Foreign Broadcast Information Service

The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS; German Information Service for Foreign News ) was part of the CIA Directorate for Science and Technology in the USA . It was based in Reston , Virginia .

history

The FBIS was founded in 1941 within the Office of the Coordinator of Information under William Joseph Donovan . During the Second World War he drew a . a. German propaganda broadcasts which later led to treason charges against some US citizens such as Douglas Chandler and Robert Best .

The Federation of American Scientists successfully launched a campaign in 1997 to prevent budget cuts for the FBIS. In November 2005, the Washington Post announced that the FBIS would be incorporated into a newly established Open Source Center .

The agency observes and translates to this day freely available foreign news ( Open Source Intelligence ) that is distributed to politicians, media analysts and scientists in addition to US government agencies . The archive of the service can be licensed by libraries. The database is marketed by the provider Readex.

Comparable services

• Australia: Office of National Assessments, Open Source Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• UK: BBC Monitoring
• China: Xinhua News Agency

literature

• Stephen C. Mercado: Sailing the Sea of ​​OSINT in the Information Age . Studies in Intelligence , vol. 48, no.3, 2004.
• Stephen C. Mercado: Reexamining the Distinction Between Open Information and Secrets . Studies in Intelligence , vol. 49, no. 2, 2005.

Web links

• Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports - Database at Readex