Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [47]
The training and the mind-sets of analysts are important. Analysts must often deal with intelligence that is contradictory, both internally and when viewed in light of their strongly held professional beliefs and perhaps their own past work. The way in which analysts deal with these contradictions depends on their training and the nature of the broader analytical system, including the review process.
Finally, analysts are not intellectual ciphers. They are likely to have ambitions and want their issues to receive a certain degree of high-level attention. This is not meant to suggest that they will resort to intellectually dishonest means to gain attention, but that possibility must be kept in mind by their superiors within the intelligence community and by policy makers.
DISSEMINATION AND CONSUMPTION
The process of dissemination, or moving the intelligence from the producers to the consumers, is largely standardized. The intelligence community has a set product line to cover the types of reports and customers with which it must deal. The product line ranges from bulletins on fast-breaking and important events to studies that may take a year or more to complete.
PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF. The president’s daily brief (PDB) is delivered every morning to the president and some of the president’s most senior advisers by the PDB staff. Formerly this was a CIA function but now comes under the DNI. The PDB is formatted to suit the preferences of each president in terms of length, display, detail, use of graphics, and so on.
WORLDWIDE INTELLIGENCE REVIEW. The WIRe is an electronically disseminated analytical product, the successor to the CIA’s Senior Executive Intelligence Brief and the National Intelligence Daily, both of which were viewed as early morning intelligence “newspapers.” WIRe articles vary in length and detail and include links and graphics that allow readers to drill down for more information.
DIA/J2 EXECUTIVE HIGHLIGHTS. Unlike the SEIB, which is theoretically a product of the entire intelligence community as all agencies have an opportunity to comment on articles, the Executive Highlights is prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Although it is produced primarily for Department of Defense (DOD) policy makers, this product is also circulated elsewhere in the executive branch. Thus, in the sense of offering a different array of issues and perhaps different analyses, the Executive Highlights is a counterpart to the SEIB. On any given day, the SEIB and Executive Highlights cover some of the same issues, as well as issues that are of particular interest to their primary readers. The State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) had long produced a similar morning report of its own, the Secretary’s Morning Summary (SMS). In 2001, INR abandoned the SMS, relying on other vehicles to communicate with its major policy customers.
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATES. National intelligence estimates (NIEs) are the responsibility of national intelligence officers (NIOs), who are members of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which now comes under the DNI. (The NIC had come directly under the DCI but was considered separate from the CIA.) NIEs represent the considered opinion of the entire intelligence community and, once completed and agreed to, are signed by the DNI for presentation to the president and other senior officials and to Congress. The drafting of NIEs can take anywhere from a few months to a year or more. Special NIEs, or SNIEs (pronounced “sneeze”), are written on more urgent issues and on a fast-track