The 1999 CIA World Factbook. United States. Central Intelligence Agency
and Yemen; it was initially started in Morocco in 1970 by the Arab Telecommunications Union (ATU) and was known at that time as the Middle East Mediterranean Telecommunications Network.
microwave radio relay—transmission of long distance telephone calls and television programs by highly directional radio microwaves that are received and sent on from one booster station to another on an optical path.
NMT—Nordic Mobile Telephone; an analog cellular telephone system that was developed jointly by the national telecommunications authorities of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).
Orbita—a Russian television service; also the trade name of a packet—switched digital telephone network.
radiotelephone communications—the two-way transmission and reception of sounds by broadcast radio on authorized frequencies using telephone handsets.
satellite communication system—a communication system consisting of two or more earth stations and at least one satellite that provides long distance transmission of voice, data, and television; the system usually serves as a trunk connection between telephone exchanges; if the earth stations are in the same country, it is a domestic system.
satellite earth station—a communications facility with a microwave radio transmitting and receiving antenna and required receiving and transmitting equipment for communicating with satellites.
satellite link—a radio connection between a satellite and an earth station permitting communication between them, either one-way (down link from satellite to earth station—television receive-only transmission) or two-way (telephone channels).
SHF—super-high-frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to 30,000-MHz range.
shortwave—radio frequencies (from 1.605 to 30 MHz) that fall above the commercial broadcast band and are used for communication over long distances.
Solidaridad—geosynchronous satellites in Mexico's system of international telecommunications in the Western Hemisphere.
Statsionar—Russia's geostationary system for satellite telecommunications.
submarine cable—a cable designed for service under water.
TAT—Trans-Atlantic Telephone; any of a number of high- capacity submarine coaxial telephone cables linking Europe with North America.
telefax—facsimile service between subscriber stations via the public switched telephone network or the international Datel network.
telegraph—a telecommunications system designed for unmodulated electric impulse transmission.
telex—a communication service involving teletypewriters connected by wire through automatic exchanges.
tropospheric scatter—a form of microwave radio transmission in which the troposphere is used to scatter and reflect a fraction of the incident radio waves back to earth; powerful, highly directional antennas are used to transmit and receive the microwave signals; reliable over-the-horizon communications are realized for distances up to 600 miles in a single hop; additional hops can extend the range of this system for very long distances.
trunk network—a network of switching centers, connected by multichannel trunk lines.
UHF—ultra-high-frequency; any radio frequency in the 300- to 3,000-MHz range.
VHF—very-high-frequency; any radio frequency in the 30- to 300-MHz range.
Telephones: This entry gives the total number of subscribers.
Television—broadcast stations: This entry gives the total number of separate broadcast stations plus any repeater stations.
Televisions: This entry gives the total number of television sets.
Terminology: Due to the highly structured nature of the Factbook database, some collective generic terms have to be used. For example, the word Country in the Country name entry refers to a wide variety of dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, uninhabited islands, and other entities in addition to the traditional countries or independent states. Military is also used as an umbrella term for various civil defense, security, and defense activities in many entries. The Independence entry includes the usual colonial independence dates and former ruling states as well as other significant nationhood dates such as the traditional founding date or the date of unification, federation, confederation, establishment, or state succession that are not strictly independence dates. Dependent areas have the nature of their dependency status noted in this same entry.
Terrain: This entry contains a brief description of the topography.
Total fertility rate: This entry gives a figure for the average number of children that would be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing years and bore children according to a given fertility rate at each age. The total fertility rate is a more direct measure of the level of fertility than the crude birth rate, since it refers to births per woman. This indicator shows the potential for population growth in the country. High rates will also place some limits on the labor force participation rates for women. Large numbers of children born to women indicate large family sizes that might limit the ability of the families to feed and educate their children.
Transnational Issues: This category includes only two entries at the present time—Disputes—international and Illicit 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.
United Nations System: This information is presented in Appendix B: United Nations System as a chart, table, or text (depending on the version of the Factbook) that shows the organization of the UN in detail.
Waterways: This entry gives the total length and individual names of navigable rivers, canals, and other inland bodies of water.
Weights and measures: This information is presented in Appendix E: Weights and Measures and includes mathematical notations (mathematical powers and names), metric interrelationships (prefix; symbol; length, weight, or capacity; area; volume), and standard conversion factors.
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. FY93/94 refers to the fiscal year that began in calendar year 1993 and ended in calendar year 1994.
Note: Information for the US and US dependencies was compiled from material in the public domain and does not represent Intelligence Community estimates. The Handbook of International Economic Statistics, published annually in September by the Central Intelligence Agency, contains detailed economic information for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the successor nations to the Soviet Union, and selected other countries. The Handbook can be obtained wherever the Factbook is available.
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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