Search: The Future of OSINT [is M4IS2-Multinational]

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The future of OSINT is M4IS2.

The future of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is Multinational, Multifunctional, Multidisciplinary, Multidomain Information-Sharing & Sense-Making (M4IS2).

The following, subject to the approval of Executive and Congressional leadership, are suggested hueristics (rules of thumb):

Rule 1: All Open Source Information (OSIF) goes directly to the high side (multinational top secret) the instant it is received at any level by any civilian or military element responsive to global OSINT grid.  This includes all of the contextual agency and mission specific information from the civilian elements previously stove-piped or disgarded, not only within the US, but ultimately within all 90+ participating nations.

Rule 2: In return for Rule 1, the US IC agrees that the Department of State (and within DoD, Civil Affairs) is the proponent outside the wire, and the sharing of all OSIF originating outside the US IC is at the discretion of State/Civil Affairs without secret world caveat or constraint.  OSIF collected by US IC elements is NOT included in this warrant.

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Who’s Who in Public Intelligence: Jack Davis

Alpha A-D, Public Intelligence
Jack Davis
Jack Davis

PLATINUM LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Jack Davis

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.

http://duckduckgo.com/?q=Douglas+Johnson+faith+religion
Web Stack

Jack Davis remains the de facto Dean for Analytic Tradecraft of the US Intelligence Community.

1997 Davis A Compendium of Analytic Tradecraft Notes

2003 Davis (US) Analytic Paradoxes: Can Open Source Intelligence Help?

2002  Reference: Jack Davis Leadership in Intelligence Analysis (August 2002)

Sherman Kent Occasional Papers by Jack Davis

Improving CIA Analytic Performance: Strategic Warning

Improving CIA Analytic Performance: Analysts and the Policymaking Process

Improving CIA Analytic Performance: DI Analytic Priorities

Sherman Kent and the Profession of Intelligence Analysis

Strategic Warning: If Surprise is Inevitable, What Role for Analysis?

Tensions in Analyst-Policymaker Relations: Opinions, Facts, and Evidence

Sherman Kent’s Final Thoughts on Analyst-Policymaker Relations

Updated 4 March 2010

Review: Assessing the Tradecraft of Intelligence Analysis

3 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public)

TradecraftDisappointing, Some Value, October 22, 2008

Gregory F. Treverton

There are six (6) pages in this work that held my attention: pages 11-12 (Table 2.2 Analytic Concerns, by Frequency of Mention); page 14 (Figure 3.1, A Pyramid of Analytic Tasks); page 20 (Table 3.1, Wide Range of Analytical Tools and Skills Required); page 34 (Figure 5.1, Intelligence Analysis and Information Types), and page 35 (Table 5.1, Changing Tradecraft Characteristics). Print them off from the free PDF copy online (search for title).

My first review allotted two stars, on the second complete reading I decided that was a tad harsh because I *did* go through it twice, so I now raise it to three stars largely because pages 11-12 were interesting enough to warrant an hour of my time (see below). This work reinvents the wheel from 1986, 1988, 1992, etcetera, but the primary author is clearly ignorant of all that has happened before, and the senior author did not bother to bring him up to speed (I know Greg Treverton knows this stuff).

Among many other flaws, this light once over failed to do even the most cursory of either literature or unclassified agency publication (not even the party line rag, Studies in Intelligence). Any book on this topic that is clueless about Jack Davis and his collected memoranda on analytic tradecraft, or Diane Webb and her utterly brilliant definition of Computer Aided Tools for the Analysis of Science and Technology (CATALYST), is not worthy of being read by an all-source professional. I would also have expected Ruth Davis and Carol Dumaine to be mentioned here, but the lack of attribution is clearly a lack of awareness that I find very disturbing.

I looked over the bibliography carefully, and it confirmed my evaluation. This is another indication that RAND (a “think tank”) is getting very lazy and losing its analytic edge. In this day and age of online bibliography citation, the paucity of serious references in this work is troubling (I wax diplomatic).

Here are ten books–only one of mine (and all seven of mine are free online as well as at Amazon):

Informing Statecraft
Bombs, Bugs, Drugs, and Thugs: Intelligence and America's Quest for Security
Best Truth: Intelligence in the Information Age
Early Warning: Using Competitive Intelligence to Anticipate Market Shifts, Control Risk, and Create Powerful Strategies
The Art and Science of Business Intelligence Analysis (Advances in Applied Business Strategy,)
Analysis Without Paralysis: 10 Tools to Make Better Strategic Decisions
Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition
Lost Promise
Still Broken: A Recruit's Inside Account of Intelligence Failures, from Baghdad to the Pentagon
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption.

On the latter, look for “New Rules for the New Craft of Intelligence” that is free online as a separate document. Both Davis and Webb can be found online because I put them there in PDF form.

The one thing in this book that was useful, but badly presented, was the table of analyst concerns across nine issues that did not include tangible resources, multinational sense-making, or access to NSA OSINT.

Below is my “remix” of the table to put it into more useful form:

54% Quality of Intelligence
54% Tools of intelligence/analysis
43% Staffing
43% Intra-Community collaboration and data sharing
41% Collection Issues
38% Evaluation
32% Targeting Analysis
30% Value

Above are the categories with totals (first initial below connects to above). The top four validate the DNI's priorities and clearly need work.

32% T Targeting Analysis is important
30% V Redefine intelligence
30% Q Analysis too captive to current
30% To Directed R&D for analytic technology needed
27% T Targeting needs prioritization
27% S Analyst training important and insufficient
22% V Uniqueness
22% E PDB problematic as metric
22% To “Tools” of intelligence analysis are poor
22% To “Tools” limit analysis and limited by culture

The line items above are for me very significant. We still do priority based collection rather than gap-driven collection, something I raised on the FIRCAP and with Rick Shackleford in 1992. Our analysts (most of them less than 5 years in service) are clearly concerned about both a misdirection of collection and of analysis, and a lack of tools–this 22 years after Diane Webb identified the 18 needed functionalities and the Advanced Information Processing and Analysis Steering Group (AIPASG) found over 20 different *compartmented* projects, all with their own sweetheart vendor, trying to create “the” all-source fusion workstation.

19% C S&T underused, needs understanding
16% E Critical and needs improvement
14% E Assess performance qualitatively
14% Q Quality of analysis is a concern
14% Q Intelligence focus too narrow
14% S Language, culture, regional are big weaknesses
11% A Leadership
11% L Must be improved
11% Q Problem centric vice regional
11% Q Global coverage is important
11% C Open source critical, need new sources
11% I Lack of leadership and critical mass impair IC-wide
11% I IC information technology infrastructure needed
11% I Non-traditional source agencies need more input
8% V Unclear goals prevail
8% T Targetting analysis needs attn+
8% C Collection strategies/methods outdated
8% S Concern over lack of staff or surge capability
8% S Intelligence Community-wide curriculum desireable
8% I Should NOT pursue virtual wired network
8% I Security is a concern for virtual and sharing
5% E Evaluation not critical
5% Q Depth versus breadth an issue
5% Q Greater client context needed
5% C Law enforcement has high potential
5% S Analytic corps is highly trained better than ever
5% S Career track needs building
5% I Stovepiping is a problem, need more X-community
5% I Should pursue virtual organization and wired network
3% V Newsworthy not intelligence
3% L Radical transformation needed
3% E Metrics are not needed
3% E Evaluation is negative
3% E Audits are difficult
3% Q Long term shortfalls overstated
3% Q Global coverage too difficult
3% T Targeting can be left to collectors
3% C All source materially lacking
3% C Need to guard against evidence addiction
3% C Need to take into account “feedback”
3% S Should train stovepipe analysts not IC analysts
3% S Language and cultural a strength

For the rest, not now, but three at the bottom trouble me: the analysts do not have the appreciation for feedback; they do not understand how lacking they are in sources; and they don't know enough to realize that radical transformation is needed.

On balance, I found this book annoying, but two pages ultimately provocative.

Analysis Archives on Public Intelligence (1992-2006)

Analysis

2005

SE

Analysis Bjore Sample SILOBREAKER Slides

2005

US

Analysis OSS Menopause Memorandum

2003

US

Analysis Andregg Wisdom versus Intelligence

2003

US

Analysis Davis Analytic Paradoxes: Can OSINT Help?

2003

US

Analysis Medina 21st Century Analysis

2003

US

Analysis Moore Analytic Competencies

2002

US

Analysis Andregg Intelligence-Academia Relationship

1999

US

Analysis Hueur The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis

1999

US

Analysis Madison OSINT and Analysis (One Slide)

1999

US

Analysis Steele Future of Analysis (Two Slides)

1993

US

Analysis Whitney-Smith Analysis for Information Revolutions: Dynamic Analogy Analysis

1992

US

Analysis Shepard Intelligence Analysis in the Year 2002

1955

US

Analysis NA Discovering and Understanding Elites

2003 Davis (US) Analytic Paradoxes: Can Open Source Intelligence Help?

Analysis, Communities of Practice, Historic Contributions
Jack Davis
Jack Davis

PLATINUM Jack Davis, De Facto Dean of the U.S. Intelligence 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.

Clicking on the photo leads to a seminal essay by Jack Davis on Sherman Kent and the Analytic Craft.

Below are his origional reflections prepared for OSS '03.  At the Frog is a link to his unqiue collection of memoranda on Analytic Tradecraft.

Jack Davis
Jack Davis
Jack Davis Compendium of Analytic Tradecraft Notes
Jack Davis Compendium of Analytic Tradecraft Notes

2003 Medina (US) 21st Century Analysis–The Coming Revolution in Intelligence Analysis: What to do when the Traditional Model Fails

Analysis, Government, Historic Contributions
Interview with Carmen Medina
Interview with Carmen Medina

Carmen Median retired–her brilliance and innovative spirit surfaced at the top too late in the game.  She is, however, like General Peter Schoomaker, USA (Ret), one of those bright lights that in our view should be brought back in to manage a global multinational information sharing and sense-making grid.  She is not forgotten, and we hold her in the very highest esteem.

Below is the presentation she made to OSS '03, and a link to the article in Studies in Intelligence that remains, along with everything written by Jack Davis, seminal.

Carmen Medina
Carmen Medina
Carmen Medina What to Do When Traditional Models Fail
Carmen Medina What to Do When Traditional Models Fail

2000 PRIMER on Open Sources & Methods

Methods & Process, OSINT Generic

2000

SE

Training Bjore PRIMER: How InfoSphere Uses the Internet

2000

US

Training CSM PRIMER: Top Secret Kodak Moments in Space

2000

US

Training David PRIMER: Intelligence Analysis in a New Century

2000

US

Training Davis PRIMER: Compendium of Analytic Tradecraft Notes

2000

NL

Training Farace PRIMER: Gray Literature 2: Finding the Not Easily Found

2000

US

Training Klein PRIMER: Gray Literature 1: Finding the Needle in the Haystack

2000

US

Training Lanza PRIMER: Beyond the Internet (Slides)

2000

US

Training Lanza PRIMER: Beyond the Internet (Text)

2000

US

Training Rodriguez PRIMER: Briefing on DIALOG

2000

US

Training Rodriguez PRIMER: Chart Comparing DIALOG to Internet (At the Time)

2000

US

Training Sacks PRIMER: Primary Research

2000

US

Training Sandman PRIMER  Applied Human Intelligence

2000

US

Training Snowden PRIMER: Geospatial Intelligence Options

2000

US

Training Soule & Ryan PRIMER: Gray Literature 3: Technical Briefing

2000

US

Training Steele PRIMER: A Few Thoughts on the Internet (At the Time)

2000

US

Training Webb & Steele PRIMER: Integrated Analytic Toolkit Requirements