The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
This is the 1995 overview of the Community Open Source Program Office (COSPO) and ends with very specific strategic goals, all as briefed to OSS '95. At the Frog is a link to a variation of this briefing.
2006 PLATINUM LIFETIME AWARD Dr. Joseph Markowitz
Dr. Joseph Markowitz is without question the most qualified Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) pioneer in the ranks of those presently in or retired from U.S. government service. As the only real chief of the Community Open Source Program Office (COSPO) he tried valiently to nurture a program being systematically undermined by both the leadership and the traditional broadcast monitoring service. When he moved on to advise the Defense Science Board, he served America well by helping them fully integrate the need for both defense open source information collection and exploitation, and defense information sharing with non-governmental organizations. His persistent yet diplomatic efforts merit our greatest regard. 
Ralph Peters is the only author other than Will Durant to have his own shelf in the OSS/EIN/PBI library. He can anger, infuriate, provoke and sometimes even drive insane those who are impatient with controversy. We hold him in the highest regard as one who consistently speaks truth to power. See the reviews of his many books.
Below is his speech to the Open Source Intelligence Lunch Club on 12 September 1995, as included in the Proceedings of that year's conference.
Lori Schnittker, along with Steve Edwards at Scotland Yard, Frans Mulschlegel at EUROPOL, and Ivian Smith at the FBI, did all they could to press forward with the exploitation of open sources in support of criminal intelligence. Steve Edwards had the most success–Scotland Yard not only cuts it counter-terrorism and arms trade costs in half, they increased by 100-fold the amount of ill-gotten gains they could confiscate after conviction (spies don't do real estate and yatchs).
To the left, Lori's text (if anyone knows Lori, I'd love to replace this with an updated photo). Below, the slides. Lori is one of the pioneers.
Ivian Smith, just prior to going to Little Rock during a Clinton Administration, was the top FBI executive for dealing with CIA on open source intelligence and related matters. His critique of both CIA and FBI is devastating–and this was in 1995, long before the litany of errors that allowed 9-11 to happen came to light. His book is less about spies and more about local, state, and federal political corruption as well as FBI incompetency, and highly recommended. The government is a beneficiary of public intelligence, NOT a source of public intelligence. We're on our own.
A year prior to its appearance in Government Information Quarterly, the concept of a “Smart Nation” was presented at OSS '95. In 1994 the concept was presented in person to over ten governments around the world, Singapore was the only one to “get it.”
GOLDEN CANDLE AWARD: CONGRESSMAN ROB SIMMONS (R-CT-02)
IOP '06. To Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02), who, as a pioneer in the 1990’s, won his first Golden Candle as a Lieutenant Colonel commanding an open source unit, later officially recognized as the “Best Small Unit in the US Army Reserve. As a Congressman, elected in 2000, he has been diligent and faithful to the Republic in pressing for open source intelligence (OSINT) reform across both the defense and the homeland security communities. There is no more influential champion for public intelligence and open source information exploitation serving the U.S. Government today.
Below is the paper Rob Simmons, as gentle and intelligent a Member as we have ever encountered, wrote in 1995 as a Major in the Post Graduate Intelligence Program.
