ISSUE 1: RESPONSIVENESS OF INTELLIGENCE TO USER NEEDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP93T01132R000100010016-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6 -LEGIB
Q9'dD~7w z~
A. Tent:. at ivy 1)c c.i:; ion: issue a di.iectlvice from the President or
from the I,SC, for the ilCi_ to develop a plan for submission within 30
days co ldcntify high priority substantive intciligence needs and a
systematic production and collection strategy and timetable to meet
these nerds.
E. DCT_Appeal: I do not disagree that. the Intelligence Community
rau:;t continue t:o ianprove its responsiveness to user needs. llowevc,r., 1
do object to the proposed 0.``,13 solution as redundant to and dis. opt:ive of
the efforts already under way to address the problem, especially since I
cannot in good Conscience see it as a panacea. This has been and continues
to be a major function of the Director of Central Intelligence, most
recently reinforced by the issuance of Executive Order 11905 with an
even stronger mandate than previous instruct:ions to the DCI. The
entire process of managing both the resources and substantive efforts of
the Intelligence Community is geared to this end. It is not only a
continuous process but also one that is continuously being evaluated.
The DCI identifies priority intelligence needs and methods of meeting
them in such periodic documents as DCI Directive 1/2, DCI Perspectives,
DCl Coals and Objectives, the DCI's Annual Report, and various other
directives and requirements statements. Under the provisions of EO
11905, the DCI and the CFI constantly revi_ew the resources required to
meet these needs. Plans are in train currently for a meeting of the NSC
in December, pursuant to EC 11905 and NSC directives, to assess the
problems and performance of the Intelligence Community. A report on the
activities of the CFI has been prepared for this assessment. A report
on the value and problems of intell.:igpnce production is in final preparation.
The new management initiatives undertaken as a result of EO 11905 are
.barely six months old. They should be given more of an opportunity to
take hold before passing judgment upon their efficacy.
ILLEGIB
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6
DCI TALKING POINTS
Issue l: 1 's]ponsivene__s of l:nt:c].]i~,cnce to User Needs
ISSUE: Issue a directive from the President or from the ]NSC, for the
DC:I to develop a plan for. submission within 30 clays to identify high
priority substantive intelligence needs and a systematic production
and collection strategy and timetable to meet these needs.
o l:espons:ivcness to user needs is a long-standing problem for the
Intelligence Community.
We have been and continue to focus a considerable effort on
improving the situation.
o The complexities inherent in the intelligence process itself and
the equally :intractible complexities of the policy-maker's
environment: produce an unpredictable and not readily definable
or cont:r_olable interface.
o I wish the problem were as amenable to simple management solution
as the 033,111 proposed plan. Unfortunately it is not.
o Extensive efforts are already under'vway spurred by the initiatives
in EO 11.905.
o Imposition of an arbitrary and superflous planning initiative
would produce either
A trivial but laborious addition to the current extensive
efforts in this area, or
A major, unnecessary, and most probably unproductive disruption
of these on-going efforts.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6 /
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6
Issue Paper
National Foreign Intelligence Program
1978 Budget
Issue #1: Responsiveness of Intelligence to User Needs
Background
The Intelligence Community operates in a largely self-contained environment that
emphasizes the requirements for security and undervalues the exchange Qf information
and ideas with most outsiders. It is interested in maintaining a distance from policy
concerns in both the foreign policy and national defense fields in order to protcct
the "objectivity" of its analysis. With a full generation of intelligence personnel
brought up always entirely within the agencies themselves, the intelligence agencies
have developed a remoteness from policy officials. and their concerns that serves
neither well. Rotation of intelligence personnel into non-intelligence positions is
almost universally ignored and, similarly, the rotation of non-intelligence personnel
into intelligence activities almost never occurs.
Without attempting to assess blame, three factors seem to contribute most to this
problem:
1. Excessive compar.tmentation within intelligence activities.. Given the obvious
need for security of some intelligence activities, the intelligence community
has built up an excessive array of security compartments and "need to know"
criteria that frustrates even the most patient consumer. The maze of security
clearances and requirements leads many consumers simply to ignore the intelligence
community, rather than to utilize its information and product.
2. Identification of consumer concerns. Intelligence activities, both production
and collection, appear to operate on the community's own internalized perception
of consumer needs. No concerted or systematic effort is made by the community
to interact with its consumers either to identify their needs or to adjust its
own perception of them.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6
r
3. Resistance to outsiders. The agencies' personnel structures are almost compi.,_
dominated by personnel who have spent a career in intelligence. Both in produc,
and collection activities, there is almost universal resistance to hiring new
blood into their activities except at the most junior levels. Concurrently,
there is extreme reluctance to rotate personnel with consumer organizations or
even among the intelligence agencies themselves. Based'on our NSSM 246
experience, we believe a concerted'attack on this problem is necessary.
Statement of Issue
Should the President direct the DCI to develop a plan for submission within 30 days
to identify high priority substantive intelligence needs of users and a systematic pro-
duction and collection strategy and timetable to meet these needs?
The intelligence product seems increasingly irrelevant to many major policy
concerns. The remoteness bred by excessive security compartmentation and
the isolation of intelligence from policy problems is serving neither
the President nor his major policy officials well.
Mechanisms to facilitate the exchange of information, personnel, and ideas
could be put into operation at very little cost if a concerted effort was
attempted. These could include issuance of all intelligence products at
Top Secret or lower classification (no compartments) and limiting coinpart-
mentation to sensitive collection and processing techniques (sources and
methods) only. The DCI is aware of this problem and has requested, through
the NSC, your approval for a major reform of compartmented security systems.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93T01132R000100010016-6
1. 1
-- An explicit policy of personnel rotation both with outside consumer
organizations and among the intelligence agencies themselves would help
to alleviate the present isolation of intelligence producers and collectors;,
-- Explicit identification by OMB/NSC of several NSSM 246 problem areas, such as,
warning of and sustainability of a Warsaw Pact attack and Soviet technological,
surprise, would serve to test the community's responsiveness prior to more
drastic action.
Cons.
-- The intelligence agencies have historically resisted efforts to break down
security and related personnel barriers; they can be expected to continue
to do so.
-- Poor consumer relations are as much a consumer problem as an intelligence
problem; the required interaction cannot be forced by the intelligence
agencies alone.
-- There is some increased danger both to security and to the objectivity of
the intelligence process*by radical steps of this kind.
-- Some steps to improve consumer contacts have been initiated; the results
of these efforts should be awaited.
Alternatives
R. Make no concerted effort at this time to improve the responsiveness of the
intelligence community to user needs.
#2. Direct the DCI to develop a plan for submission within 30 days to identify high
priority substantive intelligence needs and a systematic production and collec-
tion strategy and timetable to meet these needs. The plan should consider
necessary changes to security and personnel policies and identify high priority
NSSM 246 problem areas identified above as some of the areas requiring analytical
and collection attention.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93T01132R000100010016-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6
CFI Request: Alternative #l. Appropriate steps are being taken within the
intcll pence community to address these problems on an incremental basis.
al.ofTattacI os t2his problem
OMB Recommendation: Alternative #2. A concerted plan
needs to be made by_the DCI with Presidential t
planprof attack that provides for
position to and should develop a systematic
identifying and responding to user needs.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/26: CIA-RDP93TO1132R000100010016-6