and
must, also, take account of the factors that should cause significant
differences among the issues covering different geographic regions. For
these reasons, a program to improve the CIRL must proceed slowly and
piecemeal.
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21. As a first step in the remedial program, IRAG shall review,
discuss, and modify this memorandum and its Annex, draft "General
Guidelines for. Contributors to the CIRL". After IRAG agrees on this
memorandum and its Annex, the Annex shall be published. It shall be
required reading for all contributors to the CIRL and for supervisory
personnel in offices that contribute to the CIRL. The Annex shall be the
initial criteria for the IRS post-publication reviews of the several issues
of the CIRL, discussed below.
22. IRAG shall discuss a series of possible prohibitions on the
content of the CIRL. IRAG shall also discuss assignment of responsibility
for enforcement of the accepted prohibitions. (IRS will accept whatever
is validated, or can assist the DDI and the DDS&T in enforcing the
prohibitions. IRS will explicitly discuss implementation of IRAG -imposed
prohibitions in post-publication reviews.) The following prohibitions
are recommended:
a.
Questions without explanatory background statements;
b.
Basic questions (see paragraph 27 below);
c.
Third iteration of a background statement;
d.
Third iteration of a question.
23.
IRS should begin a post-publication review of each CJ.RL issue.
The review would compare the contributions to the CIRL with the General
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Guidelines and the prohibitions. User participation in the review should
be solicited. The review would be intended to allow the DDI and the
DDS&T and production office directors to check on division-level manage-
ment's fulfillment of its responsibilities. As additional criteria are
developed for each geographic issue of the GIRL, these criteria should
be added to the base against which IRS makes its post-publication review.
24. The remedial process should be a continuing effort. In
addition to the post-publication review, IRS should, beginning with the
Soviet issue, review each issue of the GIRL with the objective of providing
detailed guidelines for the contributors in order to shape the issue to the
needs of the collectors who use it most. A statement of the needs of
in the Soviet issue of the CIRL is being solicited from appropriate
bureaus and a similar statement will be solicited in DCS.
25. When revision of the Soviet CIRL is under way, IRS should
start a similar review of the use and the users of the Western. Europe
issue of the GIRL in order to establish similar guidelines to increase
the relevance of the issue to its users.
26. In time, all GIRL issues should be similarly examined in terms
of the relevance of the GIRL to the specific users, their sources, their
limitations, and their reporting capacities. All CIRLs should increasingly
reflect the differences in the respective areas of coverage. In the longer
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run, this process should be repeated when changes in collection
capabilities, US interest in an area, or other factors suggest a need
to review the guidelines for the CIRL covering a given geographic area.
27. These on-going reviews may suggest that the CIRLs are now
covering information needs that should be expressed in standing require-
ments for basic information; e.g., "Report all information on OB", or
"Continue reporting on all economic agreements with the Soviet Union".
In such event, IRS and the contributing offices should review and correct
deficiencies in the standing requirements, The review, to date, suggests
that may especially need updated standing requirements on economic,
military, and scientific affairs.
Attachment
Annex
Distribution:
1 - ADDI (Mr. Proctor)
1 - ADDS&T (Mr. Lauderdale)
1 - DD/FMSAC (Mr. Brandwein)
1 - DD/OSI
1 - DDP Representative
1 - DD/OER
1 - DD / OCI
1 - DD / OSR
1 - DD/OBG;
1 - DD/DCS
1 - DD/_
1 - Secretary/I.RAG
1 - IRAG File/IRS
1 - IRAG File/ADDI
1 - ADDI Chrono
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Annex
SUBJECT: General Guidelines for Contributors to the CIRL
1. A clear understanding of the uses which collectors make of the
CIRL is essential to the operation of an effective CIRL Program. The
users of the CIRL are collectors whose targets are things that people see,
do, say, or write. The process of answering the questions in the CIRL
involves a mixture of monitoring radio broadcasts, translating overt
documents, reporting conversations (mostly overt), and in a significantly
lesser degree, reporting observations (mostly overt). Contributions to
the CIRL should reflect these conditions.
2. The CTRL is essentially a voluntary program both for contributors
and for collectors of intelligence information. It does not demand action.
Most collectors use it as interest, opportunity, and existing sources permit.
CIRL questions do not cause new collection operations. A question in the
CIRL is not a formal requirement in the sense that a collector must accept
responsibilities for procuring the listed information and take steps to
develop sources for it.
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3. While all human resource collector agencies may utilize the
GIRL for a variety of purposes and to various degrees, only- and STATSPEC
DCS have officially incorporated it into their guidance programs.
various collectors, makes perhaps the greatest use
of the CIRL for guidance of its collection, selection,
processing, and reporting.
b. DCS uses the CIRL to familiarize its field collectors
with the current information needs and interests of intelligence
production elements. In addition, the GIRL is used by DCS
collectors to test the potential of its sources, to support a
collection effort until more specific guidance can be
obtained, or to guide a collection effort for which other
requirements are not available. These efforts result
in a substantial volume of reporting specifically referencing
the CIRL.
4. Although adequate knowledge is lacking for definitive judgments
on how the various components of US Embassies utilize the GIRL, we do
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3. While all human resource collector agencies may utilize the
GIRL for a variety of purposes and to various degrees, only nd
DCS have officially incorporated it into their guidance programs.
STATSPEC various collectors, -makes perhaps the greatest use
of the GIRL for guidance of its collection, selection,
processing, and reporting.
b. DCS uses the GIRL to familiarize its field collectors
with the current information needs and interests of intelligence
production elements. In addition, the GIRL is used by DCS
collectors to test the potential of its sources, to support a
collection effort until more specific guidance can be
obtained, or to guide a collection effort for which other
requirements are not available. These efforts result
in a substantial volume of reporting specifically referencing
the GIRL.
4. Although adequate knowledge is lacking for definitive judgments
on how the various components of US Embassies utilize the GIRL, we do
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know that the kind and the amount of use made by each component in each
Embassy varies greatly. Occasionally a "country team" provides concise
and complete answers to every question in the CIRL. At the other end of
the range of use, some Embassy components fail even to circulate the
CIRL. Both examples are extreme. This variation is in large measure
a function of the quality of the CIRL. We do know that Embassy users
emphasize the value of questions within the capabilities of existing assets
and the value of background statements. Reviews of the use of the CTRL
suggest that little effort or interest is engendered by broad questions,
baldy stated, without background and without any indication of the specific
information that is key to current problems.
5. This review underscores the need for careful consideration by
the contributor of the items submitted for inclusion in the CIRL. The
better the document, the more likely it will be productively used. The
paragraphs which follow present some positive and negative guidelines
for contributors to the CIRL.
6. The CIRL should aim for information for which there is a
reasonable expectation of availability to existing collectors during the
normal pursuit of their duties in dealing with existing sources. The best
CIRL contributions are those which suggest to the collector specific points
that he has missed in his normal reporting or which express specifics
which analysts would like emphasized or amplified to a greater degree
in such reporting.
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7. The CIRL should list SPECIFIC information needs. It should
concentrate on those aspects of events or phenomena which constitute
gaps in our information. With rare exceptions, it should not express
"category" needs in general terms (e. g. , report order of battle), nor
should it emphasize "continuing needs" of a general nature (e. g. ,
continue reporting on all economic agreements with the USSR).
8. The CIRL should list CURRENT information needs. in
general, it should concentrate on events or phenomena that have
occurred, or are expected to occur, within a period of six months or
so on either side of the publication deadline. It should point toward
acquisition of information that has a reasonable possibility of contributing
to finished intelligence within six months or so of publication.
9. Contributors to the GIRL should emphasize the statement of
background and of the state of knowledge. Questions should always be
based on these background statements and should have some relation
to the demonstrated capability of at least one of the human source
collectors. Because the GIRL must serve its several users and because
only a few are specialists in the subjects in question, background state-
ments and questions for the CIRL are most useful when the meaning is
clear to the non-specialized user.
10. Finally, because the CIRL is for a specific purpose--to
stimulate reporting from mostly overt collectors so that they can be
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responsive to current information needs--contributions should not be
designed to reflect other objectives, some of which are presented below:
a. The CTRL is not a substitute for standing
requirements.
b. The CTRL, does not replace, and should not
duplicate, PNIOs, requirements for collection by
sensors of any type, indications lists, alert lists,
collection guides, observations guides, or the IPC
List (consolidated requirements for covert collection).
c. The CTRL is not a "wish book", i. e., a list of
all that an. analyst would like to know in the best of all
possible worlds. (In the 1966 TG survey on require-
ments, one issue of the Soviet CTRL was called "a
letter to Santa Claus". )
d. The CIRL is most emphatically not an
encyclopedic statement of essential elements of
information needed on a specific area or country.
e. The CTRL is not a medium for listing
"pr. otective requirements" intended to transfer
blame for poor analyses from analyst to collector,
especially in the advent of a post-mortem.
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f. The CIRL is not a device by which requirements
for additional collection can substitute for adequate
research and analysis of available data.
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