MILNET
Brief
National
Intelligence Estimates
|
The National Intelligence Estimate is the work product of the U.S.
Intelligence Community, as prepared by the office of the Director of
Central Intelligence (DCI) who up until quite recently has been dual
hatted as the Director of
the
CIA. Today it is believed this responsibility has been passed on
to the National Intelligence Director (NID) under new legislation
reforming the U.S. Intelligence Community. The former position,
that of the DCI, was acting as the chief intelligence officer for the
Intelligence Community.
The NIEs are typically requested from various sources, however there is
evidence that a
regular set of NIEs are prepared in certain areas as ongoing
intelligence product for the President, or more likely by request from
and destined to
the National Security Council. NIEs maybe declassified as a
result of Congressional interest as in the case of the political hot
potato which made the prognosis that the Iraqi internal struggle post
U.S. Invasion after 9/11 had become a "cause celibe" for International
Terrorists and Militant Islamic Jihadists (see Trends in Global
Terrorism: Implications for the United States below)..
The list below encompasses only some of the NIEs known, those whose
titles have been declassified and in some cases are available online
for our perusal. There may be a few in the list which have been
heavily redacted as is the practice of the Intelligence
Community. Typically this is done to protect methods and sources,
a requirement of federal law under the Classified Information Procedures
Act of 1980.
- NIEs 1-9, 1947-1950 (From the U.S.
State Department's, Emergence
of the Intelligence Establishment - 1947-1950, Foreign
Relations of the U.S. Historical Document of the State Department)
- NSIAD 96-225 , Aug. 30, 1996, analyzes
the NIE 95-15 which looks at threat from foreign ballistic missiles
- Trends in Global
Terrorism: Implications for the United
States, April 2006, declassified September, 2006
- The Estimates on the Soviet Union and
Communism, 1947 to 1985 (original from the CIA's Center for Study
of Intelligence)
- CIA
Soviet Space Program NIEs, Astronautix.Com, undated
©
Copyright 2006, Michael G. Crawford
