DISSEMINATION OF INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-03362A000700030001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 1, 1954
• Content Type: REGULATION

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OFFICE OF TRAINING
DIRECTIVE 1rch 1954
COURSE : BIC (1)
SUBJECT: Dissemination of Intelligence HOURS: 50 min.
METHOD OF PRESENTATION: Lecture
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INSTRUCTOR
OBJECTIVES OF INSTRUCTION: To discuss dissemination of intelligence as part
of the cycle involved in the production of finished intelligence from raw
information.
SUMMARY OF PRESE17TATION: This lecture begins with a definition of the term
"Intelligence Dissemination" and discusses the principal considerations
intelli-
be observed by the Disseminator. The media used for disseminating gence are reviewed with reference to the various types of intelligence.
semination practices which are common to all intelligence producing agencies
are described as well as the basic guides and special collection requirements
which facilitate the dissemination process. The latter part of this lecture
is devoted to CIA procedures for dissemination some of which are unique within
the intelligence community.
Document No.
SUBJECTS WITH WHICH COORDINATION IS M UU,.ED:
REFERENCES
REMARKS :
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TAB
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I Definition:
The most significant intelligence is of no value until it is placed
in the hands of those who can relate it to operations, plans or policy
formulation. The act of doing so is called Dissemination. It may be
defined as the process whereby partly or fully eva ua d intelligence is
furnished on a timely basis, to those having a recognized "need-to "know"
for the better accomplishment of their mission.
II Patterns of Dissemination
In order to grasp the problem of intelligence dissemination it
will be useful to examine the five principal patterms which result from
the fulfillment of dissemination requirements. These are: upward dis-
semination, downward dissemination, lateral dissemination, external and
internal dissemination. Each will be discussed separately. The normal
processing of raw information into the finished intelligence product
involves upward dissemination through successive stages. Reports from
the field are collated and evaluated and passed on to those engaged in.
research and analysis. In order to fully develop the intelligence
potential of research on related subjects there must be an integration
of selected material which may then be applied to various aspects of
the current intelligence problem. Before the resulting conclsions
can be called finished intelligence they must be brought together and
finally synthesized for the consumer. Having been processed to the top
of the intelligence ladder much of such material starts downward on a
briefing mission through various echelons of the intelligence community in
Washington and is disseminated overseas to diplomatic missions and military
commands for application to operational problems. Lateral dissemination
occurs either in the field or at Headquarters when it is desired to reach,,
more or less simultaneously, a number of dispersed intelligence consumers
of comparable operational status. This report from Singapore, for example,
informs the Department of State that copies have been dispatched by pouch
to US Missions at London, Bangkok., Manila., New Delhi, Karachi, Rangoon,
Djakartha, Saigon and Hongkong. Lateral dissemination in Washington occurs
at all working levels within the IAC complex and includes the exchange of
information between "opposite numbers" in different agencies. External
dissemination occurs when an intelligence agency has collected or produced
intelligence pertinent to the mission of one or more other agencies. For
example, the Department of State reguarly disseminates political and.
economic information collected abroad by the Foreign Service to some 19
government agencies and serves many others on an intermittent basis,
Finally, there is the pattern of Internal dissemination to Offices,,
Bureaux or Divisions within a single agency having a legitimate need to
review the information although the purposes for which they need it may
differ widely.
III Media for Dissemination
Now let us consider the media generally used for the dissemination
of intelligence. Raw intelligence is channeled by means of brief field
reports to a headquarters staff for evaluation. The evaluated reports are
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disseminated on a "need-to-know" basis to analysts who collate them with
other material of the same nature. The product is disseminated in the
form of Intelligence Summaries, Digests or Reviews. Research is under-
taken by political, economic, scientific and technical specialists who
further develop the intelligence potential of available information,
The resulting intelligence product is put into the form of Technical or
Staff Studies sometimes called provisional analyses and then forwarded....,
To top level staffs concerned with the production of finished intelligence
such as the National Intelligence Surveys and the National Intelligence
Estimates. The most direct form of intelligence dissemination ',is., of courses
the oral briefing. This is usually delivered to a selected group of intell-.
igence consumers by an expert on a given subject who stands before a maps
chart or other device in a closely guarded "situation room".
A discussion of media for intelligence dissemination would be ina?
complete without mention of the air dropped leaflet. This might be
appropriately termed "The medium of last resort". Although usually as-
sociated with propaganda or psychological warfare, the air dropped leaflet
is a valid emergency medium for the dissemination of intelligence. Before
the reoccupation of Burma in 1944 leaflets were dropped over enemy held
territory on a regular weekly schedule by the US 10th Air Force and the
RAF Bengal Command to inform a native underground movement of Axis defeats
and prepare it for collaboration with advancing allied forces.
IV. Dissemination Controls
"How", you may ask, "is the disseminator to know what material
should be sent to other agencies?" He has recourse to three sources
of information. First - the Standing Collection Guides which are compiled
by each intelligence agency and furnished to the disseminating units of
other agencies. These deal with general subjects by category rather than
individual items of intelligence interest. Second --> Special Collection
Requirements. These are requests for information of a very specific
nature. They are filed by the disseminator for reference until such
time as the collection request has been satisfied or cancelled. The
third source of guidance for the Disseminator is the liaison officers of
his own agency who are conversant it th the day-to-day intelligence needs
of the other agencies to which they are accredited.
V. Dissemination Practices
Each intelligence agency with field collection facilities maintains
a dissemination unit which distributes intelligence material to appropriate
offices within the agency and exchanges such material with similar units in
other agencies. This important, function is carried out in CIA by the Office
of Collection and Dissemination (OCD). There are certain dissemination
practices which are common to all intelligence agencies. For examples the
Department of State, the Defense Departments and CIA all provide within
their dissemination units experienced liaison officers who are fully
accredited security., wise and who meet with liaison officers of the other
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intelligence agencies in order to insure coordination of dissemination
activities.
Another common practice is the maintenance of a Reading Panel by
each intelligence agency within its dissemination unit, The function of
the Reading Panel is to screen and select items of intelligence interest
from incoming material gathered by the agency's field collectors, which
may be of value to other intelligence agencies. To insure that its own
needs are properly satisfied, each agency (CIA excepted) provides re-
presentatives to sit on the Reading Panels of other intelligence agencies.
In order to protect its covert collection sources, CIA does not permit
representatives of other agencies to scrutinize incoming comaunicatiorns
which have not yet been processed, CIA moreover, needs no representation
on other Reading Panels because, as the principal coordinator of intell-
igence for the Government., it automatically receives copies of all incoming
intelligence reports. Intelligence produced by CIA is disseminated to the
other agencies on a highly restricted basis predicated on their "nee .tow
known, for the better accomplishment of their particular missions.
VI, Special CIA Facilities
CIA has developed special facilities for expediting the dissemination
process and for retrieving documents already distributed, to satisfy the
research requirements of intelligence analysts, Every incoming document is
assigned a Control number which is typed onto a blank paper multilith plate.
Full document identification data is added. For example: The source, the
source's report number and date of transmission; the geographic area report-*
ed on; the subject or short title of contents; the date of the information;
the number of pages in the report and the number of enclosures, if ara; also
the security classification; the date received in CIA and the number of copies
received. The multilith plate is then passed to a document analyst who may
add a summary of contents, The plate is now routed. to a Disseminator on
the Reading Panel who indicates those offices, division or branches within
CIA to which the document should be sent, He also decides whether copies
should be disseminated to any of the other intelligence agencies.
The document in question has now been fully identified and processed
for dissemination. The multilith plate is used to print all this information
onto a set of blank IBM cards. The data is also coded and punched on the
lower half of the cards. One of these printed IBM cards is placed in the
Machine Records master file. One card is stapled to each copy of the actual
document. Upon dissemination the card may be detached and retained in the
files,of the analyst. If a single document is to be circulated to three
different desks within the agencies, three IBM cards would be attached
enabling each desk to retain a record of the item.
If an analyst wishes to locate a certain document and knows the
control number he may call the library by phone. But should he wish to
review all available documents on a given subject he may locate them by
requesting the library to order what is called a machine run. He must first
consult the Intelligence Subject Code Index. Each subject arranged
alphabetically, is assigned a three digit number with a r ximum of three
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decimals. Let us assume for example that the inquiry concerns the latest
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control cards on all documents recorded by CIA having a bearing on the subject
The analyst will then review these cards and refer to the library the control
numbers of those documents he wishes to see. Should he wish to retain in his
files a complete record of the machine run the analyst will request that a
"continuous tape" be furnished. On this paper tape will be reproduced
photographically in sequence the data appearing on all the IBM cards extracted
from the master file. The analyst has thus fully exploited the files of the
Central Intelligence Agency which contain reports dating back for a number
of years and represent the collection efforts of all the Intelligence
Agencies of the Government.
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