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Who We Are and
What We Do

The Intelligence Cycle

  1. Planning and Direction
  2. This is how we decide how to do the job assigned to us. We list what we know and what we don't know and how we will get it to the policy maker.

  3. Collection
  4. We set out to collect the raw information that we need to do the job. We collect the information from many sources: newspapers, magazines, and foreign radio or TV broadcasts, which are overt or "open." Some sources are "covert"--that is, other people's secrets. We persuade these people to tell us their secrets. The other way we collect information is with electronics and satellite photography (taking pictures from space).

  5. Processing
  6. We take all the information we have collected and put it into an easy form to understand called an intelligence report. It could be anything from a translation of a document in a foreign language to a description of what we see in a satellite photo.

  7. Analysis and Production
  8. OK, here's where we sit down with all the information we've gathered, sort through it, and write a paper to answer the question or tasking!

  9. Dissemination
  10. This is it, the final step---we give that paper to the policy maker, the same policy maker who started the whole cycle! After reading it and learning the answer to the question, the policy maker could ask more questions. And then we would start the whole process over again!

    Who does these jobs?

Index
What Is Intelligence Main Page
What We Do
The People
The Organization
Disguise
Intelligence Cycle
Executive Oversight
Congressional Oversight
CIA Kids Page

Index to CIA Kids Page | What Is Intelligence Main Page | Our Mission | The People | The Organization | Try on a Disguise | The Intelligence Cycle | Congressional Oversight | Executive Oversight | CIA Kids Home Page