The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
As with Greg Treverton, Dr. Richard Betts is among a handful of “in-house” scholars that enjoy easy access to the “lifers” in the US secret intelligence community, and especially the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its Directorate of Intelligence.
Below is his presentation to OSS '02.
PLATINUM Lifetime Award, Mr. Mats Bjore, Sweden
There is no other person who has created a national open source intelligence capability, with recognition from the Royal War Academy for doing so; then gone on to rationalize McKinsey knowledge management in the Nordic region, then created the foremost international commercial intelligence practice in InfoSphere AB, and concluded with the creation of Silobreaker, a combination of sources and tools that takes the information industry to a new level. Mats Bjore is the ultimate Long Range Reconnaissance Philosopher-Warrior.
Then Major Bjore came to the 1992 conference, absorbed all he could, and returned to Sweden to create the first military open source unit of consequence. He has been the originator and primary international practitioner of Commercial Intelligence, which is an order of magnitude more holistic, substantive, and profitable than Competitive Intelligence or worse, Business Intelligence (internal data mining). While OSS.Net, Inc. retains all rights to the sales phrase “Information costs money, Intelligence makes money,” Mats Bjore and InfoSphere have epitomized the concept in their being. He is also a principal in the creation of SILOBREAKER, follow the Frog to experience that free online analytic toolkit. Below is his contribution to OSS '02.
Along with Colin Gray, Steve Metz, and Max Manwaring, Martin van Creveld is among the intellectual giants of our era with respect to strategic reflection, and he stands alone at the intersection of strategy, logistics, technology, command & control, and the art of decision-making under conditions of great uncertainty.
His contribution to OSS '02 was created especially for this multinational group, and we believe it will stand the test of time as a seminal work for those who seek to transform intelligence from a bureaucracy that measures inputs to a cosmic force that determines outcomes favorable to all concerned.
Dr. Greg Fyffe, Executive Director, International Assessment Staff, Privy Council Office, is little known to the general public, but most respected by all who appreciation his apolitical balanced approach to the evaluation of conflicting sources and the presentation of actionalbe decision support to the Prime Minister of Canada and selected other Ministers. Below is his contribution to OSS '02.
The US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has always taken Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) more seriously than the rest of the government, and after General Peter Schoomaker, then Commander-in-Chief, USSOCOM, gave the order in 1997, to establish a separate branch in the Joint Intelligence Center (JIC) and integrate OSINT into all Special Operaitons Forces (SOF) schoolhouses, the program grew fast. Jim Hardee was the senior civilian in the JIC prior to 9/11, and it fell to him to help a series of officers move forward.
Today SOCOM JIC J-23 answers 40% of all Global War on Terror (GWOT) requirements from all SOF elements worldwide, for under $10 million dollars. There is not another element of the U.S. Government that is remotely as capable, or as cost efficient.
Below is the earliest briefing available to the public covering White OSINT.
Col Dr. Dan Henk, USAF is a classical scholar-warrior, and one of the finest observers and interpreters of African realities and all of their nuances that we have encountered. He is the prototypical “class act” and a role model for what every senior analyst should be—engrossed in the subject, fluent with the mediums, open-minded, versatile, adaptive, and coherent in the articulation of who and what matters why.
Below is the outline of his contribution to OSS '02. The actual briefings, constantly updated, are replete with extraordinary photographs that make his point in compelling ways. We've found no finer briefing on regional, religious, ethnic, and tribal nuances than this officer.
PLATINUM LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT, Dr. Ran Hock
Dr. Ran Hock has done more than any single individual to educate both government and private sector parties with respect to the value of the deep web. He has single-handedly trained hundreds of individuals in the nuances of this major new intelligence resource base. Emphasizing individual analytic skills and common sense rather than arcane expensive and generally unproductive technologies, he represents the intersection of integrity, intelligence, and intuition in the service of all legitimate governments and organizations.
Ran Hock, at our invitation, began a special course on how best to exploit the emerging world of online as well as offline sources, and it quickly became the highlight of the annual event as a pre-conference with the special added value of a new handbook being distributed each year. Click on his photograph to get to his commercial web site and on the Frog to get to his constantly updated online handbook on Internet Tools and Resources for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).
