Establishing an Open Source Agency for Increasing Resources And

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Establishing an Open Source Agency for Increasing Resources And Establishing an Open Source Agency for Increasing Resources and Expertise in Analysis of OSINT Information by Irena Stevens University of Georgia [email protected] Special Thanks to Dr. Loch Johnson ABSRACT As technology of information and communication continues to improve, Open Source intelligence (OSINT) is the fastest spreading and most abundant source of information. It is also the most underutilized form of information by intelligence operatives. The collection and processing of OSINT will become an insurmountable problem for the Intelligence Community (IC) without a venue for accessing the expertise of the academic, corporate, and research institutions on a need or demand basis. Since most of the information available to the analyst dealing with foreign events is open source, further development of an effective method of analysis can help fill in gaps and create links between information sources. Effective analysis of OSINT can move the IC toward a greater understanding of other countries, their cultures, and their leaders for creating more effective foreign and domestic policy. This framework provides coherence to a fragmented information database; individual agencies can supplement it with other forms of intelligence, such as those collected by clandestine or satellite methods, to be used for their specific purpose. Since the internet is the main source of the expanding supply of information, it can also be used to organize and funnel ideas between outside parties and the intelligence community through a database of personnel and relevant research. The willingness to process and share information is rewarded with a system of incentives designed to benefit the analyst through monetary, professional, intellectual, and psychological rewards. Establishing an independent Open Source Agency can dramatically improve the framework of fragmented intelligence by expert personnel and enable the intelligence community and other research institutions to gain mutual benefit in processing open source information through the sharing of ideas. ESSAY The Intelligence Community (IC) is composed of 16 agencies designed to collect, process, analyze, and disseminate information which provides timely and relevant intelligence for decision makers and reduces uncertainty in conflict. Some collection methods of intelligence are considered secret, classified, or closed information. These secret methods consist of HUMINT, clandestine espionage agents, SIGINT, signals intelligence, IMINT, photography and satellite intelligence, MASINT, energy emissions, and others. Other information is sensitive or confidential, but typically not secret. The majority of this information is OSINT, open source intelligence that can be legally obtained from public information sources such as newspapers, websites, and books. This type of information is different from classified intelligence obtained by the IC through clandestine operations. It is the most widespread source of information, and often the cheapest. However it continues to be an undervalued source of information compared to secret sources. The problems of meeting the intelligence needs of the 21st century include improving informational collection and processing, expanding the scope of analysis, and increasing communication within and outside of the agencies in the community. These problems are prevalent in the IC and can be greatly ameliorated by establishing an independent Open Source Agency under the Director of National Intelligence. Open Source intelligence (OSINT) is collected from publicly available information that can be lawfully obtained. There are generally 4 types of OSINT information. The first is widely available data from sources like newspapers, magazines, library records, books, community records, scientific journals, textbooks, broadcasts, videos, movies, documentaries, and user driven internet databases like forums, blogs, and message-boards. The second category includes targeted commercial data like annual budget reports, acquisitions, ongoing research, and business patterns. The private sector has been coming out with many innovative ways to analyze patters in the global economy with information sources like Factiva.com, which hosts articles for business news from around the world, as well as various scientific, engineering, agricultural, and other such purpose driven databases. The third source of open source information is within individual experts, who have the knowledge of sources harder to locate, like professional books and years of expertise within a certain area. The final source of information is called gray information, which is limited in availability either because few copies are distributed or access is constrained. (p. 65 (3)) Distinguishing between openly available open source information and secret information helps isolate gray information, which helps identify areas of interest for the Intelligence Community. Establishing an independent Open Source Agency under the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) will help increase processing of open source information by increasing communication within and outside of the Intelligence Community and expanding analysis of intelligence. Creating this agency will help reorganize the IC in a more efficient manner as open source information will be processed to provide contextual background for further investigation by supplementary sources. Its manner of function will help solve important problems facing the IC. Firstly, establishing an OSINT agency will place more importance on the exploration of open source information. Such a change in the culture of the Intelligence Community is necessary for it to adjust to the changing nature of information. Secondly, it allows the IC to build a stable venue to collect and process publicly available information while avoiding duplicate costs. Finally, it provides a communication framework for connecting information using open sources to present in comparison to secret information, effectively isolating information that is truly secret and helping to identify points of interest for the intelligence community. To clarify, this agency is not supposed to procure finished intelligence or replace other sources of information. Rather, its advantage is greatest when it is compared and supplemented with other sources of information to create an all-source complete intelligence product. Creating an independent Open Source Agency will help restore the original mission of the Central Intelligence Agency as it was founded after World War II. The 1949 Dulles report, which was the first major effort to evaluate and shape the community after its establishment following the National Security Act of 1947, stipulated: “The Central Intelligence Agency should not be merely another intelligence agency duplicating and rivaling the existing agencies of State, Army, Navy, and Air Force. It should not be a competitor of these agencies, but a contributor to them and should help to coordinate their intelligence activities. It must make maximum use of the resources of existing agencies; it must not duplicate their work but help to put an end to existing duplication by seeing to it that the best qualified agency in each phase of the intelligence field should assume and carry out its particular responsibility.” (p. 16 (10)) The Dulles Report intended for the responsibilities of the CIA to be separate from those of other agencies in order to maximize use of existing resources. However, the end of the Cold War, the beginning of new international security threats like terrorism, and the subsequent need to keep up with the growth of information, prompted efforts at reform of the Intelligence Community. Investigative bodies like the Aspin-Brown Commission, the 9/11 Commission, and the WMD Commission recommended making greater use of open sources to improve intelligence products. As a result, open source departments have proliferated throughout the agencies of IC. One Coast Guard report states that “although there are interim measures that may be taken to leverage existing technology and better exploit open sources, it is unlikely that the benefits of a robust OSINT program will be fully realized. Why? The absence of an overarching domestic OSINT program has effectively shifted the burden of developing and executing policy, strategy and tactics to this field level organization.” (p. 34 (28)) Currently, the main OSINT department is the Open Source Center (OSC) in the office of the Director of National Intelligence, headquartered at the CIA building in 2005. It was built upon the former department Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), which has existed since World War 2 to translate foreign broadcasts and documents. Its main priorities are to mine and sift for valuable open source information on a computer, maintain a collection of published online material, purchase information from commercial and academic databases, and process material from a large number of other agencies that produce controlled unclassified, or sensitive, reports. The Open Source Center has proven to be successful in conglomerating expertise across many spectra, in student training programs and in producing intelligence related content. Its services have expanded to a wider range of customers at all levels of the government. One operative stipulates: “All told, more than 98 percent of the center’s products are unclassified...The less than two percent that are classified usually are in response to classified requirements. Classification also
Recommended publications
  • Intelligence Community Programs, Management, and Enduring Issues
    Intelligence Community Programs, Management, and Enduring Issues (name redacted) Analyst in Intelligence and National Security Policy November 8, 2016 Congressional Research Service 7-.... www.crs.gov R44681 Intelligence Community Programs, Management, and Enduring Issues Summary Congress’s and the American public’s ability to oversee and understand how intelligence dollars are spent is limited by the secrecy that surrounds the intelligence budget process. Yet, total spending on the Intelligence Community (IC) programs discussed in this report equates to approximately $70 billion dollars—roughly 10% of national defense spending. This report is designed to shed light on the IC budget—in terms of its programs, management, and enduring issues—using unclassified materials available in the public domain. This report focuses those IC programs, grouped, for the most part, under two labels: (1) the National Intelligence Program (NIP), and (2) the Military Intelligence Program (MIP). Nevertheless, the combined NIP and MIP budgets do not encompass the total of U.S. intelligence- related spending. Intelligence-related programs that are not part of the IC include, for example, the large Office of Intelligence within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division. The ICE Office of Intelligence is not included in the IC because, theoretically, ICE activities primarily support the DHS mission to protect the homeland. This report explains the management structure for the NIP and MIP to include their two separate budget processes and the roles of the Director of National Intelligence and the Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence). The concluding section of this report considers the ability of the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)
    ATP 2-22.9 Open-Source Intelligence July 2012 DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTION: Unlimited Distribution Headquarters, Department of the Army *ATP 2-22.9 Army Techniques Publication Headquarters No. 2-22.9 (FMI 2-22.9) Department of the Army Washington, DC, 10 July 2012 Open-Source Intelligence Contents Page PREFACE.............................................................................................................. iv INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... v Chapter 1 OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE (OSINT) FUNDAMENTALS ........................ 1-1 Definition and Terms .......................................................................................... 1-1 Characteristics .................................................................................................... 1-1 The Intelligence Warfighting Function ................................................................ 1-2 The Intelligence Process .................................................................................... 1-3 The Planning Requirements and Assessing Collection Process ........................ 1-4 The Military Decisionmaking Process ................................................................ 1-4 Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield ........................................................... 1-5 Chapter 2 PLANNING AND PREPARATION OF THE OSINT MISSION ............................. 2-1 Section I – Planning OSINT Activities ...........................................................
    [Show full text]
  • DNI Open Source Conference 2008 Transcripts
    Office of the Director of National Intelligence Transcripts from the DNI Open Source Conference 2008 Washington, DC September 11, 2008 – September 12, 2008 The links below will forward you to the appropriate transcripts: 1) Mr. Glenn Gaffney Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection 2) Mr. Michael V. Hayden Director of the Central Intelligence Agency 3) Ms. Christine McKeown Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence 4) Mr. Doug Naquin Director of the Open Source Center 5) Mr. Charles E. Allen DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis 6) Panel: Managing the Balance Between Privacy & National Security 1 Remarks and Q&A by the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection Mr. Glenn A. Gaffney DNI Open Source Conference 2008 Washington, DC MS. SABRA HORNE (ODNI Senior Advisor for Open Source/Outreach): Good morning. Welcome ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Second Annual DNI Open Source Conference. We’re thrilled to have you here. I’m Sabra Horne, Senior Advisor for Outreach and the organizer for this event. We see many familiar faces here, a lot of the wonderful folks we’ve worked with over the past few years as well as those of you who were able to attend the conference last year. But in this last year, we’ve added many, many, many new faces to our friends and family list – those of you who know that using open source is vital in ensuring that we protect our national security. Our list of friends and family has grown, and grown, and grown. You recognize that open source information is critical in transcending the confines of the traditional Intelligence Community.
    [Show full text]
  • ANTONY ANTONIOU (OSINT Security Analyst)
    EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE ACADEMY (EIA) E-BOOK No. 1, MAY 2013 ANTONY ANTONIOU (OSINT Security Analyst) OPEN SOURCE INFORMATION, THE FUTURE OF INTELLIGENCE Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS) EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE ACADEMY E-BOOK No. 1 MAY 2013 OPEN SOURCE INFORMATION, THE FUTURE OF INTELLIGENCE ANTONY ANTONIOU (OSINT Security Analyst) Preface. People from ancient times to our days had understood the importance of information and the significant role that valid information can play in all fields of human activities (politics, economy, during wars etc). References to spies, and their methods – techniques and means that they used can be found in historical texts from antiquity until today, also known theorists of war have addressed and reported (in their writings), the importance of information and the necessity of an enemy misinformation (we will mention two of them of Carl Von Clausewitz1 and Sun - Tzu2). The intelligence services began to take shape during the Second World War. Pioneers at the “intelligence field” were the Germans (in espionage, cryptography - cryptology, propaganda and generally speaking at the development of the appropriate techniques – methods and instruments – means), followed by British. Americans because of their non-participation in the war had left behind in the development of techniques and means for collecting and processing information. This changed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor3 and the American entry into the war4. The USA intelligence 1 Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (1 July 1780 – 16 November 1831): was a German-Prussian soldier and military theorist who stressed the "moral" (in modern terms, psychological) and political aspects of war.
    [Show full text]
  • New Tools for Collaboration: the Experience of the U.S. Intelligence Community
    JANUARY 2016 1616 Rhode Island Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036 202-887-0200 | www.csis.org Lanham • Boulder • New York • London 4501 Forbes Boulevard Lanham, MD 20706 301- 459- 3366 | www.rowman.com Cover photo: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock New Tools for Collaboration The Experience of the U.S. Intelligence Community A Report of the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program ISBN 978-1-4422-5912-6 AUTHOR Ë|xHSLEOCy259126z v*:+:!:+:! Gregory F. Treverton Blank New Tools for Collaboration The Experience of the U.S. Intelligence Community AUTHOR Gregory F. Treverton January 2016 A Report of the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program Lanham • Boulder • New York • London About CSIS For over 50 years, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has worked to develop solutions to the world’s greatest policy challenges. Today, CSIS scholars are providing strategic insights and bipartisan policy solutions to help decisionmakers chart a course toward a better world. CSIS is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center’s 220 full-time staff and large network of affiliated scholars conduct research and analysis and develop policy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change. Founded at the height of the Cold War by David M. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke, CSIS was dedicated to finding ways to sustain American prominence and prosperity as a force for good in the world. Since 1962, CSIS has become one of the world’s preeminent international institutions focused on defense and security; regional stability; and transnational challenges ranging from energy and climate to global health and economic integration. Thomas J.
    [Show full text]
  • U.S. Intelligence Reform a Bureaucratic Politics Approach
    University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2010 U.S. Intelligence Reform A Bureaucratic Politics Approach Bonnie M. Schickler University of Central Florida Part of the Political Science Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Schickler, Bonnie M., "U.S. Intelligence Reform A Bureaucratic Politics Approach" (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 1669. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/1669 U.S. INTELLIGENCE REFORM: A BUREAUCRATIC POLITICS APPROACH by BONNIE M. SCHICKLER B.A. University of Central Florida, 2008 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Political Science in the College of Science at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2010 © 2010 Bonnie Schickler ii ABSTRACT This study investigates the current bureaucratic struggles that exist within the U.S. intelligence community as a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004. The first part of this research examines the history of intelligence reform in the United States beginning with the National Security Act of 1947. The second part provides an in- depth discussion of the 2004 legislation as well as an examination of the main bureaucratic conflicts that have arisen between the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the rest of the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010
    PUBLIC LAW 111–259—OCT. 7, 2010 INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010 VerDate Nov 24 2008 02:55 Oct 21, 2010 Jkt 099139 PO 00259 Frm 00001 Fmt 6579 Sfmt 6579 E:\PUBLAW\PUBL259.111 GPO1 PsN: PUBL259 anorris on DSK5R6SHH1PROD with PUBLIC LAWS 124 STAT. 2654 PUBLIC LAW 111–259—OCT. 7, 2010 Public Law 111–259 111th Congress An Act To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2010 for intelligence and intelligence- Oct. 7, 2010 related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management [H.R. 2701] Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of Intelligence the United States of America in Congress assembled, Authorization Act for Fiscal SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. Year 2010. (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010’’. (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for this Act is as follows: Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Sec. 2. Definitions. TITLE I—BUDGET AND PERSONNEL AUTHORIZATIONS Sec. 101. Authorization of appropriations. Sec. 102. Restriction on conduct of intelligence activities. Sec. 103. Budgetary provisions. TITLE II—CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEM Sec. 201. Technical modification to mandatory retirement provision of the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement Act. TITLE III—GENERAL INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY MATTERS Subtitle A—Personnel Matters Sec. 301. Increase in employee compensation and benefits authorized by law. Sec. 302. Enhanced flexibility in nonreimbursable details to elements of the intel- ligence community.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 2 China's Impact on U.S. Security Interests
    CHAPTER 2 CHINA’S IMPACT ON U.S. SECURITY INTERESTS SECTION 1: MILITARY AND SECURITY YEAR IN REVIEW Introduction This section—based on a Commission hearing, discussions with outside experts and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) officials, and independent research—examines China’s late 2012 national and military leadership transition, China’s 2012 defense white paper, China’s 2013 defense budget, China’s military moderniza- tion, security developments involving China, and the U.S.-China security relationship. The section concludes with a discussion of China’s impact on U.S. security interests. See chapter 2, section 2 and chapter 2, section 3, for coverage of China’s cyber activities and China’s maritime disputes, respectively. Leadership Transition President Xi Jinping Assumes Central Military Commission Chairmanship China’s late 2012 leadership transition brought the largest turn- over to the Central Military Commission (CMC) * in a decade. Xi Jinping assumed the position of both CMC chairman and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary at the CCP’s 18th Party Congress on November 15, 2012. President Xi then completed his accession as China’s senior leader by becoming the People’s Repub- lic of China (PRC) president on March 14, 2013. Although Presi- dent Xi was widely expected to eventually assume all three of Chi- na’s top leadership posts, many observers were surprised by the speed of his elevation to CMC chairman. Official Chinese press de- scribed President Xi’s early promotion as an ‘‘unusual twist to Chi- na’s leadership transition’’ and praised outgoing CMC Chairman Hu Jintao for his decision to step down.1 Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Open-Source Intelligence from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (Redirected from Open Source Intelligence)
    Open -source intelligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 6 Open-source intelligence From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Open source intelligence) Open-source intelligence ( OSINT ) is intelligence collected from publicly available sources. [1] In the intelligence community (IC), the term "open" refers to overt, publicly available sources (as opposed to covert or clandestine sources); it is not related to open-source software or public intelligence. Contents ◾ 1 Open sources for intelligence ◾ 2 Definers for OSINT ◾ 3 Competitive intelligence ◾ 4 Risks for practitioners ◾ 5 Value ◾ 6 Process ◾ 7 History ◾ 8 OSINT communities ◾ 8.1 Government ◾ 8.2 Intelligence ◾ 8.3 Armed Forces ◾ 8.4 Homeland Security ◾ 8.5 Law enforcement ◾ 8.6 Business ◾ 9 See also ◾ 10 References ◾ 11 Literature ◾ 12 External links Open sources for intelligence OSINT includes a wide variety of information and sources: ◾ Media: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and computer-based information. ◾ Web-based communities and user-generated content: social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. ◾ Public data: government reports, official data such as budgets, demographics, hearings, legislative debates, press conferences, speeches, marine and aeronautical safety warnings, environmental impact statements and contract awards. ◾ Observation and reporting: amateur airplane spotters, radio monitors and satellite observers among many others have provided significant information not otherwise available. The availability of worldwide satellite photography, often of high resolution, on the Web (e.g., Google Earth) has expanded open-source capabilities into areas formerly available only to major intelligence services. ◾ Professional and academic (including grey literature): conferences, symposia, professional associations, academic papers, and subject matter experts. [2] ◾ Most information has geospatial dimensions, but many often overlook the geospatial side of OSINT: not all open-source data is unstructured text.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 5. Collection and the Collection Disciplines
    CHAPTER FIVE COLLECTION AND THE COLLECTION DISCIPLINES ollection is the bedrock of intelligence. Intelligence collection has been written C about since the biblical references to spies in Numbers, chapters 13 and 14, and the Book of Joshua. Without collection, intelligence is little more than guesswork— perhaps educated guesswork, but guesswork nonetheless. The United States and sev- eral other nations use multiple means of collecting the intelligence they require. The means are driven by two factors: the nature of the intelligencedistribute being sought and the ability to acquire it in various ways. In the United States, the means of collecting intel- ligence are sometimes referred to as collection disciplinesor or INTs. This chapter discusses the overarching themes that affect all means of collection; it then addresses what the various INTs provide as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Primarily in the military, collection is sometimes spoken of as ISR: intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The term covers three different types of activities. 1. Intelligence: a general termpost, for collection 2. Surveillance: the systematic observation of a targeted area or group, usually for an extended period of time 3. Reconnaissance: a mission to acquire information about a target, sometimes meaning copy,a one-time endeavor OVERARCHINGnot THEMES Several themes or issues cut across the collection disciplines and tend to drive many of the debates and decisions on intelligence collection. These themes point out that Docollection involves more than questions such as, “What can be collected?” or “Should that be collected?” Collection is a highly complex government activity that requires numerous decisions and has many stress points.
    [Show full text]
  • The U.S. Intelligence Community: Selected Cross-Cutting Issues
    The U.S. Intelligence Community: Selected Cross-Cutting Issues Anne Daugherty Miles Analyst in Intelligence and National Security Policy April 12, 2016 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R44455 The U.S. Intelligence Community: Selected Cross-Cutting Issues Summary This report focuses on cross-cutting management issues that affect the Intelligence Community’s (IC’s) ability to counter “pervasive and emerging threats” to the United States and balance resources both appropriately and wisely. As the IC’s senior manager, these issues ultimately fall within the Director of National Intelligence’s (DNI’s) area of responsibility. The DNI is charged with integrating the community of intelligence agencies so that they operate effectively as one team. There are no easy solutions to the challenges examined in this report. The IC’s efforts to demonstrate progress are hampered by difficulties such as the IC’s diffuse structure—a confederation of separately managed component parts; the unique demands of operating in secret; the interrelationships between many issues; and diminishing resources. The issues selected for examination in this report were chosen because they affect a number of agencies and are widely discussed by professionals within and external to the IC (and are not so complex that they need their own separate report). 1. Budget. Are the resources in the IC budget (the national and military intelligence programs) managed and balanced appropriately to meet the needs of every agency and the IC mission as a whole? 2. Analysis. The heart and soul of the intelligence function; analysis is the responsibility of every IC agency.
    [Show full text]
  • The Relationship Between BBC Monitoring and FBIS Relied on The
    The Intelligence Agency That Came into the Cold: FBIS and the Cold War August A. Imholtz, Jr., former Vice President, Government Publications, Readex The relationship between BBC Monitoring and FBIS relied on the principle of dividing the world for the purposes of efficient monitoring and acting as suppliers to one another of their work, with one organisation supplying the other with translated texts they had monitored and each re-editing the content for their specific audience. The US Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) nearly missed the Cold War. This paper explains how that almost came about, then how FBIS grew in size and scope during the Cold War years, what its intelligence products were – primarily the FBIS Daily Report in its various parts and fascicles, the content of the Daily Reports (for it eventually grew into more than a single Report), the dissemination of the Daily Reports within and outside the American government, examples of FBIS successes and its ordinary but not necessarily insignificant translations and transcriptions, and the overlap and interaction between FBIS and the BBC Monitoring Service. Appendices provide data on the distribution of languages translated, by major languages; the number of Reports and “articles” included in the FBIS Daily Reports from 1941 to 1996; and other FBIS publications in addition to the Daily Reports. FBIS’s Near Death Experiences At the end of the Second World War, a great number of those US government agencies and offices, which had been created to respond to wartime needs and emergencies, were reduced in responsibility, reorganized for other purposes, or simply terminated.
    [Show full text]