(deg min) Longitude
(deg min)
W Wakhan Corridor (see Vakhan) Afghanistan 37 00 N 73 00 E
Wales [region] United Kingdom 52 30 N 3 30 W
Wallis Islands Wallis and Futuna 13 17 S 176 10 W
Walvis Bay Namibia 22 59 S 14 31 E
Warsaw [US Embassy] Poland 52 15 N 21 00 E
Washington, DC [US Mission to the Organization of American States
(OAS)] United States 38 53 N 77 02 W
Weddell Sea Atlantic Ocean 72 00 S 45 00 W
Wellington [US Embassy] New Zealand 41 28 S 174 51 E
West Frisian Islands Netherlands 53 26 N 5 30 E
West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) Germany 53 22 N 5 20 E
West Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands 12 10 S 96 55 E
West Korea Strait (Western Channel) Pacific Ocean 34 40 N 129 00 E
West Pakistan Pakistan 30 00 N 70 00 E
West Siberian Plain Russia 60 00 N 75 00 E
Western Channel (West Korea Strait) Pacific Ocean 34 40 N 129 00 E
Western Samoa Samoa 13 35 S 172 20 W
Wetar Strait Pacific Ocean 8 20 S 126 30 E
White Sea Arctic Ocean 65 30 N 38 00 E
Willemstad Netherlands Antilles 12 06 N 68 56 W
Windhoek [US Embassy] Namibia 22 34 S 17 06 E
Windward Passage Atlantic Ocean 20 00 N 73 50 W
Wrangel Island (Ostrov Vrangelya) Russia 71 14 N 179 36 W
Name Entry in The World Factbook Latitude
(deg min) Longitude
(deg min)
Y Yalu River China, North Korea 39 55 N 124 20 E
Yamoussoukro Cote d'Ivoire 6 49 N 5 17 W
Yangon (see Rangoon) Burma 16 47 N 96 10 E
Yaounde [US Embassy] Cameroon 3 52 N 11 31 E
Yap Islands Federated States of Micronesia 9 30 N 138 00 E
Yaren Nauru 0 32 S 166 55 E
Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk) [US Consulate General] Russia 56 50 N 60
39 E
Yellow Sea Pacific Ocean 36 00 N 123 00 E
Yemen (Aden) [People's Democratic Republic of Yemen] Yemen 14 00 N
46 00 E
Yemen Arab Republic Yemen 15 00 N 44 00 E
Yemen, North [Yemen Arab Republic] Yemen 15 00 N 44 00 E
Yemen (Sanaa) [Yemen Arab Republic] Yemen 15 00 N 44 00 E
Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen 14 00 N 46 00 E
Yemen, South [People's Democratic Republic of Yemen] Yemen 14 00 N
46 00 E
Yerevan [US Embassy] Armenia 40 11 N 44 30 E
Youth, Isle of (Isla de la Juventud) Cuba 21 40 N 82 50 W
Yucatan Peninsula Mexico 19 30 N 89 00 W
Yucatan Channel Atlantic Ocean 21 45 N 85 45 W
Yugoslavia Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, The Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia
Name Entry in The World Factbook Latitude
(deg min) Longitude
(deg min)
Z Zagreb [US Embassy] Croatia 45 48 N 15 58 E
Zaire Democratic Republic of the Congo 15 00 S 30 00 E
Zanzibar [island] Tanzania 6 10 S 39 11 E
Zion, Mount Israel, Jordan 31 46 N 35 14 E
Zurich Switzerland 47 23 N 8 32 E
______________________________________________________________________
@HISTORY OF THE WORLD FACTBOOK
A Brief History of Basic Intelligence and The World Factbook
_________________________________________________________________
The Intelligence Cycle is the process by which information is
acquired, converted into intelligence, and made available to
policymakers. Information is raw data from any source, data that may
be fragmentary, contradictory, unreliable, ambiguous, deceptive, or
wrong. Intelligence is information that has been collected,
integrated, evaluated, analyzed, and interpreted. Finished
intelligence is the final product of the Intelligence Cycle ready to
be delivered to the policymaker.
The three types of finished intelligence are: basic, current, and
estimative. Basic intelligence provides the fundamental and factual
reference material on a country or issue. Current intelligence reports
on new developments. Estimative intelligence judges probable outcomes.
The three are mutually supportive: basic intelligence is the
foundation on which the other two are constructed; current
intelligence continually updates the inventory of knowledge; and
estimative intelligence revises overall interpretations of country and
issue prospects for guidance of basic and current intelligence. The
World Factbook, The President's Daily Brief, and the National
Intelligence Estimates are examples of the three types of finished
intelligence.
The United States has carried on foreign intelligence activities since
the days of George Washington, but only since World War II have they
been coordinated on a governmentwide basis. Three programs have
highlighted the development of coordinated basic intelligence since
that time: (1) the Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies (JANIS), (2)
the National Intelligence Survey (NIS), and (3) CIA's World Factbook.
During World War II, intelligence consumers realized that the
production of basic intelligence by different components of the US
Government resulted in a great duplication of effort and conflicting
information. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought home
to leaders in Congress and the executive branch the need for
integrating departmental reports to national policymakers. Detailed
coordinated information was needed not only on such major powers as
Germany and Japan, but also on places of little previous interest. In
the Pacific Theater, for example, the Navy and Marines had to launch
amphibious operations against many islands about which information was
unconfirmed or nonexistent. Intelligence authorities resolved that the
United States should never again be caught unprepared.
In 1943, Gen. George B. Strong (G-2), Adm. H. C. Train (Office of
Naval Intelligence-ONI), and Gen. William J. Donovan (Director of the
Office of Strategic Services-OSS) decided that a joint effort should
be initiated. A steering committee was appointed on 27 April 1943 that
recommended the formation of a Joint Intelligence Study Publishing
Board to assemble, edit, coordinate, and publish the Joint Army Navy
Intelligence Studies (JANIS). JANIS was the first interdepartmental
basic intelligence program to fulfill the needs of the US Government
for an authoritative and coordinated appraisal of strategic basic
intelligence. Between April 1943 and July 1947, the board published 34
JANIS studies. JANIS performed well in the war effort, and numerous
letters of commendation were received, including a statement from Adm.
Forrest Sherman, Chief of Staff, Pacific Ocean Areas, which said,
"JANIS has become the indispensable reference work for the shore-based
planners."
The need for more comprehensive basic intelligence in the postwar
world was well expressed in 1946 by George S. Pettee, a noted author
on national security. He wrote in The Future of American Secret
Intelligence (Infantry Journal Press, 1946, page 46) that world
leadership in peace requires even more elaborate intelligence than
war. "The conduct of peace involves all countries, all human
activities--not just the enemy and his war production."
The Central Intelligence Agency was established on 26 July 1947 and
officially began operating on 18 September 1947. Effective 1 October
1947, the Director of Central Intelligence assumed operational
responsibility for JANIS. On 13 January 1948, the National Security
Council issued Intelligence Directive (NSCID) No. 3, which authorized
the National Intelligence Survey (NIS) program as a peacetime
replacement for the wartime JANIS program. Before adequate NIS country
sections could be produced, government agencies had to develop more
comprehensive gazetteers and better maps. The US Board on Geographic
Names (BGN) compiled the names; the Department of the Interior
produced the gazetteers; and CIA produced the maps.
The Hoover Commission's Clark Committee, set up in 1954 to study the
structure and administration of the CIA, reported to Congress in 1955
that: "The National Intelligence Survey is an invaluable publication
which provides the essential elements of basic intelligence on all
areas of the world. . . . There will always be a continuing
requirement for keeping the Survey up-to-date." The Factbook was
created as an annual summary and update to the encyclopedic NIS
studies. The first classified Factbook was published in August 1962,
and the first unclassified version was published in June 1971. The NIS
program was terminated in 1973 except for the Factbook, map, and
gazetteer components. The 1975 Factbook was the first to be made
available to the public with sales through the US Government Printing
Office (GPO). The 1996 edition was the first to be printed by GPO. The
year 1998 marks the 51st anniversary of the establishment of the
Central Intelligence Agency and the 55th year of continuous basic
intelligence support to the US Government by The World Factbook and
its two predecessor programs.
_________________________________________________________________
@CONTRIBUTORS AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
The World Factbook 1998
The World Factbook is prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency
for the use of US Government officials, and the style, format,
coverage, and content are designed to meet their specific
requirements. Information is provided by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (Department of Labor), Bureau of the Census (Department
of Commerce), Central Intelligence Agency, Council of Managers of
National Antarctic Programs, Defense Intelligence Agency
(Department of Defense), Defense Special Weapons Agency (Department
of Defense), Department of State, Fish and Wildlife Service
(Department of the Interior), Maritime Administration (Department
of Transportation), National Imagery and Mapping Agency (Department
of Defense), Antarctic Information Program (National Science
Foundation), Naval Facilities Engineering Command (Department of
Defense), Office of Insular Affairs (Department of the Interior),
Office of Naval Intelligence (Department of Defense), US Board on
Geographic Names (Department of the Interior), US Coast Guard
(Department of Transportation), and other public and private
sources.
The Factbook is in the public domain. Accordingly, it may be copied
freely without permission of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The official seal of the CIA, however, may NOT be copied without
permission as required by the CIA Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C. section
403m). Misuse of the official seal of the CIA could result in civil
and criminal penalties.
Comments and queries are welcome and may be addressed to:
Central Intelligence Agency
Attn.: Office of Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20505
Telephone: [1] (703) 482-0623
FAX: [1] (703) 482-1739
_________________________________________________________________
@PURCHASING INFORMATION
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prepares The World Factbook in
printed, CD-ROM, and Internet versions. US Government officials may
obtain information about availability of the Factbook directly from
their own organizations or through liaison channels to the CIA. Other
users may obtain sales information about printed copies and CD-ROMs
from the following:
Superintendent of Documents
P.O. Box 371954
Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954
Telephone: [1] (202) 512-1800
FAX: [1] (202) 512-2250
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: [1] (703) 605-6000
FAX: [1] (703) 605-6900
http://www.ntis.gov/
Document Expediting (DOCEX) Project
Exchange and Gift Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20540-4230
Telephone: [1] (202) 707-9527
FAX: [1] (202) 707-0380
The Internet version may be accessed through the following World-Wide
Web uniform resource locator (URL): http://www.cia.gov/cia