SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2004, Issue No. 91
October 18, 2004


**      INTELLIGENCE SUPPORT TO MILITARY OPERATIONS
**      TRACKING THE DRAGON:  NIE'S ON CHINA, 1948-1976
**      A HIDDEN STORY OF R. NAHMAN OF BRATSLAV


INTELLIGENCE SUPPORT TO MILITARY OPERATIONS

The role of intelligence in supporting military operations is
elucidated in a newly revised Pentagon doctrinal publication.

Detailed without being overwhelming, the document provides a
snapshot of how U.S. intelligence functions today to support the
military.

"This publication establishes doctrinal guidance on the provision
of joint and national intelligence products, services, and
support to military operations," the Preface states.

"It describes the organization of joint intelligence forces and
the national Intelligence Community, intelligence
responsibilities, command relationships, and national
intelligence support mechanisms. It provides information
regarding the fundamentals of intelligence operations and the
intelligence process, discusses how intelligence supports joint
and multinational planning, and describes intelligence
dissemination via the global information grid."

See Joint Publication 2-01, "Joint and National Intelligence
Support to Military Operations," approved October 7, 2004 (297
pages, 1.8 MB PDF file):

     http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/jp2_01.pdf


TRACKING THE DRAGON: NIE'S ON CHINA, 1948-1976

The National Intelligence Council at the CIA has published a new
collection of recently declassified National Intelligence
Estimates (NIEs) on China, dating from 1948 to 1976.

Since it is the nature of estimates to anticipate events on the
basis of incomplete information rather than to record what has
already been learned, the new collection arguably reveals more
about the history of U.S. intelligence than about the history of
China.

A compact disk containing 71 NIEs on China will be available for
purchase from the Government Printing Office bookstore.  But 37
of those NIEs may be downloaded directly from here:

     http://www.odci.gov/nic/NIC_foia_china.html

An introductory essay by Robert L. Suettinger places the NIEs in
their historical context.

In a minor irony, the essay cites an unclassified Director of
Central Intelligence Directive (DCID) that is posted on the FAS
web site.  The irony is that CIA, whose information policy is
pretty well broken, now refuses to release all such Directives
under the Freedom of Information Act, arguing that to do so
would infringe upon the protection of intelligence sources and
methods.


A HIDDEN STORY OF R. NAHMAN OF BRATSLAV

The lost or suppressed manuscript that surfaces at an auspicious
moment to reveal shocking truths is a hoary motif of romantic
fiction.  Every once in a while, this kind of fantasy also comes
true, more or less.

"For almost two hundred years, Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav's 'Tale
of the Bread' was hidden and guarded," writes Zvi Mark in a
recent edition of the Israeli journal Tarbiz.  "Until recently
the story was extant only in manuscript and was never printed."
Now it has been.

Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (1772-1810) was the leader of a Hassidic
Jewish sect, a theologically idiosyncratic and original figure,
and an antirationalist.

Among other things, he was known for his stories, in which
seemingly conventional folk tales were employed to communicate
truths of the spirit and Jewish teachings of redemption.  Rabbi
Nahman's stories first came to widespread attention in Martin
Buber's 1906 rendering, "Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman,"
which is said to have influenced Franz Kafka.  Recent English
editions include "Beggars and Prayers" by Adin Steinsaltz and
"Nahman of Bratslav: The Tales" by Arnold Band.  Arthur Green's
"Tormented Master" is a probing critical biography.

Unlike the other thirteen canonical tales of Rabbi Nachman, The
Tale of the Bread "was kept secret as esoteric lore," according
to an English abstract of the new publication.

"This article presents the text of the tale and its variants on
the basis of manuscripts and printed versions.  It also
explicates the biographical and ideational background of the
tale and analyzes its literary components.  The reasons for the
secrecy surrounding the tale become apparent in the course of
this analysis," the abstract coyly states.

"'The Tale of the Bread': A Hidden Story of R. Nahman of
Bratslav" by Zvi Mark was published in Hebrew in Tarbiz, volume
LXXII, no. 3, July 2004, which may be available at university
libraries and can be ordered from Magnes Press at Hebrew
University in Jerusalem (http://magnespress.huji.ac.il).


_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
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