1993 Talking Points for the Director of Central Intelligence

Correspondence, Memoranda
DCI Talking Points
DCI Talking Points

This was faxed to John Deutch when he was DCI.  It probably made it to his desk only to be dismissed as it was not from anyone remotely associated with power or money.  This was the beginning of our realization, articulated in 1997 for the US Institute for Peace, that those with power know too little, and those with knowledge have no power.

Since then we have also determined that too many senior executives in both government and business leave the sorting of incoming mail to interns and the lowest paid receptionist–there is no “intelligence” at the front end of the enterprise that can identify and flag “weak signals.”

Even when writing to the top 2000 people in America across roughly 15 segments, we discovered that even the most sensible attempt to engage, absent a “hook” that is already entrenched, tends to fail.

DOC (9 Pages): 1993 Steele Fax to DCI John Deutch

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1993 On Defense & Intelligence–The Grand Vision

About the Idea, Articles & Chapters, Briefings & Lectures
Senate in France 1993
Senate in France 1993

In 1993 the Prime Minister of France was furious with his intelligence community.  His direct aide for intelligence was Col Louis Dilais, a former chief of the Americas branch in French military intelligence.  He put Open Source Intelligence on the agenda for a special conference in the French Senate, with the other major speakers being Admiral Lacoste and General Heinrich.

Below is an English version of the presentation but as adapted for OSS 1993.

OSS 1993 Vision
OSS 1993 Vision

1993 Alvin Toffler, “The Future of the Spy” in War & Anti-War

About the Idea
Chapter 17: "The Future of the Spy"
Chapter 17: “The Future of the Spy”

PDF (17 Pages): 1993 Toffler Chapter The Future of the Spy

Alvin Toffler was stuggling with a chapter tentative focused on the future of knowledge, when TASC executives sent him a copy of the Proceedings from OSS 1992.  He read-in, interviewed Robert Steele by telephone, and this chapter was born, built around five pages sub-titled “The Rival Store.”

Many years later, reading about the throw-away camara in a book about innovation, the similarity between the throw-away camara, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and the reactions of the high-end camara shops (the secret technical collection world) are so similar as to be worthy of note.

The high-end camara shops refused to sell the throw-away camara.  It went to grocery stores instead, and promptly captured the 90% of the market that could not afford high-end camaras.

Similiarly, OSINT has “captured” 90 countries, most of which do not have the money for expensive technical collection systems and the processing capacity that is also needed.    And so it came to pass…..