The DI was established in 1952
to help the President and other policymakers make informed decisions about our
country’s national security. DI analysts look at all the available information
on an issue and organize it for policymakers to give them more ideas on how to
think about it. The grist for the analysts’ mill is a mix of often incomplete
and frequently contradictory fragments of information collected around—and
above—the world. From a near-void on vital topics during the early years to an
overwhelming volume today, the information has come from a variety of sources
and methods, including US personnel overseas as well as agent reports,
satellite photography, foreign media, and sophisticated sensors.
Over the years, the DI has covered crises and confrontations, identified
trends, and illuminated issues. It has produced timely information and insights
available nowhere else and put them into the right hands. In so doing, it
informed the decisionmaking that kept the Cold War from becoming a hot war, and
it now plays a vital role in waging the global war against terrorism.
Key Events in DI
History
1940s
1946 – The Office of Reports and Estimates (ORE) is created
under an interagency Central Intelligence Group to do intelligence research,
produce daily analytic reports, and write longer-term National Intelligence
Estimates for policymakers.
1947 –
President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 creating the CIA.
1950s
1950 – Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Walter Bedell
Smith divides ORE into three offices: the Office of National Estimates, which
produces coordinated “national estimates”; the Office of Research and Report,
which conducts basic research; and the Office of Current Intelligence, tasked
with writing analytic summaries and other brief products for policymakers.
1952 – DCI
Smith establishes the Directorate of Intelligence to replace ORE and streamline
the production of finished intelligence analysis. President Truman, an avid
reader of the Central Intelligence Bulletin, directs CIA to brief presidential
candidates Eisenhower and Stevenson, a practice that continues today.
1956 – First
U-2 aerial reconnaissance missions; DI analysts play a key role in developing
realistic estimates of the size of the Soviet bomber force.
1960s
1960 – The Director of Intelligence (DDI) creates a small
staff to identify intelligence problems that could benefit from automated
information processing support. The staff identifies Soviet defense spending as
a key problem and work begins on the Strategic Cost Analysis Model.
1963 – The
24-hour CIA Operations Center is established.
1964 – President Johnson wants his intelligence product at the
close of each business day—this becomes the President’s Daily Brief.
1970s
1973 – The National Intelligence Officer system is initiated
under the National Intelligence Council (NIC) to provide experts to advise and
coordinate between agencies on key issues.
1976 – In
response to criticism about Intelligence Community analysis on future Soviet
military strength, DCI George Bush approves a Team A/Team B competitive
analysis exercise as part of the National Intelligence Estimate, “Soviet Forces
for Intercontinental Conflict Through the Mid-1980s.”
1977 – The DI
is reorganized and renamed the National Foreign Assessment Center (NFAC), which
includes a Center for Policy Support and the Offices of Regional and Political
Analysis, Scientific Intelligence, and Weapons Intelligence.
1980s
1980 – The Arms Control and Intelligence Staff is established
in NFAC for intelligence support on arms control issues.
1981 – NFAC
creates the Technology Transfer Assessment Center to do analytic and
intelligence support on international technology transfer issues. Later the
same year, NFAC is again reorganized and renamed the DI; most functional
offices are restructured into interdisciplinary regional offices.
1986 – The
Counterterrorism Center is established under the Directorate of Operations to
help combat international terrorist threats. DI officers serve in its analytic
components to provide regional and functional expertise—the first permanent
unit combining analysis and operations.
1988 – The Counterintelligence
Center is established; like the Counterterrorism Center, it includes DI
officers who provide analytic support.
1989 – The DCI
Counternarcotics Center is established to bring together officers from across
CIA, the Intelligence Community, law enforcement, and policy agencies.
1990s
1992 – The DCI Nonproliferation Center is established to
strengthen DI interaction with the policy community on the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.
1997 – The DI’s
five regional analytic offices are reconfigured into three. The DCI
Nonproliferation Center adds additional analytic components and establishes a
Senior Scientist position, thereby creating the largest concentration of
proliferation experts in the Intelligence Community.
1998 – The
Jeremiah Commission reviews the Intelligence Community’s performance on India
and its unannounced nuclear test; the Commission offers recommendations to
enhance the Community’s analytic warning capabilities. The DI’s Office of
Policy Support is established to improve the quality of DI support to the
policy community.
1999
– In December, the DI creates the Sherman Kent School For Intelligence
Analysis to strengthen the professional understanding, expertise, and skills of
intelligence analysts and those who manage them.
2000s
2000 – The first Career Analyst Program (CAP) class graduates from the
Sherman Kent School in November, establishing the CAP as the core professional
learning program for all new analysts joining CIA.
2001 – The DCI
Center for Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control is
established, bringing together experts on all types of foreign weapons threats
into one center. After the 11 September terrorist attacks, the existing
analytic component in the Counterterrorism Center is significantly expanded and
renamed the Office of Terrorism Analysis.
–In response to the events of 11 September, DCI Tenet
tasked the DDI to create a “red cell” that would think unconventionally about
the full range of relevant analytic issues. The DCI Red Cell takes a pronounced
“out-of-the-box” approach and produces memos intended to provoke thought rather
than to provide authoritative assessment.
2002 – The DI
celebrates its 50th anniversary.
–CIA University is created to equip all CIA officers with
the shared values, commitment to mission, knowledge, and excellence in
intelligence tradecraft and leadership needed to accomplish the extraordinary
tasks in their service to our nation. CIAU links together all existing CIA
training programs, such as the DI Sherman Kent School, into CIA's first
corporate university, and creates new CIA-wide schools to provide integrated
training for all CIA officers in Agency mission and tradecraft knowledge,
leadership, and foreign languages.
2003 – The DI Collection Requirements
and Evaluation Staff (CRES) is reorganized and renamed the Office of Collection
Strategies and Analysis (CSAA) in April. A number of factors drove this
realignment, foremost of which were gaining greater flexibility in supporting
global coverage issues, increasing analytic resources against high-priority
issues, and strengthening the Directorate’s ability to drive future collection
programs.
–The
Office of Iraq Analysis is created in November to concentrate and expand the
Directorate’s research and analysis effort on a major national security
priority.
2004
– The 9/11
Commission Report is published in July, and provides recommendations on how to
improve the collection, analysis, and organization of intelligence in light of
lessons learned from the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States.
–In August, a National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) is
created to coordinate and monitor counterterrorism plans and activities of all
government agencies and departments to ensure effective joint action based on
all intelligence available to the US government. Numerous DI analysts are
assigned to work in NCTC.
–The
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 becomes law in
December and creates the position of Director of National Intelligence, or DNI,
to coordinate and lead the entire Intelligence Community. The Director of
Central Intelligence (DCI) loses this function, and now reports to the DNI,
re-named as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, or DCIA.
2005 – The report of the Commission
on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass
Destruction, more commonly referred to as the WMD Commission is published. The
report critiques the performance of the CIA and the Intelligence Community in
their assessments of the presence of WMD in Iraq, and offers recommendations
for improving intelligence performance, drawing upon lessons learned from this
effort.