Intelligence Collection Methods

Intelligence is one of the first lines of defense tool used by the United States to protect the Country against both foreign and domestic threats (Johnson, 2010). It proved to be veritable tool during the World War II and during the cold war against the USSR. There are many ways and methods of intelligence collections employed by the intelligence community, such as “spies, eavesdropping, technical sources, and openly available materials” etc. (Clark, 2013). Method used also depends on many factors such as available resources, time, agency involved, and intelligence collection source. Each intelligence agencies use different collection and analytical method that suit their collection function, structure and process. For example, DNI/OSC

For instance, Homeland security intelligence unit uses a broad array of sources on a continual basis to collect, analyzes, and evaluates terrorism-related information. Also, the U.S. Coast Guard intelligence information use to combat weapon of mass effect proliferation, drug smugglers, gunrunners, and illegal immigration comes from different sources. This intelligence information comes from broad arrays of sources, both domestic and foreign. In some cases, these INTs communities compete among each other to provide needed intelligence information to policy makers to justify their budgetary allocations (Lowenthal, 2014). However, these competitions for supremacy often results in lack of sharing of valuable intelligence information. There was this allegation that someone within the intelligence community had advance information about the "Underwear Bomber” in 2009 but failed to share the information among other intelligence community and law enforcement agents. There was also, an accusation that Boston marathon day bombing would have been prevented had it been that the prior information about the brothers was disseminated among the intelligence community

It involves collection of information from human sources. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used this method of intelligence collection to gather intelligence information within the United States, while the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employ this tactic to gather intelligence information on threats outside the United States and other information about world affairs (The Federal Bureau of Investigation, n. d). The National Clandestine Service (NCS) is the branch of the CIA responsible for the collection of HUMINT. They obtain their intelligence information through the clandestine acquisition of photography, documents, and other material; overt collection by officers overseas; debriefing of foreign nationals and U.S. citizens who travel abroad; and official contacts with foreign governments. The NCS task is to aid in the strengthening of the national security and foreign policy objectives through the clandestine collection of HUMINT (Central Intelligence Agency, n. d). The FBI also, uses SIGINT, MASINT, and OSINT to collect intelligence