6.4 Intel Community

WHO? The Intelligence Community.

WHAT? Conduct secret state activity to try and thwart terrorists before they act.

WHEN? Intelligence is as old as civilization, it’s in the Bible and was used by George Washington.

WHERE? Intelligence is a global game, played by everybody, everywhere.

WHY? To keep ahead of potential adversaries, and stop them before they strike.

As we’ve said many times, the best defense against terrorism is actionable intelligence. Actionable intelligence warns of something bad before it happens. It tells us who, what, when, and where so it can be stopped. Actionable intelligence is the holy grail of the Intelligence Community. Who does it and how it’s done is the subject of this topic. Intelligence is secret state activity conducted to understand or influence foreign entities. US intelligence activities are conducted by the 17 members of the Intelligence Community. So far you have already learned about six members:

1. Department of Homeland Security

2. Coast Guard

3. Federal Bureau of Investigation

4. Central Intelligence Agency

5. Department of Defense

6. National Security Agency

The remaining members of the Intelligence Community are as follows:

7. Army Intelligence

8. Navy Intelligence

9. Air Force Intelligence

10. Marine Corps Intelligence

11. Defense Intelligence Agency

12. Department of Energy

13. Department of State

14. Department of the Treasury

15. Drug Enforcement Administration

16. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

17. National Reconnaissance Office

Some members specialize in a particular form of intelligence, called a “discipline”. We already learned how the CIA specializes in Human Intelligence, or HUMINT, another name for “spies”. We also explained how NSA is a leader in Signals Intelligence, or SIGINT, anything electronic. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, NGA, specializes in Imagery Intelligence, IMINT, pictures, and as its name might suggest, Geospatial Intelligence, GEOINT, basically maps. MASINT, Measurement & Signals Intelligence, uses various types of sensor arrays, and OSINT, Open Source Intelligence, just gleans information from publicly available sources. Like I said, some specialize, most don’t, but ALL use the different sources for Intelligence Analysis. Intelligence Analysis fuses together different sources to produce useable reports, warnings, and alerts. Intelligence Analysis is a critical step of the Intelligence Cycle. The Intelligence Cycle consists of five steps:

1. Planning & Direction

2. Collection

3. Processing & Exploitation

4. Analysis & Production

5. Dissemination

It begins with Planning & Direction. Different members have different needs for intelligence: The Air Force wants to know about other warplanes, the Navy about other warships, and the Army about other tanks. Limited collection capabilities means the first step is prioritizing all the different needs. If the needed information isn’t already contained in some database, then a designated agency will collect it using available means: HUMINT, SIGINT, IMINT, GEOINT, MASINT, or OSINT. In its raw form, the collected information may not be very useful, and therefore has to undergo some form of processing to make it meaningful. For example, we may not be able to decrypt an electronic signal, but still derive useful information by analyzing its origin and volume. Of course, the all important task of the Intelligence Analyst is to look at these different sources of information and determine their significance and present their findings in a report, warning, or alert. It is equally important that the report, warning, or alert, reaches its effective audience in a timely manner. Actionable Intelligence must be timely, accurate, and delivered to the right person. The FBI Phoenix Memo warning of a potential hijacking scheme was both timely and accurate, but it failed to reach the right audience where it could be acted upon to prevent 9/11. With respect to counterterrorism, the Energy Department tracks nuclear weapons and materials, the Treasury Department works to halt the flow of terrorist funds. The Intelligence Community is part of the greater Homeland Security Enterprise, reminding us once again that homeland security is a team sport requiring the coordinated efforts of many agencies.