Reviews (Books & DVD) – Page 374 – Public Intelligence Blog

2000/04/072009/11/08

Review: Top Secret Intranet: How U.S. Intelligence Built Intelink – the World’s Largest, Most Secure Network

4 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret)

Good Efforts by Good People Buried in a Bunker,

April 7, 2000

Fredrick Thomas Martin

I was given this book at Hacker's (the MIT/Silicon Valley legal and largely very rich group, of which I am an elected member) by a NASA engineer, went to bed, could not get the book out of mind, got up, and read it through the night. If it were not for the fact that Intelink is largely useless to the rest of the world and soon to be displaced by my own and other “extranets”, this book would be triumphal. As it is, I consider it an extremely good baseline for understanding the good and the bad of how the U.S. Intelligence Community addresses the contradictions between needing access to open sources and emerging information technologies while maintaining its ultra-conservative views on maintaining very restricted access controls to everything and everyone within its domain. I have enormous regard for what these folks accomplished, and wish they had been able to do it openly, for a much larger “virtual intelligence community” willing and able to share information. For a spy, information shared is information lost-until they get over this, and learn that information not only increases in value with dissemination but is also a magnet for 100 pieces of information that would never have reached them otherwise, the U.S. Intelligence Community will continue to be starved for both information and connectivity….an SGML leper in an XML world.

2000/04/072009/11/08

Review: The Information Broker’s Handbook

4 Star, Intelligence (Commercial)

Solid Basic of Starting an Information Brokering Business,

April 7, 2000

Sue Rugge

In contrast to Mary Ellen's book, this book is actually for self-starters who are thinking about creating their own small business and covers such excellent basics as the market for information, what an information broker does, the pros and cons of the information business, and then the tools, followed by chapters on marketing, pricing, and project management. Although seven years old now, I still regard this as a good starting point for those who would understand the information brokering business (a small niche within the larger open source intelligence business).

2000/04/072009/11/08

Review: Cyberwar–Security, Strategy, and Conflict in the Information Age

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Information Operations, Strategy, War & Face of Battle

The First Good Collection on Cyber-war,

April 7, 2000

Alan D. Campen

This book is a very fine compilation, spanning a whole range of technical and non-technical aspects of information warfare, and including my own invited chapter on “Creating a Smart Nation: Information Strategy, Virtual Intelligence, and Information Warfare.” This is a basic text and those in charge of our information warfare segments today would do well to read it again and again because most of them are focusing on one tiny slice of the IW mission, hot bits.

2000/04/072009/11/08

Review: Cyberwar 2.0–Myths, Mysteries & Reality

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Information Operations

Round Two, USG Still Doesn't Get It,

April 7, 2000

Alan D. Campen

This sequel to the first book on cyberwar is even better (and the first one was very good) because it is much more deliberate about addressing strategy and diplomacy (part one); society, law, and commerce (part two); operations and information warfare (part three, where most military professionals get stuck); and intelligence, assessment, and modeling (part four). My chapter on “Information Peacekeeping, the Purest Form of War” appears here, but based on the lack of feedback I suspect all of the contributions in this section are a decade away from being understood with the U.S. Government.

2000/04/072009/11/08

Review: War in the Age of Intelligent Machines

3 Star, Information Operations, Information Technology, War & Face of Battle

Good Stuff for Graduate Students,

April 7, 2000

Manuel De Landa

A very early and largely academic-historical-philosophical discussion of the changing nature of the relationships between humans, computers, and war. Written prior to the Silicon Valley explosion, and thus still very concerned about the military dominance of information technology. A good alternative overview.

2000/04/072009/11/08

Review: Strategic Intelligence for American National Security: (Paperback with new afterword)

4 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret)

Still Valuable, Really Solid Basic Stuff,

April 7, 2000

Bruce D. Berkowitz

This is an even-tempered book, combining a good primer of the nature of the intelligence process with some analytically-oriented thoughts on needed improvements. Their appendix listing things that can go wrong at each step of the intelligence cycle is of lasting value, as is their glossary. Their forthcoming book, Best Truth: Intelligence in the Information Age (Yale, April 2000) will assuredly be a major contribution.

2000/04/072009/11/08

Review: Strategic Intelligence & Statecraft–Selected Essays (Brassey’s Intelligence and National Security Library)

5 Star, Diplomacy, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public)

Strategic, Cultural Intelligence, Knowledge Policy,

April 7, 2000

Adda B. Bozeman

While reading this book, every intelligence professional should feel like a bashful second-grader shuffling their feet while being kindly reprimanded by their teacher. This book, a collection of essays from the 1980's, is the only one I have ever found that truly grasps the strategic long-term importance of intelligence in the context of culture and general knowledge. The heart of the book is on page 177: “(There is a need) to recognize that just as the essence of knowledge is not as split up into academic disciplines as it is in our academic universe, so can intelligence not be set apart from statecraft and society, or subdivided into elements…such as analysis and estimates, counterintelligence, clandestine collection, covert action, and so forth. Rather, and as suggested earlier in this essay, intelligence is a scheme of things entire. And since it permeates thought and life throughout society, Western scholars must understand all aspects of a state's culture before they can assess statecraft and intelligence.” The 25-page introduction, at least, should be read by every intelligence professional.