There is no international definitive definition of intelligence and according to Bimfort (1958) there will continue to be a discrepancy and There is no international definitive definition of intelligence and according to Bimfort (1958) there will continue to be a discrepancy and misunderstanding between and outside the intelligence community over the meaning of intelligence. One definition that best suits the current idea of intelligence is “the knowledge – and ideally, the foreknowledge sought by nations in response to external threats and to protect their vital interests, especially the well-being of their own people” (Russell 2010, p.7). This description best represents how important intelligence is to governments around the globe. Those critical of intelligence would suggest ‘intelligence without analysis is only information’ and they would be correct. Intelligence is at its core about filtering out the noise; analysts need to be able to spot trends, patterns and key details that stand out from the rest. Analysis is an integral part of in the intelligence cycle.
Information is all around us we just need to know where to look; properly capturing information plays a crucial role in the information pool (Grace 2004). The government’s preferred source of information is intelligence but with modern technological advances it needs to keep up with an every changing media that is appealing and imaginative (Gibson 2005), intelligence should include out of the box thought processes but its foundation should spring from empirical research.
Technological advances have made it easier for analysts as well as policy makers to access all the information they need. Open source information now accounts for 90 percent of the informati...
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Chapter one is an examination of different definitions of ‘information’ to support the concept of ‘information policy.’ Definitions that identify ‘information’ as a ‘constitutive force in society’ are most useful from the point of view of information policy (p.19).
The pros of electronic surveillance are extensive. The ability for agents of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) to intercept and process communications and information from foreign powers, agents of foreign powers, international terrorist organizations, and others who seek to engage in activities with such groups, provides the ...
For the American intelligence community, George Washington is considered the father of intelligence. The introduction of the intelligence concept and its application in some missions during the early days of America helped America’s Founding Fathers to succeed against t...
In the article Mind Over Mass Media, Steven Pinker claims that the use of technology enhances our intelligence, despite what critics say, when used in productive ways. Pinker supports his claim by explaining that if electronic media were hazardous to intelligence, the quality of science would be plummeting and that philosophy, history and cultural criticism, are flourishing will the use of the Web. The author’s purpose is persuade readers that new media is allowing mankind to locate information at a faster rate, in order to prevent readers from believing that technology is hurting us. The author writes in an informal tone for technology users.
Intelligence failure was one of the main reasons why the Tet offensive happened. The allies undergo a failure of intelligence before Tet, a failure that helped plan the stages for changes in the strategies of the US. The four parts of intelligence are crucial in determining the actions of the enemy. The four tasks consist of collection of information, the analysis of the information, the decision to respond to a warning issued in the analytical stage, dissemination of the order to respond to the field co...
The DIA started in 1958. The organizational structure of the DoD and U.S. foreign intelligence came to a new shape with the establishment of DIA. It was Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, who came up with the concept of DIA in 1961. DIA gathers human source intelligence, analyzes technical intelligence, distributes intelligence/reports to the intelligence agencies, provides advice and support to the Joint Chiefs of Staff with foreign military intelligence, and provides military intelligence to combatant commands as its operational functions. A DIA director is supposed to be a three-star military general and DIA is believed to have employed at least 7,500 staff worldwide today. The DIA is a defense intelligence agency that prevents strategic surprises and delivers a decision advantage to warfighters, defense planners, and to policymakers. This paper will try to evaluate DIA’s role in US national security in present condition of massive budget deficits and increased congressional oversight, plus the intelligence capabilities of the Regional Combatant Commanders and the individual services like CIA and NSA.
Intelligence has come a long way since the time around 1,000 B.C. as Egyptian hieroglyphs have revealed and will only continue to grow far into the future. The Intelligence community (IC) will run into challenges far into the future but over the next several years it will be budgetary restructuring/cuts, cyber security implementation, and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction because a transitional phase within the United States will impact intelligence operations. The intelligence community is likely to transition back to its pre-9/11 requirements thus hindering or withdrawing post 9/11 implementations and requirements.
Final Assignment Topic 1: What are the capabilities and limitations of intelligence in supporting homeland security efforts? The United States has endured numerous security breaches and high security threats over the past two decades. After the attacks on 9/11, the office of Intelligence became a vital source in retrieving sensitive data and tracking down potential terrorists and their networks which could pose a threat to the American people and then forwarding that vital information to the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies.
Intelligence tests have been developed by scientists as a tool to categorize army recruits or analyze school children. But still discussing what intelligence is, academics have a difficult time defining what intelligence tests should measure. According to the American researcher Thorndike, intelligence is only that what intelligence tests claim it is (Comer, Gould, & Furnham, 2013). Thus, depending on what is being researched in the test and depending on the scientist’s definition of intelligence the meaning of the word intelligence may vary a lot. This essay will discuss what intelligence is in order to be able to understand the intelligence theories and aims of intelligence tests.
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Probabilistic reasoning is difficult. People prefer to reject ambiguity and demand that concrete predictions be made. However, intelligence is inherently ambiguous. In intelligence forecasting, it is difficult to determine what information constitutes a signal, and what constitutes noise. In “Connecting the Dots: The Paradoxes of Intelligence Reform”, Malcolm Gladwell analyzes several high-profile “intelligence failures”, such as the Yom Kippur War, September 11th, Pearl Harbor, and the Bay of Pigs fiasco, as well as several psychological studies, and comes to the conclusion that: (1) there is no such thing as a perfect intelligence system - all systems require tradeoffs; (2) failures do not constitute the limitations of the intelligence community,
Counterintelligence (CI) is defined as, “information gathered and activities conducted to identify, deceive, exploit, disrupt, or protected against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassination conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations or persons, or their agents, or international terrorist organizations or activities. ” The citizenry of the United States on the U.S. Government is the focus of the examination of counter intelligence of citizenry on its national government. Data collected and research performed by James Riedel seeks to establish the citizens as a network of spies on the U.S. Government. The spying of citizens on the government is referred to as “espionage” . Counter Intelligence as acts of espionage committed by U.S. citizens is described by Riedel as short in duration and “poorly paid” .
In terms of government intelligence, in the information age greatest threats to privacy have been the result of technology and business practices related to e-commerce, marketing and information databases, and not the result of government intrusions (Hoffman, Novak & Peralta, 1997). Nevertheless “all things considered, the increasing and overlapping information sharing by governments and businesses about formerly confidential or private activities generates concerns about potential violations of individual’s privacy rights” (Mace, 2008 cited in Gal, Kantor & Lesk, 2008, p.41).
Daniel Bell (1973) coined the expression ‘the post-industrial society’. In this society a substantial proportion of the population are employed or involved in the work of information collection and communication. In this sense we can see that information has become a commodity which can have a value and is therefore marketable. It also can be seen as an indispensable component of our social fabric.