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 government-wide 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) The 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 and
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 in
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 Factbook was first made available on the Internet in
June 1997. The year 2003 marks the 56th anniversary of the
establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency and the 60th year of
continuous basic intelligence support to the US Government by The World
Factbook and its two predecessor programs.