Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

The JIC’s wartime charter called for it to furnish current intelligence

for use by the JCS, but it did succeed in producing national intelligence

estimates (NIEs) as well. The JIC’s Joint Intelligence Staff drafted all

the memorandums, summaries, and, eventually, intelligence estimates

for JCS approval. The JIC produced a significant number of intelligence

estimates and policy papers during the war and the early postwar period.

According to one report, the JIC completed 16 major intelligence esti-

mates and 27 policy papers between 15 June and 9 August 1945. It

drafted assessments and estimates on the Soviet threat, including spe-

cific analyses of Soviet air power, missiles, nuclear war planning, and

economic outlook. One of the JIC’s policy papers, JIC 397, anticipated

National Security Council 68by laying out the emerging Soviet strate-

gic and conventional military threat in stark and clear terms.

Yet, the JIC never did manage to acquire sufficient influence to

compete with the nascent intelligence community (IC). Duplicating

some of the CIA’s work, for example, made it suspect in the eyes of

the new civilian intelligence professionals. Its critics also maintained

that the JIC was a cumbersome bureaucracy that reflected the ongo-

ing rivalries of the military services. Although the JIC was disbanded

in 1958, retrospective evaluations show that it produced studies of

“national” scope that provided significant contributions to military,

and sometimes national, decision making.

JOINT INTELLIGENCE INQUIRY. On 14 February 2002, the

House of Representatives and the Senate intelligence oversight

committees announced the establishment of an unprecedented joint

inquiry into the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The in-

quiry’s original mandate was to determine why the intelligence com-

munity (IC) did not learn of the attacks at their planning stages and

to recommend reform. The joint inquiry held public and secret hear-

ings and produced a report that identified deficiencies in the intelli-

gence process and recommended structural reforms. The families of

the 9/11 victims, however, charged a whitewash, which gave greater

credence to calls for an independent commission to investigate the

terrorist attacks. See alsoNATIONAL COMMISSION ON TER-

RORISTATTACKS UPON THE UNITED STATES.

JOINT MILITARY INTELLIGENCE COLLEGE (JMIC). The

JMIC is the intelligence school of the Department of Defense (DOD),

JOINT MILITARY INTELLIGENCE COLLEGE• 107

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