The Pros And Cons Of Strategic Intelligence

I will be discussing the values strategic intelligence provides to national policy and decision makers and why it is necessary to cover all five components (SIGINT, HUMINT, IMINT, GEOINT, and OSINT) as an integrated study. I will be discussing each component individually and the positives and negatives of each. Then discussing why they all need to be looked at as one instead of individually.

The first component I will be discussing is SIGINT. Some positives are that is can be done from afar, it can be conducted with out a target knowing, and it is straight from the source. An example of be done from afar is when the aerial platform Guardrail is sent up to conduct aerial collection and the operator is miles away on a base and the collector

This specific INT plays a huge role if not the biggest role in the planning phase of any and all exercises. Knowing the heights of mountains allow you to better understand what type of equipment forces on the ground might need to bring, or what type of aerial platform will be better suited to collect at a specific altitude. Having the knowledge of ocean depths allows us to know what type of ship will best be in the specific area and on the flip side of that what type of ships foreign countries might have in the area. For example if we have a carrier in the ocean and we know its pretty deep then a foreign country might have a submarine in the area which that carrier should know just in case something might happen. I cannot think of any negatives that this INT has other than maybe human error can play in a much larger factor than anything else. A person misreads a scale or a map can lead to false readings and incorrect information, which leads to a bad mission or even, scratched

It can and is very biased depending on where the intelligence is coming from. For example if the intelligence is being pushed by a specific diplomatic party news cast then it will be worded to favor that party which can have false misleading intelligence. OSINT can be more than news cast it cover social media sites I can go onto some ones Facebook account and see who there family is, where they are from and are now, what there family looks like, who their friends are and where they go to school all of this is bad for that individual and very dangerous. OSINT is the most used by criminals to target women, children and potential houses to rob. It is also widely used by terrorist organizations to gain intelligence on individuals, companies and capabilities the United States might have. This is by far the biggest downfall to OSINT it is open for any and everyone to see leaving us very vulnerable to our