James A. Williams

Williams was one of the pioneers in the use of open source data for commercial purposes. Since 1987 he has been President of the Direct Information Access Corporation (DIAC), which specializes in the production of commercial intelligence.

Since his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1985, Williams has served as senior consultant for a variety of projects dealing with the collection, processing and analysis of intelligence; integration of intelligence data processing systems and revitalization of the civil remote sensing program. Williams played a major role as an advisor for two projects to improve imagery collection management. He also serves as a member of intelligence advisory panels for Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories and is a member of the Special Technologies Advisory Panel for the Department of Energy.

Finally, Williams oversaw the Agency's move into its new headquarters at Bolling Air Force Base from Arlington Hall Station. The Defense Intelligence Analysis Center (DIAC) was dedicated on May 23, 1984.

Other analysis focused on the Falkland Islands War and Israel's invasion of Lebanon. When 6,000 U.S. troops invaded Grenada during Operation URGENT FURY in 1983, DIA's Task Force responded to numerous formal taskings for briefings and information, and distributed a wide variety of intelligence summaries to assist field commanders during the operation. The planning process for URGENT FURY was greatly facilitated by a number of intelligence products that had been prepared as early as 1979, bringing high praise for DIA's support and services. Other DIA analytical efforts during the year centered on the continuing crises in Nicaragua, Lebanon (the attack on the Marine barracks), Iran and Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as the Soviet shoot-down of KAL 007, the civil war in Chad, and unrest in the Philippines. A significantly larger number of hijackings, bombings, kidnappings, murders, and other acts of terrorism led to characterizing 1985 as the "Year of the Terrorist."

Remaining in Washington, Williams was named the Director of Political/Military Affairs, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, State Department and Chief, Counterintelligence and Collection Division, and then Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Headquarters, Department of the Army. From there he assumed command of the 650th Military Intelligence Group (Counterintelligence) at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. Upon return to the United States, he was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as Chief, Missile Forces/Strategic Arms Limitation Branch, Soviet/Warsaw Pact Division, and he later served as the Deputy Director for Estimates. Prior to his return to the Defense Intelligence Agency as its director, Williams served as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, United States Army, and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, United States Army, Europe, leading the first team of DOD analysts to provide strategic early warning of Contingency Planning for Martial Law in Soviet-dominated Poland vice Warsaw Pact intervention. In September 1981, he was appointed the Director of DIA.

In December 1981, President Reagan signed Executive Order 12333 giving the Intelligence Community a mandate for the years ahead. In response to a requirement to improve intelligence support to the Unified & Specified Commands' war-fighting capabilities, the functional manager for intelligence processing was established in 1982. The Central America Joint Intelligence Team (CAJIT) was established in 1984 as an interagency analytical task organization focused on insurgency in Central America. DIA also created the Intelligence Communications Architecture to improve DoD's ability to disseminate national level intelligence to tactical commanders during contingency situations. The concept of intelligence as a “force multiplier in crises” became a predominant theme in planning as DIA began structuring an all source integrated database to support the Unified & Specified Commands in assessing the threat in the field Williams established a Research Crisis Support Center to provide a centralized, operationally secure, all-source, crisis management center to support the National Military Intelligence Center (NMIC) and the Unified & Specified Commands. As events deteriorated in Nicaragua, DIA analysts provided extensive support to the U.S. Southern Command.

Williams began his career with Air Defense Artillery assignments, but except for a tour with the Field Command of the Defense Atomic Support Agency, his subsequent assignments were in the intelligence field. After assignments with the 470th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment, Fort Amador, Canal Zone and the 471st Counterintelligence Corps Detachment, Fort Brooke, Puerto Rico, he was assigned to the US Army Combat Developments Command at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was project intelligence officer for Tactical Aerial Reconnaissance and Surveillance, 1975 (TARS-75). After this, he served as the Assistant Army Attaché in Caracas, Venezuela. He then commanded the 1st Military Intelligence Battalion (Provisional), 525th Military Intelligence Group, United States Army Vietnam supporting the III Marine Amphibious Force(III MAF) and then served in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations in Washington, DC.

In 1954, Williams graduated from the United States Military Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering and initially commissioned as a second lieutenant in Air Defense Artillery. He received a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico in 1964. His military education includes completion of the Air Defense Basic Officers Course, the United States Army Intelligence School, the Artillery Officers Career Course, the United States Army Command and General Staff College, the Defense Intelligence School, and the National War College.

James Arthur Williams (born March 29, 1932 – October 31, 2017) was a United States Army lieutenant general. Williams served as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the 1980s. He was a 1987 inductee of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame and was the chairman of the board of directors for the National Military Intelligence Association.

Williams was born in Paterson, New Jersey on March 29, 1932. As a youth, Williams paid his first visit to the U.S. Military Academy in May 1938, and four years later began his first Federal Service in May 1942 as a volunteer aircraft spotter for the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Region. As a youth he was active in sports, playing baseball, running track and swimming. He was a member of the 1950 NJ Group II State Basketball Championship Team and garnered Group II All State Honors. He was also an avid hiker and skier.