planning

 Policymakers, including the president, his or her advisers, the National Security
Council, and other major departments and agencies of government, initiate
requests for intelligence. The IC’s issue coordinators interact with these
officials to identify core concerns and information requirements. These needs
then guide our collection strategies, and allow us to produce the appropriate
intelligence products. We begin by examining finished intelligence from
previous cycles, which leads us to formulate a strategic plan for new
intelligence gathering and analysis.
collection
 In this stage, also known as data gathering, intelligence is acquired through
activities, such as interviews, technical and physical surveillance, human source
operations, searches and liaison relationships. Information can be gathered
from open, covert, electronic and satellite sources.

Processing
Synthesizing the raw intelligence into a usable state
The collection stage of the intelligence process typically yields large amounts of
unfiltered data, which requires organization. Substantial intelligence resources are
devoted to the synthesis of this data into a form that intelligence analysts can use.
Information filtering techniques include:
 Exploiting imagery
 Decoding messages and translating broadcasts
 Reducing telemetry to meaningful measures
 Preparing information for computer processing, storage and
retrieval

 Placing human-source reports into a form and context to make

them more understandable

Dissemination
Distributing intelligence products to the policymakers who requested them
Once information has been reviewed and correlated with data from other available
sources, it is called finished intelligence, and is disseminated directly to the same
policymakers whose initial needs generated the intelligence requirements. Finished
intelligence is provided daily to the president and key national security advisers who
then make decisions based on this information. These decisions may lead to requests
for further examination, thus triggering the intelligence cycle again.
There are five categories of finished intelligence.
 Current Intelligence
Addresses day-to-day events
 Estimative Intelligence
Looks forward to assess potential developments that could affect
U.S. national security
 Warning Intelligence
Sounds an alarm or gives notice to policymakers
 Scientific and Technical Intelligence
Includes an examination of the technical development,
characteristics, performance and capabilities of foreign
technologies, including weapon systems or subsystems
 Research Intelligence
Supports other finished intelligence products (current,
estimative, warning, and scientific and technical)
dissemination
 Processed information are disseminated through Annexes, Estimates, Briefing,
Message, Reports, Overlays, Summaries. The criteria that must be observed in
dissemination are:
 Timeless – must reach the users on time to be of value. It must be disseminated
in accordance with the urgency and must reach the user in sufficient time to be
use.
 Propriety – the message must be clear, concise and complete, as well as in
the proper form for the receiver to readily understand its contents. It must be
disseminated to the correct user, presented in a form that lends itself to
immediate use and distributed by the most effective means appropriate to both
time and security requirements.