PROGRESS AGAINST 1988 MANAGEMENT GOALS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90T00435R000100090024-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 12, 2013
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: September 8, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/12 : CIA-RDP90T00435R000100090024-7
The Director of Central Intelligence
Washingtoo, D.C. 20505
National Intelligence Council
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
VIA: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
FROM: Fritz W. Ermarth
Chairman
SUBJECT: Progress Against 1988 Management Goals
NIC #03034-88
8 September 1988
1. Do more for the DCI. The primary effort has been to make our
support to the Director more relevant to immediate and future policy
concerns. We broadened the mix of estimative products to include short,
policy-relevant memoranda (sense of Community papers) and have significantly
sharpened the Key Judgments of major estimates. In briefings of the
Director, we limited the scope to key issues and made a much greater effort
to reduce the size of the briefing teams.
2. In terms of memoranda and briefings, we prepared more than 60
memoranda or sense of the Community papers for the Director, and NIOs
delivered or participated in approximately 36 briefings on current issues.
We also adopted the practice of selecting for our biweekly meetings with the
Director subjects that could assist him in preparing for meetings and
contacts listed on his schedule. In addition, NIOs made about 35
Congressional appearances as the Director's Community representative.
3. Improve relationships with policy officials. Although this goal
will never be completely attained, we have made an effort to broaden and
strengthen contact between the NIOs and their counterparts at the Assistant
Secretary level in the policy community. Among regional accounts we have
regular contact at that level in policy communities covering Africa, East
Asia and Latin America and sometimes covering the Near East. For good
reasons our contacts in the policy communities covering the USSR and Europe,
though regular, are at a somewhat lower level (Deputy Assistant Secretary or
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the equivalent). Our functional accounts have fared somewhat better. NIOs
work with the top officials in policy communities on Strategic Programs,
General Purpose Forces, Nuclear Proliferation and Chemical/Biological
Warfare, Narcotics, Economics and Science and Technology. The greatest
improvements have been in accounts on Economics and Narcotics, where we have
established new high-level contacts at the Federal Reserve and Justice
respectively. Although there are no policy communities at the Assistant
Secretary level for Terrorism, Counterintelligence and Warning, our NIOs do
work with the most senior policy officials available. Moreover, several
NIOs have had contact with Cabinet-level policymakers and in one instance
the President. NIOs have also improved their "marketing" of national
estimates, often personally briefing the Key Judgments to senior
policymakers here and abroad.
4. Prepare for intelligence support to the new Administration. Having
reviewed the material that NIOs prepared for the last transition, talked to
senior policymakers about the needs of a new Administration, and taken a
look at what other components in the Intelligence Community are preparing,
we have concluded that more is being written than a new Administration will
ever be able to absorb. Therefore, our aim is to produce a short memorandum
that identifies and illuminates only those issues requiring attention within
the first few months of 1989. Although we have tentatively identified the
issues, given their changing nature we do not propose to write the
memorandum until October or later. In addition, planned national estimates
are geared to the major issues that will demand policy attention at the
highest level from the very beginning of a new Administration.
5. Continue to implement the 30 September 1987 Guidelines for
Interagency Intelligence Production. These Guidelines were prepared to
assure the integrity of the process used in preparing estimates. We have
followed them carefully, paying particular attention to the requirement that
"the NIO and the NFIB representatives must ensure Intelligence Community
independence from policy community pressures or participation in the
drafting and coordination processes." To the best of our knowledge
policymakers have not interfered nor attempted to interfere in the process
since the Guidelines were issued. Interagency coordination has been
strengthened by cognizance around the Community of a clear reaffirmation of
the integrity and objectivity of the estimative process.
6. Obtain more and better outside review of major estimates. Among the
28 estimative products published thus far in 1988, all were reviewed in one
way or another by outside consultants. In some cases consultants were
invited to read drafts; on other occasions conferences of outside experts
were organized (for instance, the Military Advisory Panel). In other cases
discussions were held with experts, but drafts were not shown. We also
expanded somewhat our list of cleared consultants.
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7. Strengthen the estimate-drafting process. Some progress has been
achieved against this goal. Of the 28 estimative products published thus
far in 1988, we have sent letters of commendation to drafters of 18
estimates, obtained large cash awards for three drafters and obtained a unit
citation for a branch in the Directorate of Intelligence. The effort to
secure better drafters has partially succeeded, and most NIOs have become
more involved in the drafting process. We have worked to keep estimates
short and forward-leaning and have generally succeeded in holding Key
Judgments to one or two pages. We have also placed added emphasis on
editing of the final product and have improved readability by giving
estimates their first major typographical facelift since the 1950s.
Although we have not inserted instruction on writing estimates into
Community training courses as originally intended, we have developed inhouse
models and guides. Particular attention has been devoted to focusing
estimates on the needs of policymakers and addressing ourselves, whenever
possible, to policy choices actually on the national agenda.
8. Recruit NIOs based on stature, experience, and diversity of
background. Recruiting of outsiders at this stage of an Administration is
difficult. Nevertheless. one NIO has been rperuitpd in 144AR
Three NIOs plan to retire in
1989, and the search is on for their replacements. For the Science and
Technology account and for the At Large account we have collected names from
the national laboratories, DIA, and private industry. The
Counterintelligence account will also become vacant in 1989, but the search
for a replacement is more likely to lead us back to CIA or perhaps the FBI.
9. Become more aggressive in identifying intelligence gaps and
establishing requirements for collection. This was the subject of our
offsite conference in June. We spent one day reviewing how the various
collection systems worked and a second discussing how the NIOs could expand
their role in setting collection priorities and helping Community program
managers decide on priorities. Much has been accomplished. NIOs are
involved with the collection committees and their technical collection
systems. Coordination meetings on sense of the Community papers now
routinely address intelligence requirements and gaps. A committee of three
is working with the IC Staff on changes in the requirements system.
Finally, the relationship between the IC Staff and the National Intelligence
Council is today more productive than in the past.
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SUBJECT: Progress Against 1988 Management Goals
VC/NIC/DGries/j1m (8 Sep 88)
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee
1 - DDCI
1 - SA/DCI
1 - EXDIR
1 - ER
1 - Each NIO
1 -4O4OKNNVEM1A
1 - VC/NIC Chrono
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