The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Maurice Botbol was among the first professional observers to notice the conflict between the secret intelligence world's view of open sources as “Open Sores,” and the competing view of open sources as both complementary and often sufficient. Below is his presentation to OSS '97. His most trenchant observations are regretably not included in the document. Click on his photo to reach his publishing company.
PLATINUM Jack Davis, Virtual Dean of US All-Source Analytic Corps
For over three decades, Jack Davis has been the heir to Sherman Kent and the mentor to all those who would strive to be the world’s most effective all-source intelligence analysts. As a Central Intelligence Agency analyst and educator, he combines intellect, integrity, insight, and an insatiable appetite for interaction with all manner of individuals regardless of rank and disposition. He is the most able pioneer of “analytic tradecraft,” the best proponent for the value of human analysis over technical processing, and one of those very special individuals who helped define the end of 20th Century centralized analysis and the beginning of 21st Century distributed multinational multiagency analysis.
Note: Awarded in advance of IOP '07 to celebrate Jack Davis' 50th uninterrupted year as an all-source analyst and mentor to all analysts.
The Compendium is 45 pages in all and consists of a Foreword, Summary, and then ten Notes to Analysts:
Note 1: Addressing US Interests in DI Assessments
Note 2: Access and Crediblity
Note 3: Articulation of Assumptions
Note 4: Outlook
Note 5: Facts and Sourcing
Note 6: Analytic Expertise
Note 7: Effective Summary
Note 8: Implementation Analysis
Note 9: Conclusions
Note 10: Tradecraft and Counterintelligence
In 1995 the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) took and interest in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and c arried out a survey that to the best of our knowledge, was blocked, side-stepped, and generally not respected by the U.S. Intelligence Community generally and the Department of Defense (DoD) specifically.
Click on the below JPEG to read two pages summarizing what OSS CEO said to them.
Doug Engelbart invented the mouse, hypertext, and other foundational elements for what we have today in the way of cyberspace communications. He received $10,000 from the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) for his mouse patent. They sold it to Logitech for $80,000, and of course today there are billions of the little suckers generating perpetual revenue. He remains devoted to achieving the Holy Grail: enabling the human species to fulfil its role as Earth sense-maker and cosmic force. Below is the presentation he made to OSS '94.
Jan Herring, as National Intelligence Officer (NIO) for Science & Technology (S&T) at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), tried in the 1970's to adddress the “severe deficiencies” in access to open sources of information. Historically, it has been the S&T analysts that understood the availability and value of open source information in all languages. He failed within government, but did not give up. He went into the private sector and created the Academy of Competitive Intelligence (click on his photograph to learn more) with Ben Gilad and Leonard Fuld, two of the half dozen “top guns” in the English-seaking competitive intelligence community world-wide. If Stevan Dedijer is the father of business intelligence (qua decision-support), then Jan Herring is surely the father of business intelligence in the USA, and a global pioneer in training people to use unclassified analytic sources and methods of inestimable value to any group.
Unlike most, Jan Herring also understand the vital relevance of intelligence to the devleopment of strategy. Below is one of his seminal papers on this topic. See also his short paper on Business Intelligence.
This is the seminal work in what the author has long named “information mapping.” Posted as a public service with permission of the author, under Creative Commons license. No commercial exploitation is permitted without documented consent of the author.
Book intended to be read two pages at a time. The author suggests printing by the chapter, and then reading with even pages to the left and odd pages to the right, two pages at a time.
Visit the author's HOME PAGE.
