About
The IC’s authority to conduct intelligence activities is governed by numerous laws and regulations. Of primary importance is Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities. Most recently amended in 2008, the executive order sets strategic goals and defines roles and responsibilities within the IC, while also affirming the Nation’s commitment to protect Americans’ civil liberties and privacy rights in the conduct of intelligence activities.
Executive Order 12333 establishes this balance by prescribing general principles governing intelligence collection, retention and dissemination, and by specifying that intelligence activities concerning U.S. persons may only be conducted in accordance with procedures established by the element or department head and approved by the Attorney General, after consultation with the Director of National Intelligence.
Intelligence Oversight
Intelligence oversight is a mechanism to ensure that the IC conducts intelligence activities in a manner that that achieves the proper balance between the acquisition of essential information and protection of individual interests. The oversight is performed by entities inside and outside of the IC, which allows the IC to account for the lawfulness of its intelligence activities to the American people, to Congress, to the President and to itself. ODNI engages and coordinates with the following entities in advance of actions where appropriate and provides reports or briefings of intelligence activities to the entities.
The Intelligence Community
ODNI has several offices responsible for oversight functions, to include the Office of General Counsel, the IC Inspector General, and the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency. Each of these offices work to ensure that ODNI operates in a manner that promotes IC-wide positive impact that is in accordance with the Constitution and other laws, regulations, executive orders and directives or policies. Each element has similar offices that assist in oversight for the respective element.
Executive Branch
President's Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) -- The PIAB is an element within the Executive Office of the President. The PIAB exists exclusively to provide the President with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the IC is meeting the nation’s intelligence needs and the vigor and insight with which the community plans for the future. The PIAB consists of not more than 16 members selected from distinguished citizens outside the government. The PIAB has access to all information necessary to perform its functions.
The Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) -- The IOB, a standing committee of the PIAB since 1993, consists of not more than four members of the PIAB appointed by the Chairman of the PIAB. The IOB is charged with overseeing the IC’s compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws, Executive Orders, and Presidential Directives.
Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) -- The PCLOB is an independent agency established by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act, Pub. L. 110-53, signed into law in August 2007. Composed of four part-time members and a full-time chairman, the Board's responsibilities comprise two basic functions: oversight and advice. In its oversight role, the Board is authorized to continually review the implementation of executive branch policies, procedures, regulations, and information sharing practices relating to efforts to protect the nation from terrorism, in order to ensure that privacy and civil liberties are protected and to determine whether they are consistent with governing laws, regulations, and policies regarding privacy and civil liberties. In its advice role, the Board is authorized to review proposed legislation, regulations, and policies (as well as the implementation of new and existing policies and legal authorities), in order to advise the President and executive branch agencies on ensuring that privacy and civil liberties are appropriately considered in their development and implementation. The Board is also directed by statute to, when appropriate, coordinate the activities of federal agency privacy and civil liberties officers on relevant interagency matters.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) -- OMB is part of the Executive Office of the President. OMB carries out its mission through five critical processes that are essential to the President’s ability to plan and implement his priorities across the Executive Branch: (1) Budget development and execution; (2) Management, including oversight of agency performance, human capital, Federal procurement, financial management, and information technology; (3) Regulatory policy, including coordination and review of all significant Federal regulations by executive agencies (4) Legislative clearance and coordination; (5) Executive Orders and Presidential Memoranda.
Legislative Branch
Pursuant to Section 502 of the National Security Act of 1947, which states that the heads of the IC agencies shall “keep congressional intelligence committees fully and currently information of all intelligence activities of the United States,” ODNI ensures that congressional committees are apprised of the activities of the IC, by providing notice of any significant anticipated intelligence activities and notice of potential intelligence failures.
The Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) is the principal interface between the ODNI and the Congress. In addition to providing support and legislative strategy to the ODNI senior leadership, OLA serves as a focal point within the Intelligence Community Legislative Affairs cadre for legislative views, which are provided to the Office of Management and Budget as part of its interagency coordination process.
OLA serves as a focal point for the Intelligence Community for the production of the Annual Threat Assessment provided to Congress each year. The Director of National Intelligence traditionally serves as the principal witness, although other IC agencies senior representatives join the witness table. These hearings usually involve open and/or closed sessions before separate intelligence oversight and national security committees; open hearings often are televised. The National Intelligence Council works closely with OLA to coordinate the preparation and execution of these hearings.
In addition, the President’s annual budget request for the National Intelligence Program normally results in additional closed hearings. The Office of the Assistant Director of National Intelligence – Chief Financial Officer works closely with OLA to coordinate the preparation and execution of these hearings.
Judicial Branch
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established in 1978 when Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Court sits in Washington D.C., and is composed of eleven federal district court judges who are designated by the Chief Justice of the United States. Each judge serves for a maximum of seven years. By statute, the judges must be drawn from at least seven of the United States judicial circuits, and three of the judges must reside within 20 miles of the District of Columbia.
Pursuant to FISA, the Court entertains applications submitted by the United States Government for approval of electronic surveillance, physical search, and other investigative actions for foreign intelligence purposes. Most of the Court’s work is conducted ex parte as required by statute, and due to the need to protect classified national security information.
Additionally, the FISC assesses sufficiency of IC foreign intelligence procedures and receives compliance reports from the IC concerning violations of FISA.
The IC develops and maintains intelligence and information sharing relationships with international, military, domestic, and private sector partners to promote intelligence-related communications, standardize processes for collaboration, lead coordination of IC information sharing and foreign liaison issues, identify emerging issues, forge solutions in support of military operations, and maximize the use of private sector information and expertise to support intelligence missions while protecting privacy and civil liberties. Examples of these activities include:
In-STeP: The Intelligence Science & Technology Partnership
Purposefully inclusive, the In-STeP program casts a broad net. If a given technology, research effort, or idea advances the state of the art with respect to IC interests, In-STeP wants to know about it, regardless of origin. Information exchange and key partnerships with the private sector, various research centers, and a diversity of other technology providers are vital to ensuring that the IC maintains access to world-class technology, as well as a strong posture against technological surprise. An essential component of that exchange is for partners to understand the IC’s often-unique S&T needs, so their research and development can be tailored toward fielding capabilities that ultimately solve intelligence challenges. Visit the In-STeP website to learn more.
IARPA
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity invests in high-risk/high-payoff research to provide the U.S. with an overwhelming intelligence advantage. As the only research organization within the ODNI, IARPA works with the other 16 IC elements to address the IC’s most challenging problems that can be solved with science and technology.
IARPA performs no research in-house; rather, it funds researchers in colleges, universities, companies, National Labs, and other organizations, in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, asset validation and identity intelligence, bio-security, chemical detection, cyber security, high performance computing, human judgment, linguistics, radio frequency geolocation, and secure manufacturing of microelectronics.
In addition to using traditional contracts and grants, IARPA uses public challenges to award cash prizes to researchers for innovative solutions that achieve specific goals. To date, IARPA has funded over 500 unique organizations (academia, small businesses, large businesses and non-profits). Over 1,500 unique bidders have been part of research proposals and abstracts submitted to IARPA.
GLOBAL TRENDS
Every four years since 1997, the National Intelligence Council has published its Global Trends report, an unclassified strategic assessment of how key trends and uncertainties might shape the world over the next 20 years to help senior US leaders think and plan for the longer term. The report is timed to be especially relevant for the administration of a newly elected U.S. President, but Global Trends increasingly has served to foster discussions about the future with people around the world.
These global consultations, both in preparing the paper and sharing the results, help the NIC and broader U.S. Government learn from perspectives beyond the United States and are useful in sparkling discussions about key assumptions, priorities, and choices.
Since 1979, the NIC has served a bridge between the intelligence and policy communities, as well as a facilitator for outreach to outside experts. The NIC's National Intelligence Officers, drawn from government, academia and the private sector, are the IC's senior substantive experts on a range of issues and work under the auspices of the ODNI.
The NIC covers the regions of the world as well as functional topics, such as economics, security, technology, cyber, terrorism, and the environment. The NIC coordinates Intelligence Community support for U.S. policy deliberations while producing papers and formal National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) on critical national security questions.
The Intelligence Community’s role is to provide timely, insightful, objective, and relevant intelligence to inform decisions on national security issues and events; the IC does not make policy recommendations.
IC ANALYTIC STANDARDS
Analytic objectivity and sound intelligence tradecraft ensure our nation’s leaders receive unbiased and accurate intelligence to inform their decisions.
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRPTA) mandated that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence “assign an individual or entity to be responsible for ensuring that finished intelligence products produced by the intelligence community are timely, objective, independent of political considerations, based on all sources of available intelligence, and employ the standards of proper analytic tradecraft.”
ODNI has further codified these standards in Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 203, Analytic Standards. The IC Analytic Standards were established in 2007, and revised, revalidated, and approved by the DNI in January 2015.
ICD 203
These analytics standards govern the production and evaluation of analytic products, articulate the responsibility of intelligence analysts to strive for excellence, integrity and rigor in their analytic thinking and work practices, and delineate the role of the ODNI Analytic Ombuds. ICD 203 serves as a common foundation for developing education and training in analytic skills.
The Directive articulates five Analytic Standards, which demand that analysis be: objective, independent of political consideration, timely, based on all available sources, and "implement and exhibit" nine Analytic Tradecraft Standards:
- Properly describe the quality and credibility of underlying sources, data and methodologies
- Properly express and explain uncertainties associated with major analytic judgments
- Properly distinguish between underlying intelligence information and analysts' assumptions and judgements
- Incorporate analysis of alternatives
- Demonstrate customer relevance and address implications
- Use clear and logical argumentation
- Explain change to or consistency of analytic judgements and bring significant differences in analytical judgement, such as between two IC analytic elements, to the attention of consumers
- Make accurate judgments and assessments
- Incorporate effective visual information where appropriate
REVIEW & EVALUATION
IRTPA Section 1020 tasked the ODNI with identifying a Safeguard of Objectivity in Intelligence Analysis to be available to analysts to counsel, conduct arbitration, offer recommendations, and, as appropriate, initiate inquiries into real or perceived problems of analytic tradecraft or politicization, biased reporting, or lack of objectivity in intelligence analysis. This safeguard is the ODNI Analytic Ombuds. ICD 203 directs the heads of IC elements to designate a similar individual or office to respond to concerns raised by the element’s analysts about adherence to analytic standards.
The ODNI Analytic Ombuds meets its IRTPA mandated responsibilities by:
- Serving as the principal advisor to the DNI on safeguarding analytic objectivity
- Responding to analysts' inquiries for independent, impartial, informal, confidential counsel to resolve objectivity concerns
- Administering a survey of analysts to evaluate how well the IC is preserving objectivity
IRTPA also requires ODNI to perform detailed reviews of analytic products. ICD203 further directs that IC elements conduct internal programs of review and evaluation of analytic intelligence products using the IC Analytic Standards as the core criteria, and provide annual status reporting to ODNI.
ODNI meets its IRTPA mandated responsibilities by:
- Evaluating hundreds of finished analytic products from all IC elements;
- Conducting interviews among senior IC customers.
The Director of National Intelligence serves as the head of the U.S. Intelligence Community, overseeing and directing the implementation of the National Intelligence Program and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security. The President appoints the DNI with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The DNI works closely with a President-appointed, Senate-confirmed Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence to effectively integrate all national and homeland security intelligence in defense of the homeland and in support of U.S. national security interests.
AUTHORITIES & DUTIES
The National Security Act of 1947, as amended by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, provides that the DNI is the head of the Intelligence Community and designates the DNI as the principal intelligence advisor to the President. To that end, Congress has provided the DNI with a number of authorities and duties, including to:
- Ensure that timely and objective national intelligence is provided to the President, the heads of departments and agencies of the executive branch, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior military commanders, and the Congress.
- Establish objectives and priorities for collection, analysis, production and dissemination of national intelligence.
- Ensure maximum availability of and access to intelligence information within the Intelligence Community.
- Develop and ensure the execution of an annual budget for the National Intelligence Program based on budget proposals provided by IC component organizations.
- Oversee coordination of relationships with the intelligence or security services of foreign governments and international organizations.
- Ensure the most accurate analysis of intelligence is derived from all sources to support national security needs.
- Develop personnel policies and programs to enhance the capacity for joint operations and to facilitate staffing of community management functions.
- Oversee the development and implementation of a program management plan for acquisition of major systems, doing so jointly with the Secretary of Defense for DoD programs, that includes cost, schedule, and performance goals and program milestone criteria.
The core mission of the ODNI is to lead the IC in intelligence integration. Intelligence integration means synchronizing collection, analysis, and counterintelligence so that they are fused, effectively operating as one team. Our vision is a nation made more secure by a fully integrated, agile, resilient, and innovative Intelligence Community that exemplifies America’s values.
ODNI's NATIONAL INTEGRATION CENTERS
The Intelligence Community maintains several national centers that integrate and coordinate the activities of the entire IC, or in some cases, broader U.S. Government activities. At ODNI these include the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center (NCBC), the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC) and the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC).
Many other agencies also have internal mission centers that integrate and coordinate their agency’s efforts in a certain mission area, such as CIA’s Counterterrorism Mission Center and DIA’s regional centers.
Our success as a Community is measured as much by our defense of America’s values as it is by the execution of our intelligence mission.
AN INTEGRATED COMMUNITY
IC elements support policymakers in civilian departments, the U.S. military, Congress, and tribal/local/state governments. The breadth and scope of products and other support to customers vary greatly.
A number of policymaking departments have embedded intelligence organizations that provide direct and tailored support: the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Defense.
The Department of Defense oversees multiple IC organizations, such as the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Organization, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The military services each have intelligence organizations that provide tailored support.
Only CIA and the ODNI do not report to a policy department and as such provide the broadest support to decision makers across the national security enterprise.
As required by Executive Order 13571, Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service, ODNI has developed the following Customer Service Plan, which identifies specific actions that further advance ODNI customer service, including initiatives establish new service infrastructure and standards – as well as to track performance against those standards.
Emerging communication technologies, including social media and computer and mobile applications, provide ODNI with new opportunities to interact with customers, stakeholders and the general public as well as new avenues to disseminate information broadly that increases public understanding our intelligence integration mission.
ABOUT THE ODNI
Post 9/11 investigations proposed sweeping changes in the Intelligence Community, which resulted in Congressional passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA). The IRTPA created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to improve information sharing, promote a strategic, unified direction, and ensure integration across the U.S. Intelligence Community.
The ODNI was launched on April 21, 2005. It is led by a Director of National Intelligence, who serves as the head of the Intelligence Community, overseeing and directing the implementation of the National Intelligence Program and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to
THE ODNI MISSION
The Office of the DNI’s goal is to effectively integrate foreign, military and domestic intelligence in defense of the homeland and of United States interests abroad. With this goal in mind, Congress provided the DNI with a number of authorities and duties, as outlined in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 including to:
- Ensure that timely and objective national intelligence is provided to the President, the heads of departments and agencies of the executive branch; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior military commanders; and the Congress.
- Establish objectives and priorities for collection, analysis, production, and dissemination of national intelligence.
- Ensure maximum availability of and access to intelligence information within the Intelligence Community.
- Develop and ensure the execution of an annual budget for the National Intelligence program based on budget proposals provided by IC component organizations.
- Oversee coordination of relationships with the intelligence or security services of foreign governments and international organizations.
- Ensure the most accurate analysis of intelligence is derived from all sources to support national security needs.
- Develop personnel policies and programs to enhance the capacity for joint operations and to facilitate staffing of community management functions.
- Oversee the development and implementation of a program management plan for acquisition of major systems, doing so jointly with the Secretary of Defense for DOD programs, that includes cost, schedule, and performance goals and program milestone criteria.
U.S. INTELLIGENCE AND ITS CUSTOMERS
The IC serves a wide range of consumers, both within and outside the U.S. Government, with the level of intelligence services varying according to the customers’ responsibilities and the specific circumstances. The IC’s customers include the following:
- The White House, particularly the President, Vice President, and National Security Staff.
- Executive Branch Departments and Agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, State, Transportation, Treasury, Energy, and others.
- Military united commands, services, and deployed forces.
- The Intelligence Community itself, for IC internal operations, special activities, acquisition, and policy support.
- The Legislative and Judicial branches for oversight and to inform and protect.
- State, local, tribal and territorial officials, especially law enforcement and emergency planning and response personnel.
- The U.S. public, including commercial entities and academia.
- Allied Governments.
- International organizations, especially for such activities as treaty monitoring.
ETHICAL STANDARDS
As members of the intelligence profession, we conduct ourselves in accordance with certain basic principles. These principles are stated below, and reflect the standard of ethical conduct expected of all Intelligence Community personnel, regardless of individual role or agency affiliation.
Mission We serve the American people, and understand that our mission requires selfless dedication to the security of our Nation. Truth We seek the truth; speak truth to power; and obtain, analyze, and provide intelligence objectively. Lawfulness We support and defend the Constitution, and comply with the laws of the United States, ensuring that we carry out our mission in a manner that respects privacy, civil liberties, and human rights obligations. Integrity We demonstrate integrity in our conduct, mindful that all our actions, whether public or not, should reflect positively on the Intelligence Community at large. Stewardship We are responsible stewards of the public trust; we use intelligence authorities and resources prudently, protect intelligence sources and methods diligently, report wrongdoing through appropriate channels; and remain accountable to ourselves, our oversight institutions, and through those institutions, ultimately to the American people. Excellence We seek to improve our performance and our craft continuously, share information responsibly, collaborate with our colleagues, and demonstrate innovation and agility when meeting new challenges. Diversity We embrace the diversity of our Nation, promote diversity and inclusion in our work force, and encourage diversity in our thinking. |
Many of these principles are also reflected in other documents that we look to for guidance, such as statements of core values, and the Code of Conduct: Principles of Ethical Conduct for Government Officers and Employees; it is nonetheless important for the Intelligence Community to set forth in a single statement the fundamental ethical principles that unite us – and distinguish us – as intelligence professionals.
CIVIL LIBERTIES
In addition to the personal commitment of every intelligence officer, an expansive network of oversight and compliance mechanisms ensures that IC offers are able to fully perform their duties: to protect our country and to protect the fundamental freedoms upon which our country stands.
Protecting civil liberties and privacy in the conduct of intelligence activities is a critical part of the IC’s mission. As a community of professionals, we understand that security and liberty go hand in hand. Indeed, in taking the oath of office—to support and defend the Constitution of the United States—we all acknowledge that our duties require that as we safeguard the national security of the United States, we also protect civil liberties and privacy.
ODNI leadership, along with senior officials for civil liberties and privacy in IC elements, Offices of General Counsel, Offices of Inspectors General, and all branches of government work together to ensure that the policies and programs of the IC, comply with the rule of law, and protect civil liberties and privacy.
OPEN GOVERNMENT
The DNI supports the President's commitment to increase transparency, participation and collaboration within the Government and with the American people, as stated in the President's January 21, 2009 "Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government." Therefore the ODNI will continue to make every effort to increase transparency and openness, while also protecting classified and sensitive national security information and intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized disclosures. ODNI's Open Government Plan describes in detail how the ODNI currently promotes openness. identifies active public disclosure initiatives, and presents new initiatives planned for FY 2014 and beyond, including:
New or Expanded Initiatives
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Ongoing Initiatives
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ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
ODNI’s Official Website
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence website (DNI.GOV or ODNI.GOV ) is provided as a public service by the ODNI on behalf of the Director of National Intelligence.
As President Obama noted in his April 27, 2011 Executive Order, “with advances in technology and service delivery systems in other sectors, the public’s expectations of government have continued to rise.”
In keeping with the President’s directive that the federal government should meet or exceed the continually rising expectations, ODNI has taken several steps to ensure the access, openness, reach and reliability of our electronic communications.
In August 2012, ODNI re-launched its website enhancing the U.S. Intelligence Community’s web presence, enhancing transparency and our ability to provide accurate, up-to-date information to the public.
With content reorganized to better reflect ODNI’s mission to lead intelligence integration and role as the leader of the Intelligence Community, the revamped DNI.gov site includes a number of new features including links to all IC members, intelligence-related news stories, video, photographs, podcasts and subscription content from throughout the IC.
The new DNI.gov was built using an open source content management system. The back-end changes provide a scalable and flexible architecture to empower innovative, efficient distribution of key information while reducing the costs of future investments.
ODNI’s Social Media Initiatives
The President’s Transparency and Open Government Memorandum of January 21, 2009 and the resulting OMB Open Government Directive of December 8, 2009 direct Federal departments and agencies to harness new technologies to engage the public, focusing on the values of transparency, participation and collaboration.
The Digital Government Strategy, released by the White House on May 23, 2012, requires that Federal agencies adopt an “information driven,” customer-centric approach to electronic communications – one that allows the American public to “shape, share and consume information, whenever and however they want it.”
More recently, the Privacy Best Practice for Social Media, released by the CIO Council in July 2013, noted that social media have an important role to play in the Federal Government’s communications strategy and explained that the Federal Government can use social media to share information as well as to enable Federal agencies to learn about issues being discussed by different audiences.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) maintains an active presence on third-party social media sites and networks, and uses a growing number of new media tools to augment or expand the reach of our official communications originating at www.dni.gov and increase public understanding of the ODNI and the Intelligence Community. Third parties design and operate these sites and the ODNI is only one of many users.
By January 2013 ODNI had expanded its online reach to multiple additional social media channels, in support of the release of the Global Trends 2035 report. This expansion included the production of the report in multiple electronic formats and its placement in the most popular online ebookstores. The report was a best-seller and the ODNI’s efforts at greater awareness and electronic accessibility produced the most widely read and reported on Global Trends report in its history.
Signature Initiative: Transparency
In June 2013 President Obama directed the Intelligence Community (IC) to declassify and make public as much information as possible about certain sensitive U.S. Government surveillance programs while being mindful of the need to protect sensitive classified intelligence and national security.
The IC on the Record Database is designed to provide immediate, ongoing and direct access to factual information related to the lawful foreign activities carried out by the U.S. Intelligence Community. The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has declassified and authorized the public release, via IC on the Record, of thousands of pages of documents relating to the use of critical national security authorities which can be found here: INTEL - IC on the Record Database.
