s last updated on 8 February 2007

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CIA - The World Factbook -- History

A Brief History of Basic Intelligence and The World Factbook

The Intelligence Cycle is the process by which information is
acquired, converted into intelligence, and made available to
policymakers. Information is raw data from any source, data that may
be fragmentary, contradictory, unreliable, ambiguous, deceptive, or
wrong. Intelligence is information that has been collected,
integrated, evaluated, analyzed, and interpreted. Finished
intelligence is the final product of the Intelligence Cycle ready to
be delivered to the policymaker.

The three types of finished intelligence are: basic, current, and
estimative. Basic intelligence provides the fundamental and factual
reference material on a country or issue. Current intelligence
reports on new developments. Estimative intelligence judges probable
outcomes. The three are mutually supportive: basic intelligence is
the foundation on which the other two are constructed; current
intelligence continually updates the inventory of knowledge; and
estimative intelligence revises overall interpretations of country
and issue prospects for guidance of basic and current intelligence.
The World Factbook, The President's Daily Brief, and the National
Intelligence Estimates are examples of the three types of finished
intelligence.

The United States has carried on foreign intelligence activities
since the days of George Washington but only since World War II have
they been coordinated on a government-wide basis. Three programs
have highlighted the development of coordinated basic intelligence
since that time: (1 ) the Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies
(JANIS), (2 ) the National Intelligence Survey (NIS), and (3) The
World Factbook.

During World War II, intelligence consumers realized that the
production of basic intelligence by different components of the US
Government resulted in a great duplication of effort and conflicting
information. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought
home to leaders in Congress and the executive branch the need for
integrating departmental reports to national policymakers. Detailed
and coordinated information was needed not only on such major powers
as Germany and Japan, but also on places of little previous
interest. In the Pacific Theater, for example, the Navy and Marines
had to