ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

CIA, Formation and Historyand looked to the FCC, which regulated domestic radio, asthe best source to further monitor foreign broadcasts.The FBMS was changed to the Foreign BroadcastIntelligence Service by FCC order on July 28, 1942. Itsprincipal activities included translations of monitored foreignbroadcasts; transmission of telegrams and cablegramsto government agencies concerned with war propaganda;and the preparation of daily reports by the FarEastern, Latin American, and European Sections, withweekly reviews of official foreign broadcasts and radioreports on the Far East. The FBMS’s first director,1941–1943, Harold N. Graves, Jr., directed the FBMS’spredecessor, Princeton Listening Center, which waslaunched in November 1939 at Princeton University withfunding from the Rockefeller Foundation. It was the U.S.pioneer in the systematic monitoring, translation, andanalysis of broadcasts from Berlin, London, Paris, Rome,and Moscow. One journalist described the FBMS as the”greatest collection of individualists, international rollingstones, and slightly batty geniuses ever gathered togetherin one organization.“The FBIS’s first analytic report, released on December6, 1941, warned of Tokyo’s increasingly belligerent tone.The next day, the Japanese attacked the U.S. Navy fleet atPearl Harbor in Hawaii, initiating the U.S. entry into WorldWar II. The FBIS became responsible for providing opensourceintelligence (OSINT) as its part of the military andcivilian wartime intelligence effort. On January 14, 1943,FBIS issued its first special report on Nazi propaganda,prepared by the Analysis Directorate’s German Section.FBIS maintained a special telephone connection to theWhite House, and on September 10, 1943, when Hitlerwent on the air in reaction to Italy’s surrender, eagerlisteners on the line included British Prime Minister WinstonChurchill, U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C.Marshall, and Roosevelt’s advisor Harry Hopkins.After World War II, the FBIS was transferred to theMilitary Intelligence Division, War Department GeneralStaff, by order of the secretary of war in January 1946,pursuant to an agreement between the FCC and the WarDepartment. The first issue of the Daily Report was publishedthe same month. After a period, as part of theCentral Intelligence Group (CIG), National IntelligenceAuthority, the FBIS became part of the newly createdCentral Intelligence Agency (1947) and negotiated with theBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to divide monitoringresponsibilities of most of the world’s pertinent newsbroadcasts of interest to intelligence analysts.As of 2003, the FBIS continues to monitor, translate,and republish selected foreign radio and television broadcasts,newspaper articles, government news agency releases,and political speeches. The selection of items to beincluded has been determined by the needs of its primaryusers, officials of the U.S. government. Political, military,economic, and environmental topics are the major emphases.The translations have been published as quicklyas possible, usually within a few days of original publication,in a series of daily reports. Since 1996, the service hasbeen available online through a Worldwide Web site knownas the World News Connection and through its website: