licit drugs - that deal with current issues going
beyond national boundaries.

Transportation
This category includes the entries dealing with the means for movement
of people and goods.

Transportation - note
This entry includes miscellaneous transportation information of
significance not included elsewhere.

Unemployment rate
This entry contains the percent of the labor force that is without
jobs. Substantial underemployment might be noted.

Waterways
This entry gives the total length of navigable rivers, canals, and
other inland bodies of water.

Years
All year references are for the calendar year (CY) unless indicated as
fiscal year (FY). The calendar year is an accounting period of 12
months from 1 January to 31 December. The fiscal year is an accounting
period of 12 months other than 1 January to 31 December.

Note: Information for the US and US dependencies was compiled from
material in the public domain and does not represent Intelligence
Community estimates.

This page was last updated on 10 December, 2004

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History

A Brief History of Basic Intelligence and The World Factbook

The Intelligence Cycle is the process by which information is acquired,
converted into intelligence, and made available to policymakers.
Information is raw data from any source, data that may be fragmentary,
contradictory, unreliable, ambiguous, deceptive, or wrong.
Intelligence is information that has been collected, integrated,
evaluated, analyzed, and interpreted. Finished intelligence is the
final product of the Intelligence Cycle ready to be delivered to the
policymaker.

The three types of finished intelligence are: basic, current, and
estimative. Basic intelligence provides the fundamental and factual
reference material on a country or issue. Current intelligence reports
on new developments. Estimative intelligence judges probable outcomes.
The three are mutually supportive: basic intelligence is the foundation
on which the other two are constructed; current intelligence
continually updates the inventory of knowledge; and estimative
intelligence revises overall interpretations of country and issue
prospects for guidance of basic and current intelligence. The World
Factbook, The President's Daily Brief, and the National Intelligence
Estimates are examples of the three types of finished intelligence.

The United States has carri