The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Over the years we have gone through perhaps ten different Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) “coordinators” for Open Source Intelligence (DIA), always with the same result–a flurry of motion, push-back (or passive aggressive refusal to provide thoughtful responses)–and then they move on. OSINT has consistently failed to attract the attention of the Director of DIA.
Below is our effort to help whoever was in the job (they are never memorable) in 2004.
This Foreword, the first one done by Congressman Rob Simmons of Connecticutt for any handbook or book in the larger Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) arena, would be revised and used for others publications, but in its time, in 2004, this was the first-ever deep high-level statement of both need and opportunity with respect to OSINT as a separate discipline.
Dr. Stephen Cambone was a fine Undersecetary of Defense for Intelligence (USD(I)) given the context he was in and the policy personalities he was dealing with. His most brilliant moment, for the public interest, came on 22 January 2004 when he spoke to the Security Affairs Support Association (SASA) about the need for universal coverage at the neighborhood level of granularity. When combined with Boyd Sutton's findings on the Challenge of Global Coverage (Frog Left), and the 9-11 Commission depiction of an independent Open Source Agency (OSA) on page 413 of its report (Frog Right), the stage is now set for the present USD(I) to finally get moving on this program with an Initial Operating Capability (IOC) of no less than $125 million a year, as has been agreed to by OMB principals and key staff on successive occasions.
The other two legs of the DoD OSINT stoolare below. Note that the 9-11 Commission did not have time to fully understand the OSA it was recommending; all serious practitioners have agreed that it cannot be within the secret intelligence world, but rather outside the wire, perhaps under joint Defense Intelligence (DIA) and Civil Affairs (CA) proponency, the first responsible for firehosing all OSINT to the high-side, building the bridge from Intelink-U to the SIPR Net; the second responsible for both ingesting all open source information from multinational partners including Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), and for multi-national information-sharing and sense-making at the unclassified level, all of which is both shared liberally without secret world constraints, and also feed immediately to the high-side for further explotation by all-source analysts with access to all available classified information.
DOC (8 Pages): Cambone Speech to SASA 22 Jan 04
The Netherlands, MajGen Patrick Cammaert, Royal Marines
IOP '06. MajGen Cammaert is recognized for his extraordinarily diplomatic and diligent furtherance of common sense and understanding at the highest levels of United Nations leadership, with respect to both the generic value of the process of intelligence to peacekeeping and conflict avoidance, and the specific value of open sources of information, including geospatial information, useful to the strategic mandate, the operational force composition, and the tactical campaign. As Military Advisor to the Secretary General from 2003-2005, and then as Force Commander of UN Forces in the Congo, he devised and began implementation of the regional United Nations Joint Military Analysis Centre (UN JMAC) program. His leadership with respect to a common standard of intelligence training for all UN civilian and uniformed personnel are likely to have a considerable impact on the future effectiveness of peacekeeping operations
Although the Brahimi Report (AF) and the efforts of Louise Frechette (CA) as Deputy Secretary General to achieve strategic decision-support coherence were both important, no single person has done more to help the United Nations understand that intelligence is not a “dirty word” but rather an essential tool relevant to the strategic level (getting the mandate right), the operational level (getting the force structure right), and the tactical level (being effective in multicultural environments). Below are his responses to questions, as presented on a video interview done in New York.
Jim Hardee was the senior civilian in the Joint Intelligence Center (JIC) of US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) during the 1990's, and was instrumental in ensuring that General Peter Schoomaker, then Commander-in-Chief of USSOCOM, received a briefing from Robert Steele in 1997, at which point General Schoomaker ordered the creation of the USSOCOM Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Branch, today still the only truly effective OSINT unit inthe US Government, with global reach across all languages and mediums. In our view, Mr. Hardee's contributions to the establishment of OSINT as a foundation for today's all-source analysis have not been properly recognized by his Command or his Government. He is one of a tiny handful of original pioneeers still standing and we hold him in the very highest regards. Below are the slides he used in introducing a panel on the application of OSINT to special force needs.
PLATINUM LIFETIME AWARD Mr. Ben Harrison, OSINT Pioneer
Mr. Ben Harrison is a master of both the military bureaucracy, and the global open source intelligence (OSINT) world. He has been a pioneer in all respects–helping the larger Department of Defense Community understand OSINT; creating innovative solutions for his own Command, the U.S. Special Operations Command; and helping teach otherss about the basics of OSINT. Within the U.S. Department of Defense, he is the tip of the spear for DoD OSINT.
The USSOCOM unit today answers 40% of all (ALL) Global War on Terror (GWOT) Essential Elements of Information (EEI) from all (ALL) Special Forces world-wide. The OSINT they produce is specific, timely, and actionable. Below is the low-key public presentation given by Ben Harrison at OSS -03. He cannot talk about the concept we pioneered in the late 1990's, Black OSINT, but he it is safe to say that he is the one person in the US Government that has achieved “dominance” on both White OSINT and Black OSINT.
Col Dr. Max Manwaring is one of America's greatest scholar-warriors and especially valuable to all of us for his understanding of gangs and other asymmetric froms of organization that are vastly more adatable, imaginative, and resources than any bureaucracy.
He has been among a handful of patriotic souls speaking truth to power about the urgency of getting a grip on emerging threats that are non-state in nature. Below is his presentation of the six generations of warfare–on a good day the US is lucky to get past fourth generation warfare, and completely unsuited–not trained, equipped, or organized–for generations five through seven (we added the seventh, see Graphics).
