LETTER TO JOHN F. KERRY FROM JOHN H. MOSEMAN RE FBIS HARDCOPY PRODUCTS (W/ATTAC

Created: 6/26/1996

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

66

The Honorable John F. Kerry United States Senate.

Dear Senator Kerry:

Recently your office was providedopyetter

addressed to Niles Riddel, Director of the Foreign Broadcast

Information Service (FBIS), from Professor Alvin z. Rubinstein,

University of Pennsylvania. The professor expressed his

dissatisfaction over the cessation of FBIS hardcopy products.

FBIS has responded to Professor Rubinstein's concern. opy

of the letter is enclosed for your information.

-{il-^John H. Moseman Director of Congressional Affairs

Sincerely,

. jul l'Q07

Enclosures

subject: fbis transition from hardcopy to soetcopy

dci/oca/

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enator jesse helmsncls)enator john mccainncls) originalenator john warner ncls)enator arlen specterncls)enator robert j- kerreyncls)enator richard g. lugarncls)enator richard c. shelbyncls)enator james inhofencls)enator john glennncls)enator john f. kerryncls)enator charles s. robbncls)ep. floyd spencencls)

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Foreign Broadcast Information Service

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Professor Alvin Z. Rubinstein University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences Political Sciencetitclcr Hall

Philadelphia,5

Dear Professor Rubinstein:

Thank you for your letter of. We certainly appreciate your views on the importance of what FBIS is doing and can empathize wilh your preference for hardcopy.

m sure you can understand the challenges FBIS is facing with the rapid advances in technology on the one hand, and reductions in resources on the other. Our customers in the policy and analytical communities ofthe government have been urging us to make our products available more quickly andore usable form. Regretfully, resource constraints do nol allow us both tooftcopy environment to meef these needs and maintain our traditional hardcopy production infrastructure.

As you may know, the Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS) serves as the government's broker with the public for FBIS products. For example, NTIS currently makes FBIS information available to the public on Internet via

UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA

School of Art* and Sciences

Political Sciencetitelcr Hall Philadelphia,5

6

Kr. iViles Riddel, Director FBIS

P.O.L. JCCOJ

Dear Mr. Riddel:

If this letter leads one person interested in intelligence collection and uklMli to ask sou questions about tha w'adoo of relying solely on electronic dissemination of date to interested analysts it will hav* been the effort.

For decades the Foreign Broadcast InformationIS) Daily Reports servedtne eyes of intelligence analysts and, of course, academic researchers. Vibhout rBIS ve vould have been as handicappederson waitingeavily wooded forestole clenched between the teeth. Hard copy facilitated retention of historicalaparison across regions, and soeed in scanning divers- sourest. fhoold alsothe inraluable supolMe.it provided by the JPSS translations of -oncer, no re serious esalyses published in languages such as Russia, Arabic, andon.

nderstand th- matter, the decisionbeen Still, if tbe logic is weax end the results are not up to high expectations, perhaps those cenc-rned about the Jtttltty of intelligence msy take another look at the sucscsed benefits of going electronic tjBLt is to go completely electronic by the end of tha pi AT, or possihiv earlyis neve is driven by the following considerationst

o the desire cf auet consusors in the intelligence eosstuRity for lrnTonttloa as soon as possible;

o the desire to save money (financial the momentun of technologies! development.

TheTelligancg coaaunitv foration, anacceptdsrstand the need for obtaining data JgkT. hopefully,

analysis of ongoing eeeots. MB WrfTSW nOOftpC rBE nUff Viewed Strictly fro, the perspective of analysisata, the

implicit assumption underlying the Justification of going electronic in terns cf spee*hat day-old data can be discarded or need not be consicersd. Once the analyst has seen the electronic data, the assumption goes, he moves on, snd yesterday's data became irrelevant. The fie-ts in such ar. argument are obvious.

easier=

Ifanalyst needs tcecond look at data free th*ull thehe ccsputer. this, too,loser lock. Is itcan hard copiesS arterial on Russia or is it easier to do so electronically? ait! which sethod provides the analystrcaierense of the^irOBnect within which the data is to be evaluated?ven and dependent analysis may turn out to be "foci's gold."

The desire to save money. aving of several million dollarsI havean able toollar-figure approximation from anyone I've spoken with, and ao everv-thlng is vague (deliberately?). How many positions are being "saved" through Probably no aiore than that. illion defense budget isonsequent! saving? Tou couldn't evanighterear for that money.

Administrators may have to cut their budgets, but certainly analysts and analytically responsible officials cannot, surely, think about tho manifold issues that race the intelligence community and skimp on data-collection and data-analysis. Th* argument has been made toshould the government in effect subsidise the academic community by continuing to put out hard copies of FBIS Reports? the answer is simple) because the academics constslute another line of intelligence collection and analysis; they publish results that have some relevance for the intelligence community; they help place developments in perspective; and because they are helpful, at time, as prospective short-term government employees and occasional consultants. The research done by academics who hive over the decades relied on FBIS and other such publications has been useful for government. In the future, the role of the academic will be more important than during the

Cold War, because academics- greater ability to conduct field research and"'-

make assessment on tha basis of personal connections that may contravenee analyst limitedomputer console and to material translatedS.

Tsncriologles! aomentai. Technology is not all bad, but neither is it the answer to all problems. an see in my computer-literate students thetputer DCES fCT KOSSAEILI LEAD TO BETTER THDreilC, TO MORE ASA LITSSESSrOTS, OR TO BETTER VRUDIG. The computer merely provides faster ways of manipulating material and of churning out neatly appearing papers. The notion, being foisted on unsuspecting" administrators, by technology firms such as lotus thet electronic mail canchool the need.to ever have to bother with paper again is another bit of fool's gold.

The analyst vmS has to dependail, which doesn't always work as it in supposed to since main frames get ovarloadeti;the analyst who relies on the computer and never brouses through regional newspapers or journals or who never looks at FSIS materia: that is not of immediate concern; the analyst who thinks that signalling the computer for informationpecific issue will bring all the relevant material to the console; tha analyst who expects toecessary perspective on the special issues that are of immediateof these are belne shortchanged by the management decision that is being made.are the implications of going electronic lbs. the training of anal

In the Immediateongthe most deprived may be the very ones who nost neeC" the assessments.

I'll stop. If anyone gets thishank you for your patient*. To thinkthe implications of what FEES is bent on. They do affect secturityprofoundly.

Co* Dr. John Deutctu director of CIA Senator Jesseenator John McCain

Senator John Wimer ,

3ob Kerry, Senatoren. Richard LugarSen. Richard Shelby (JJJ Sen. Jarr.es Innofe,nH(0kla) Sen. John Glenn i> Sen. John F. Kerry CriA Sen. Charles Robb (VA)

D/OCA

via

DD/OCA

DATE OF REOJMT

un 96

SUSPSNSE DATi

to Sens Helms, McCain, Warner, Specter, Kerrey, Lugar, Shelby, Inhofe, Glerm, Kerry, Robb, and Rep Spence

re: FBIS' Transition from Hardcopy to Softcopy

NO TIB

(ACTION ITBM:

COOWDHtfTEO WITH ftm rrnnm mottem)

Riddel

ncouinaoCA

8 tuTfxa

Konew and Signature on)

Original document.

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