TITLE: tandard Defector Queetionaire
AUTHOR: BarlD. Englejohn
VOLUME:
STUDIES IN
INTELLIGENCE
A collection ol articles on Hie historical oporoiional. doctrinal, and theoretical aspects ol intelligence.
AII statements of fact, opinion or analysis expressed in Studies in Intelligence are those of
the authors They do not necessarily reflect official positions or views of the Central Intelligence Agency or any other US Government entity, past or present. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying US Government endorsement of an article's factual statements and interpretations.
4 suggested way to streamline Ua handling of raw CIdata.
TANDARD DEFECTORD.
In these days ol amazing technological accomplishments wecling to r. horsc-and I'urcy system lor recording and dj|raw biographic information of counterintelligence significance obtained from defectors and refugees. Nothing could be more routine and unequivocal than name, age.occupation, personal description,ut we treat this Information as an exercise In composition, to be mulled over, polished, revised, and rewritten several times.
An Interviewerield station, during his questioningefugee about acquaintances of CI Interest. Jots down in note form the biographic data and any significant remarks. He then returns to his office and rewrites the notesraft dispatch. This goesypist, who puts it Into final form. Thus the information is written out three times before It ever leaves the field station; and If the source has to be reques-tloncd still more rewriting may be necessary. When thearrives at headquarters, it often contains cryptonyms or references to previous correspondence which have to be eliminated or clarified before passing to other agencies:rewrite here. When the other agencies finally get it. Ihey have their own processing and indexing to do.
Is all this multiple rewriting and handling really necessary" Oray be found for the mttrviewer to record thein the first placeorm In which it could be used by all agencies thatounterintelligence responsibility?
Let us look at an example. Supposeember of the Cuban clandestine service defects In New York Cityounterintelligence officer, gives biographiconormer colleagues still residing In Cuba,r whom travel abroad on missions for the service. Could not the interviewer, using forms comparable to the Civil Service Pormat with adjustments to accommodate the special
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questions required in CI cases, print on them the source's basic information on theseolleagues, filling one form for each? If the usual challenging and cross examinationin changes in the data he could make whateverwere necessary by erasing or obliterating his firstFor any additional significant remarks in narrative form he could attach asjrn&nyreouhjd/arrf once he (and his supervisor) deemed the forms complete they could merely be reproduced for immediate distribution to the interested agencies. We have excellent reproductionnowadays.
Iftandard procedure for handling biographicfrom refugees were adopted in coordination, these would be the benefits: >-
Economy of labor. The interviewer would have to record the information once only, and he would also be spared the labor of writing repetitively the topical headingsDate ofnd so on. Perhaps no typing at all would be necessary until the Information were actually exploitedeceiving agency, and considerable typing labor would be saved. The forms could be numbered inay as to be cited as reference inin inter-agency correspondence, and perhaps inFurthermore, one agency could perhaps arrange to produce companion index cards to accompany the form,other agencies of the burden of carding or Indexing.
Economj* oj materials. The elimination of rewrites of the same information would conserve paper and filing space and reduce paper handling.
Speed of distribution. It is far better to getay or so after it is recorded than to wait for weeks while it is being rewritten several times and incorporatedomprehensive report for distribution. If routine biographic information were distributed Immediately upon acquisition It could be screened and traced promptly to determine whether any additional action were necessary.
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Efficiency in interviewing. Although the CI agencies could agree on the basic biographic data required by all, each agency has particular areas erf interest. If the routine questioning Is being done by the CIA, for example, the FBI may wish
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add certain routine questions to be asked of the source. At present the Bureau can do this only through case-by-caseor by arranging for further questioning by itstandard questionnaire were adopted it could Include questions of particular interest to each agency as well as the questions of common Interest.
Otherompleted standard questionnaireersonood beginningileorms of substantial biographic data from our Cuban defector would each become the nucleusossier. By their very nature, moreover, forms categorize information so that It can conveniently be converted into machine language formanipulation, ifrogram is under way.
Tlie usetandard questionnaire in routine interviews of refugees and defectors has already proved itself ln Oermany. After years of dupllcstkm of effort and delays. CIA and theArmy agreediographic data questionnaire printed In quadruplicate, and this form is used routinely forInformation on staff members of the East Germanservice Willi this successful precedent and theinefficiency of present rewrite methods, it would seem logical for all agencies using biographic information of CIto meet and agreetandard procedure forthe raw data.
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Original document.
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