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(U//FOUO) Goodbye SEIB, Hello WIRe
FROM: Geoff Fowler
WIRe Managing Editor (CIA)
Run Date: 07/31/2006
(U//FOUO) The CIA's daily corporate intelligence publication has a new name and a new look...
(Note: Patrick Bomgardner, Chief, Executive Support Staff (S17), helped produce this article.)
(U//FOUO) CIA retired the Senior Executive Intelligence Brief (SEIB) on Saturday, 29 July, and
in its place today launched the World Intelligence Review (WIRe) as its daily (except
Sundays) premiere corporate intelligence publication. The WIRe adopts format and business
process changes that allow the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence (DI) to better provide
"Intelligence with Currency" to its customers and to avoid the risks of homogenized intelligence
identified in the WMD Commission Report. Additional details on the WIRe will be forthcoming in
its inaugural edition, which will be made available to all current SEIB recipients.
(U//FOUO) The WIRe Managing Editor answers some Frequently Asked Questions about this new
publication:
(U//FOUO) Who is the audience for the WIRe? The printed edition of the WIRe is targeted at
national level customers at the Cabinet and sub-Cabinet (Under and Assistant Secretary) level.
Initial distribution of the WIRe will be to current SEIB recipients.
(U//FOUO) How does the WIRe differ from the SEIB? The WIRe will present "Intelligence
with Currency" -- of current value to the reader -- whether it was created just for that day's
publication or as part of the DI's research effort. This approach will allow the DI to leverage the
full range of its content to the benefit of customers in a manner that also permits greater
emphasis on the development of thoughtful analysis. To avoid the failings of homogenized
intelligence identified in the WMD Commission Report, WIRe items will not be formally
coordinated across the Intelligence Community (IC), but will present thoughtful analytical
counterpoints both from within and outside CIA.
(U//FOUO) Why not just change the contents and process within the existing SEIB?
Customers may have noticed that CIA, over the course of the past six months, experimented
with changing the content and form of items conveyed within the SEIB, to include publication of
Red Cells, foldout graphics, and a variety of in-depth special analyses. CIA concluded as a result
of this effort that additional business process changes were required to successfully adopt its
vision of "Intelligence with Currency" and to eliminate homogenized intelligence through
adoption of the Thesis-Antithesis model. Taken together, the change to content and business
process reflected a significant departure from the SEIB; thus CIA decided to retire the SEIB and
launch the WIRe to make clear the differing aspects of the publication.
(U//FOUO) What does the WIRe mean for DI analysts as far as coordination with other
IC Agencies? Unlike the SEIB, the WIRe is intended to convey the DI's analytic view on a given
substantive issue. As such, submissions to the WIRe do not require community coordination for
substance. Most often, we expect that WIRe items will reflect the corporate view of the DI and
be coordinated for substance across appropriate offices, however the WIRe will on a case-bycase basis accept content that reflects an uncoordinated view from within the DI as a form of
special analysis--an Analytic Opinion. In the event an Office or author wants to offer an
internally uncoordinated item, the authoring entity must explain why the item has not been
coordinated internally and if there are any known differing analytic views within the DI. In the
event an uncoordinated item is selected for publication, the WIRe Managing Editor will allow
alternative views to be conveyed either through a companion item or in a "Letters to the Editor"
column.
(U//FOUO) What role will other IC elements have relative to the WIRe? Consistent with
normal clearance practices, when ORCON material is used in analytic items scheduled for
conveyance through the WIRe, CIA analysts will seek originating agency clearance for use of the
particular content. If other IC analytic elements have a differing analytic conclusion or view, the
organization may submit a corporate response to the WIRe Managing Editor who will make a
determination as to whether the feedback is included in a Letters to the Editor section of the
WIRe or possibly as an alternative analytic piece.
(U//FOUO) How will alternative views be conveyed in the WIRe? In the printed edition of
the WIRe alternative views submitted to and selected by the WIRe Managing Editor will be
presented in either a "Letters to the Editor" column or, if the issues warrant, as a separate
analytical content items. When the WIRe online is deployed, customers may be presented a
"link" that takes them to alternative analytic views.
(U//FOUO) What do you mean by the Thesis-Antithesis Editorial Model? The WIRe will
represent the analytic "thesis" of the DI or a given element or individual within the DI.
Alternative views (the antithesis) will be presented either as companion analytic items or
conveyed via a "Letters to the Editor" column. This approach was adopted in response to WMD
Commission warnings against the production of homogenized intelligence and the recognition
that past coordination models associated with the SEIB tended to produce lowest common
denominator analysis, rather than effectively highlighting analytical differences.
(U//FOUO) How will other Agencies provide their "antithesis" views? Each element of the
IC will need to identify their own process for submitting corporately coordinated alternative
analytical views to WIRe items. Those views, questions, and comments may be submitted to the
WIRe Managing Editor. [Note from Patrick Bomgardner, Chief, Executive Support Staff:
While details are still being worked out, we plan that NSA WIRe submissions will be
made through the S17 Executive Support Staff using a process similar to that used for
the submission of President's Daily Briefing items.]
(U//FOUO) What is the "WIRe online"? While the initial launch of the WIRe is in hardcopy,
CIA is devoted to providing a robust online interface that allows more comprehensive
conveyance of our WIRe analytic content. The DI has made great strides developing a dynamic
on-line vehicle patterned after the best of online web-content sites. This JWICs/Intelink-based
service uses advancements in technology to present analytic content dynamically and opens a
world of opportunities for creation and conveyance of analytical insights. CIA has targeted
deployment to customers in early FY07, however the pilot system is already deployed internally
in CIA.
(U//FOUO) What are the look-and-feel differences? The hallmark of the WIRe will be
flexibility of presentation and quality and depth of content. CIA has during the past six months
been testing many WIRe elements in the exiting SEIB, to include longer richer special analyses,
foldout graphics, and other variations in form. The WIRe will have a new layout, with room for
short "World-in-Brief" items, longer "Articles," and "Special Analyses" that may take various
forms and include in-depth research, red cell and alternative views, or even graphics-only
stories. Each item will also carry with it the byline of the authoring office and office contact
information is printed on the inside cover of the WIRe. The WIRe will not contain organization
"slugs" at the end of item as was common in the SEIB.
(U//FOUO) Are the handling restrictions for the WIRe different than the SEIB? Yes.
Unlike the SEIB, customers will be permitted to retain WIRe items provided that they are
handled and stored in accordance with their classification and are disposed of in accordance with
the host agency records control schedule. To facilitate this, individual items in the WIRe will
carry the classification of the given article vice the overall classification of the composite
publication.
(U//FOUO) What will happen to the various derivative documents of the SEIB? Until the
WIRe online is made available to customers, SEIB derivatives such as the World Wide NID on
JWICs, the World Brief on SIPRNet, and various DIFNET and other derivatives will continue.
WIRe items will also be submitted to CIA Source. The contents of these items will be derived
from the WIRe in the same manner as they had been derived from the SEIB.
(U//FOUO) How have other IC partners reacted to the WIRe? CIA has informed the
Director CIA, our community partners, and the ODNI about our plans and has received uniformly
positive and supportive feedback.
(U//FOUO) For additional information contact the S17 Executive Support Staff via e-mail at DL
S17ESSOPS or phone at
(U) Kryptos sculpture in the CIA courtyard
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108