Intelligence (information gathering)
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2010) |
Intelligence (abbreviated int. or intel.) refers to discrete or secret information with currency and relevance, and the abstraction, evaluation, and understanding of such information for its accuracy and value. Sometimes called "active data" or "active intelligence", intelligence typically regards the current plans, decisions, and actions of people, as these may have urgency or may otherwise be considered "valuable" from the point of view of the intelligence-gathering entity. Active intelligence is treated as a constantly mutable component, or variable, within a larger equation of understanding the secret, covert, or otherwise private "intelligence" of an opponent, or competitor, to answer questions or obtain advance warning of events and movements deemed to be important or otherwise relevant.
"Intel" is in contrast with "data", which typically refers to precise or particular information, and "fact", which typically refers to verified information. As used by intelligence agencies and related services, "intelligence" refers integrally to both active data as well as the process and the result of gathering and analyzing such information, as these together form a cohesive network (cf. "hive mind"). In a sense, this usage of "intelligence" at the national level may be somewhat associated with the concept of social intelligence —albeit one which is tied to localized or nationalist tradition, politics, law, and the enforcement thereof.
This article deals with the general role and history of intelligence. For a more detailed look at the process, there is a hierarchy of articles, partially posted, beginning with intelligence cycle management.
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[edit] Process
Information collected can be difficult to obtain or altogether secret material gained through ("closed sources") See list of intelligence gathering disciplines, or it can be widely available but systematically researched through Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Traditionally, intelligence involves all-source collection, storage and indexing of data, usually in multiple languages, in the expectation that some small portion will later prove important. Intelligence gathering disciplines, or, more narrowly, and the sources and methods used to obtain them are often highly classified and sometimes compartmentalized, and intelligence officers need top level security clearance.
Intelligence is conducted on three levels: strategic (sometimes called national), tactical, and counterintelligence. The broadest of these levels is strategic intelligence, which includes information about the capabilities and intentions of foreign countries. Tactical intelligence, sometimes called operational or combat intelligence, is information required by military field commanders. Because of the enormous destructive power of modern weaponry, the decision making of political leaders often must take into account information derived from tactical as well as strategic intelligence; major field commanders may often also need multiple levels of intelligence. Thus, the distinction between these two levels of intelligence may be vanishing.
- Government intelligence is usually assigned to intelligence agencies, often with large, secret budgets. These use a variety of techniques to obtain information, ranging from secret agents (HUMINT) to electronic intercepts (COMINT, IMINT, SIGINT, and ELINT) to specialized technical methods (MASINT).
Depending on the national policy, some intelligence agencies engage in clandestine and covert activities beyond espionage such as political subversion, sabotage and assassination. Other agencies strictly limit themselves to analysis, or collection and analysis; some governments have other organizations for covert action.
- Military intelligence is an element of warfare which covers all aspects of gathering, analyzing, and making use of information, including information about the natural environment (Shulsky and Schmitt, 2002), over enemy forces and the ground. It involves spying, look-outs, high-tech surveillance equipment, and also secret agents.
- Business intelligence denotes the public or secret information that an organization obtains about its competitors and markets. See also data warehousing.
Intelligence as used here, when done properly, serves a function for organizations similar to that which intelligence (trait) serves for individual humans and animals. Intelligence collection is often controversial and seen as a threat to privacy. Intelligence is essential for government policy formation and operations; it is a policy matter for individual governments whether While usually associated with warfare, intelligence can also be used to preserve peace.
The process of taking known information about situations and entities of strategic, operational, or tactical importance, characterizing the known, and, with appropriate statements of probability, the future actions in those situations and by those entities is called intelligence analysis. The descriptions are drawn from what may only be available in the form of deliberately deceptive information; the analyst must correlate the similarities among deceptions and extract a common truth. Although its practice is found in its purest form inside intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States or the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, MI6) in the UK, its methods are also applicable in fields such as business intelligence or competitive intelligence.
Intelligence analysis is a way of reducing the ambiguity of highly ambiguous situations, with the ambiguity often very deliberately created by highly intelligent people with mindsets very different from the analyst's. Many analysts prefer the middle-of-the-road explanation, rejecting high or low probability explanations. Analysts may use their own standard of proportionality as to the risk acceptance of the opponent, rejecting that the opponent may take an extreme risk to achieve what the analyst regards as a minor gain. Above all, the analyst must avoid the special cognitive traps for intelligence analysis projecting what she or he wants the opponent to think, and using available information to justify that conclusion.
[edit] Well-known national intelligence organizations
- Agência Brasileira de Inteligência (ABIN - Portuguese for Brazilian Intelligence Agency)
- Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur (DCRI) (Central Directorate for Domestic Intelligence)
- Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) (General Directorate of External Security)
- Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)
- Intelligence Bureau (IB)
- Badan Intelijen Negara (BIN)
- Ministry of Intelligence (Iran) (SAVAMA)
- Servizio per le Informazioni e Sicurezza Militare (SISMI)
- Servizio per le Informazioni e Sicurezza Democratica (SISDE)
- Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (DIS)
- Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna (AISE)
- Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna (AISI)
- Foreign Intelligence Service - Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR) - successor to the Soviet foreign intelligence element known as KGB First Chief Directorate (FCD)
- Federal Security Service - Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB) - successor to the Soviet domestic intelligence element known as KGB Second Chief Directorate (SCD)
- Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Federation Armed Forces General Staff - Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye (GRU) - military intelligence organ
- Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information - Federalnoye Agentstvo Pravitelstvennoy Svyazi i Informatsiyi (FAPSI) - signals intelligence organ
- Federal Protective Service - Federalnaya Sluzhba Okhrany (FSO) - provides physical security for Russian officials
- National Intelligence Agency (NIA)
- South African Secret Service (SASS)
- Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, colloquially "MI6" in popular culture)
- Security Service (colloquially "MI5" in popular culture)
- Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
- Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS)
- Air Force, Air Intelligence Agency (AIA)
- Army, Intelligence
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Coast Guard, Intelligence
- Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
- Department of Energy, Office of Intelligence
- Department of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence and Analysis
- Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)
- Department of the Treasury, Office of Intelligence and Analysis
- Director of National Intelligence
- Drug Enforcement Administration, Office of National Security Intelligence
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Marine Corps, Intelligence
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
- Navy, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)
[edit] Major publicly accessible intelligence sources
- Open Sources Center, select "Intelligence" section.
- Jane's Information Group; Defence, Law Enforcement, Political and General Intelligence
- Bloomberg
- CIA World Fact Book
- credit rating agencies
- Dow Jones
- Internet search engines such as Google
- LexisNexis
- newspapers of record, such as the New York Times
- private investigators
- public libraries
[edit] See also
- Compartmentalization
- Counter-intelligence
- Espionage
- Intellipedia, a classified wiki that runs the secret network that links the U.S. intelligence community.
- JSSL
- List of intelligence gathering disciplines
- Meteorological intelligence
- Military intelligence
- National Security
- Chinese Intelligence Operations in the United States
[edit] References
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (November 2009) |
[edit] Surveys
- Andrew, Christopher. For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush (1996)
- Black, Ian and Morris, Benny Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services (1991)
- Bungert, Heike et al. eds. Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (2003) essays by scholars
- Kahn, David The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet (1996), 1200 pages
- Lerner, K. Lee and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds. Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security (2003), 1100 pages. 850 articles, strongest on technology
- O'Toole, George. Honorable Treachery: A History of U.S. Intelligence, Espionage, Covert Action from the American Revolution to the CIA (1991)
- Owen, David. Hidden Secrets: A Complete History of Espionage and the Technology Used to Support It (2002), popular
- Richelson, Jeffery T. A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (1997)
- Richelson, Jeffery T. The U.S. Intelligence Community (4th ed. 1999)
- Shulsky, Abram N. and Schmitt, Gary J. "Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence" (3rd ed. 2002), 285 pages
- West, Nigel. MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909–1945 (1983)
- West, Nigel. Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain's Wartime Sabotage Organization (1992)
- Wohlstetter, Roberta. Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (1962)
[edit] World War I
- Beesly, Patrick. Room 40. (1982). Covers the breaking of German codes by RN intelligence, including the Turkish bribe, Zimmermann telegram, and failure at Jutland.
- May, Ernest (ed.) Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessment before the Two World Wars (1984)
- Tuchman, Barbara W. The Zimmermann Telegram (1966)
[edit] World War II: 1931–1945
- Babington Smith, Constance. Air Spy: the Story of Photo Intelligence in World War II (1957)
- Beesly, Patrick. Very Special Intelligence: the Story of the Admiralty's Operational Intelligence Centre, 1939–1945 (1977)
- Hinsley, F. H. British Intelligence in the Second World War (1996) (abridged version of multivolume official history)
- Jones, R. V. The Wizard War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945 (1978)
- Kahn, David. Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (1978)
- Kahn, David. Seizing the Enigma: the Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939–1943 (1991)
- Kitson, Simon. The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (2008). ISBN 978-0-226-43893-1
- Lewin, Ronald. The American Magic: Codes, Ciphers and the Defeat of Japan (1982)
- May, Ernest (ed.) Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessment before the Two World Wars (1984)
- Smith, Richard Harris. OSS: the Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency (2005)
- Stanley, Roy M. World War II Photo Intelligence (1981)
- Wark, Wesley K. The Ultimate Enemy: British Intelligence and Nazi Germany, 1933–1939 (1985)
- Wark, Wesley K. "Cryptographic Innocence: the Origins of Signals Intelligence in Canada in the Second World War", in: Journal of Contemporary History 22 (1987)
[edit] Cold War Era: 1945–1991
- Aldrich, Richard J. The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (2002).
- Ambrose, Stephen E. Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Intelligence Establishment (1981).
- Andrew, Christopher and Vasili Mitrokhin. The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (1999)
- Andrew, Christopher, and Oleg Gordievsky. KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev (1990).
- Bogle, Lori, ed. Cold War Espionage and Spying (2001), essays by scholars
- Boiling, Graham. Secret Students on Parade: Cold War Memories of JSSL, CRAIL, PlaneTree, 2005. ISBN 1-84294-169-0
- Dorril, Stephen. MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (2000).
- Dziak, John J. Chekisty: A History of the KGB (1988)
- Elliott, Geoffrey and Shukman, Harold. Secret Classrooms. An Untold Story of the Cold War. London, St Ermin’s Press, Revised Edition, 2003. ISBN 1-903608-13-9
- Koehler, John O. Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police (1999)
- Ostrovsky, Viktor By Way of Deception (1990)
- Persico, Joseph. Casey: The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey-From the OSS to the CIA (1991)
- Prados, John. Presidents' Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations Since World War II (1996)
- Rositzke, Harry. The CIA's Secret Operations: Espionage, Counterespionage, and Covert Action (1988)
- Trahair, Richard C. S. Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies and Secret Operations (2004), by an Australian scholar; contains excellent historiographical introduction
- Weinstein, Allen, and Alexander Vassiliev. The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era (1999).
[edit] External links
- ISRIA, HTML, The Relations between the CIA and the Executive Power since 2001, February 5, 2006.
- ISRIA, PDF, The Role of Open Sources in Intelligence, December 31, 2005.
- Read Congressonal Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Intelligence issues
- The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments by J. Ransom Clark, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Muskingum College
- Proposal for a Privacy Protection Guideline on Secret Personal Data Gathering and Transborder Flows of Such Data in the Fight against Terrorism and Serious Crime
- Intelligence Online Investigative news and reporting on intelligence activities worldwide, including secret service and industrial espionage (subscription required).
