Foreign Broadcast Information Service
Encyclopedia
Open source intelligence
Open-source intelligence is a form of intelligence collection management that involves finding, selecting, and acquiring information from publicly available sources and analyzing it to produce actionable intelligence...
component of the Central Intelligence Agency's
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
Directorate of Science and Technology. It monitored, translated, and disseminated within the U.S. government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
openly available news and information from media sources outside the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Its headquarters was in Rosslyn
Rosslyn
Rosslyn can refer to:* Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland* Rosslyn, Arlington, Virginia, United States** Rosslyn , the Washington Metro station serving Rosslyn* Rosslyn, Ontario, Canada...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
38.8947°N 77.0717°W, later Reston
Reston
Reston may refer to:* Reston, Florida, an unincoporated communicty in Florida, United States* Reston, Lincolnshire, a parish in England, UK* Reston, Manitoba, a small community in southwestern Manitoba, Canada* Reston Scar, a fell in Cumbria, England, UK...
, Virginia 38.955°N 77.359°W, and it maintained approximately 20 monitoring stations worldwide. In November 2005, it was announced that FBIS would become the newly formed Open Source Center
Open Source Center
The Director of National Intelligence Open Source Center is a United States government intelligence center that provides analysis of open source materials, including gray literature, through OSC's headquarters and overseas bureaus...
, tasked with the collection and analysis of freely available intelligence.
History
In February 1941, President Roosevelt directed that $150,000 be allocated for creation of the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service (FBMS) under the authority of the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
. The mandate of the FBMS was to record, translate, transcribe and analyze shortwave propaganda radio programs that were being beamed at the United States by the Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
. Its first monitoring station was established October 1941 in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
.
With the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the FBMS was transferred to the Department of the Army
United States Department of the Army
The Department of the Army is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Army is the Federal Government agency which the United States Army is organized within, and it is led by the Secretary of the Army who has...
. Like many other wartime organizations, the FBMS was threatened with disbandment. The possibility of its disbandment was roundly criticized in many different quarters, which helped ensure its survival.
In the 1947 the National Security Act of 1947
National Security Act of 1947
The National Security Act of 1947 was signed by United States President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1947, and realigned and reorganized the U.S. Armed Forces, foreign policy, and Intelligence Community apparatus in the aftermath of World War II...
, was created and the FBMS was renamed the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) as a part of the CIA. Its original mission was centered on radio and press agency monitoring. But with the Cold War, FBIS' mission was expanded in 1967 to include foreign mass media whether it was transmitted by radio or TV, and print. In 2007, Readex
Readex
Readex has published numerous collections of primary source research materials, first as Readex Microprint Corporation and since 1984 as a division of NewsBank....
, a division of NewsBank, announced its plans to create a digital edition entitled Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1941-1996.
Services
FBIS had approximately 20 stations, commonly called bureaus, that were located around the world. These stations operated as an adjunct of a U.S. embassy/consulate or military command. Bureaus opened and closed at various times depending on the world situation and local circumstances. These stations were not covert and operated with the consent of the host government. In addition, a few of the bureaus were located on territory belonging to or administered by the US such as Key West, Florida, Bahia Sucia, Puerto Rico, the Panama Canal Zone, etc. The personnel in the stations were both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals who were responsible for the collection, translation, and dissemination of foreign open source material. Depending on location, and the availability of print media, these personnel may have been responsible for translation of more than one language. It should also be noted that because of the large number print/radio/TV/satellite sources worldwide FBIS did not collect all open source material, but only those sources that met the requirements of the Intelligence CommunityUnited States Intelligence Community
The United States Intelligence Community is a cooperative federation of 16 separate United States government agencies that work separately and together to conduct intelligence activities considered necessary for the conduct of foreign relations and the protection of the national security of the...
.
Besides the translations done overseas a large volume of less-time sensitive material was sent to FBIS headquarters in Rosslyn and Reston where a more detailed translation could take place.
Not only were translations provided by in-house FBIS personnel, but approximately 700 independent contractors were also employed.
Customers
Material provided by FBIS was disseminated to over 700 recipients in not only in the U.S. Intelligence Community, but also a large number of government, diplomatic and military organizations.The material provided by the FBIS, although it comes from openly available, public radio and TV broadcasts, is not made freely available to the American people.
Saving FBIS from budget cuts
The Federation of American ScientistsFederation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...
launched a successful campaign in 1997 to save FBIS from planned budget cuts.
The Larry Chin spy incident
Larry Wu-Tai ChinLarry Wu-Tai Chin
Larry Wu-tai Chin was a former Chinese language translator working for the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service...
worked for FBIS from 1952 to 1981 and sold classified documents to China.
Australia: Office of National AssessmentsOffice of National AssessmentsThe Office of National Assessments is an Australian intelligence agency. ONA was established by the Office of National Assessments Act 1977 as an independent body directly accountable to the Prime Minister of Australia...
Office of National Assessments.Open Source Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
China: Xinhua News AgencyXinhua News AgencyThe Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...
Xinhua News Agency collects published information in other countries and circulates, for mid- and high-level internal consumption, publications such as Reference Information (Cankao Ziliao), Internal Reference (Neibu Cankao), and "Redhead" Reference (Hongtou Cankao).Further reading
- ISBN 0-8069-8238-1 The Wizards of Langley by Jeffrey T. Richelson about the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology
- ISBN 1-57488-345-3 Silent Warfare by Abram N. Shulsky and Gary James Schmitt about basic concepts and issues involved in government intelligence
- The CIA and the US Intelligence System by Scott D. Breckinridge about the structure of the US intelligence community
- Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy by Mark M. Lowenthal about the role of intelligence in policymaking
- Sailing the Sea of OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) in the Information Age by Stephen C. Mercado. Studies in Intelligence, vol. 48, no. 3, 2004
- Reexamining the Distinction Between Open Information and Secrets by Stephen C. Mercado. Studies in Intelligence, vol. 49, no. 2, 2005
- The Scope of FBIS and BBC Open Source Media Coverage, 1979–2008 by Kalev Leetaru. Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 54, no.1, 2010
- Foreign Broadcast Information Service History Part I: 1941-1947 by Joseph E. Roob. Written in 1969, declassified in 2009.