POLICY GOVERNING DEPARTMENTAL CONCURRENCES IN NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE REPORTS AND ESTIMATES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00059A000100070007-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2000
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: September 13, 1948
• Content Type: REGULATION

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1, September 1.948
DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTIVE 3/2
POLICY GOVERNING DEP11RTIMiNTAL CONCURRENCES
IN NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE R 'PORTS AND ESTIMATES
Pursuant to the provisions of National Security Council Intelligence
Directive No. 3 and paragraph 5 of National Security Council Intelligence
Directive No. 1, and for clarity and uniformity in the preparation of
concurrences in, or dissents from, national intelligence reports and
estimates, the following policies are established:
1. Purpose. Departmental participation in the preparation of
national intelligence reports and estimates is undertaken to insure
that authorized recipients:
ae are presented with national intelligence which
comprises all the best available expert knowledge and
opinion;
b, are aware, in the case of disputed points, of the
views of the departments on substantive matters within
their special fields of responsibility and interest.
2. Basis of Comments. In consideration of any individual
national int igenc..d report or estimate, departmental agencies should
take action, as promptly as possible, in one of the'following ways:
b. concur with comment;
c. dissent.
These actions should be based upon consideration of the following
factors:
(1) factual errors;
(2) validity of conclusions reached;
(3) omission of relevant considerations;
(4) matters of emphasis which produce misleading
implications.
d. Return the paper with the statement that the agency
has no comment.
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3. Concurrences. When there is no disagreement with the paper
and no comments felt to be of sufficient importance for formal sub-
mission, a simple concurrence should be returned. Such a statement
may be limited to the aspects of the paper pertinent to the special
interests of the intelligence organization concerned. .
4. Concurrence with Comment.
a. A comment does not qualify or limit the concurrence
in aFy respect but is a suggestion designed to strengthen
the substance of a national intelligence report or estimate.
While comments are in any case optional and usually should
be limited to subjects within the special fields of interest
of the. departmental agencies, each agency may submit comments
on subjects or points outside of its special fields of
interest if it should elect to do so.
b. It is not necessary to comment on a national intelli-
gence report or estimate merely from an editorial point of
view on matters of punctuation, phraseology, or grammatical
construction which do not materially change the meaning of
the estimate.
5. Dissents.
a. The purpose of a published dissent)-aside from giving
eachintelligence organization an opportunity to record its
position, is to assist readers in reaching full understanding
of a question.
b. When a dissent is published, the recipient is, by
implication, asked to choose the view he finds convincing.
Unless the dissent is clear-cut and based on an unresolvable
difference of opinion concerning an issue of major importance,
recipients may be confused rather than aided by it.
c. Consequently, a dissent published With a national
intelligence paper should present a distinct difference of
opinion on which CIA and the dissenting intelligence organi-
zation have found it impossible to agree....
d. A disagreement should not become a dissent unless the
dissenting intelligence organization believes that the reader
will otherwise reach conclusions which are false or dangerously
misleading.
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6. No Comment, Should an intelligence organization feel
that the -s-MM reated is entirely apart from its interests,
it may return a statement indicating that it has no comment of
any kind to offer.
R, H. HILLEIN?KOETTER
Director of Central-intelligence
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