Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence (abbreviated int. or intel.) is information valued for its currency and relevance rather than its detail or accuracy —in contrast with data which typically refers to precise or particular information, or fact, which typically refers to verified information. Sometimes called "active data" or "active intelligence", these typically regard current plans, decisions, and actions of peoples, as these may have urgency or are otherwise valuable from the point of view of the intelligence-gathering organization. Active intelligence is treated as a constantly mutable component, or variable, within a larger equasion of understanding the secret, covert, or otherwise private "intelligence" of an opponent, or competitor, to answer questions or obtain advance warning of events and movements deemed to be important or otherwise relevant.

As used by intelligence agencies and related services, "intelligence" refers integrally to both active data as well as the process and the result of gathering and analyzing such information, as these together form a cohesive network (cf. "hive mind"). In a sense, this usage of "intelligence" at the national level may be somewhat associated with the concept of a localized social intelligence, as the organization itself may have some limited resemblance to the workings of a virtual or collective mind —albeit one which is tied to nationalist tradition, politics, law, and the enforcement therof.

Process

Information collected can be difficult to obtain or altogether secret material gained through espionage ("closed sources"), or it can be banal and widely available, such as newspaper articles or Internet postings ("open sources"). Traditionally, intelligence involves all-source collection, storage and indexing of data, usually in multiple languages, in the expectation that some small portion will later prove important. Intelligence findings or "product" and the sources and methods used to obtain them (tradecraft) are often highly classified and sometimes compartmentalized, and intelligence officers need top level security clearance.

Government intelligence is usually assigned to clandestine intelligence agencies, often with large, secret budgets. These use a variety of techniques to obtain information, ranging from secret agents (HUMINT) to communications intercepts (COMINT) to spy satellites (IMINT). See surveillance and list of intelligence gathering disciplines. Intelligence agencies often engage in clandestine activities beyond espionage such as political subversion, sabotage and assassination.
Military intelligence is an element of warfare which covers all aspects of gathering, analyzing, and making use of information over enemy forces and the ground. It involves spying, look-outs, high-tech surveillance equipment, and also secret agents.
Business intelligence denotes the public or secret information that an organization obtains about its competitors and markets. See also data warehousing.

Intelligence as used here, when done properly, serves a function for organizations similar to that which intelligence (trait) serves for individual humans and animals. Intelligence collection is often controversial and seen as a threat to privacy. While usually associated with warfare, intelligence can also be used to preserve peace.

Well-known national intelligence organizations

Canada

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)

Germany

Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND)

India

Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)
Intelligence Bureau (IB)

Israel

Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks (Mossad)

Pakistan

Russia

Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB, successor of KGB)
Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravlenie (GRU)

United Kingdom

United States

Air Force, Air Intelligence Agency (AIA)
Army, Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Coast Guard, Intelligence
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
Department of Energy, Office of Intelligence
Department of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence and Analysis
Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)
Department of the Treasury, Office of Intelligence and Analysis
Director of National Intelligence
Drug Enforcement Administration, Office of National Security Intelligence
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Marine Corps, Intelligence
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
National Security Agency (NSA)
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
Navy, Office of Naval Intelligence

Major publicly-accessible intelligence sources

Open Sources Center, select "Intelligence" section.
Bloomberg
CIA World Fact Book
credit rating agencies
Dow Jones
Internet search engines such as Google
LexisNexis
newspapers of record, such as the New York Times
private investigators
public libraries
Wikipedia

Reference

Surveys

Andrew, Christopher. For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush (1996)
Black, Ian. Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services (1992)
Bungert, Heike et al eds. Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (2003) essays by scholars
Kahn, David The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet (1996), 1200 pages
Lerner, K. Lee and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds. Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security (2003), 1100 pages. 850 articles, strongest on technology
O'Toole, George. Honorable Treachery: A History of U.S. Intelligence, Espionage, Covert Action from the American Revolution to the CIA (1991)
Owen, David. Hidden Secrets: A Complete History of Espionage and the Technology Used to Support It (2002), popular
Richelson, Jeffery T. A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (1997)
Richelson, Jeffery T. The U.S. Intelligence Community (4th ed. 1999)
West, Nigel. MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909-1945 (1983)
West, Nigel. Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain's Wartime Sabotage Organization (1992)
Wohlstetter, Roberta. Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (1962)

World War I

Beesly, Patrick. Room 40. (1982). Covers the breaking of German codes by RN intelligence, including the Turkish bribe, Zimmermann telegram, and failure at Jutland.
May, Ernest (ed.) Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessment before the Two World Wars (1984)
Tuchman, Barbara W. The Zimmermann Telegram (1966)

World War II: 1931-1945

Babington-Smith, Constance. Air Spy: The Story of Photo Intelligence in World War II (1957)
Hinsley, F. H. British Intelligence in the Second World War (1996) abridged version of multivolume official history.
Jones, R. V. The Wizard War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939-1945 (1978)
Kahn, David. Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (1978)
Kahn, David. Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939-1943 (1991)
Lewin, Ronald. The American Magic: Codes, Ciphers and the Defeat of Japan (1982)
May, Ernest (ed.) Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessment before the Two World Wars (1984)
Smith, Richard Harris. OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency (2005)
Stanley, Roy M. World War II Photo Intelligence (1981)
Wark, Wesley. The Ultimate Enemy: British Intelligence and Nazi Germany, 1933-1939 (1985)
Wark, Wesley K."Cryptographic Innocence: The Origins of Signals Intelligence in Canada in the Second World War", Journal of Contemporary History 22 (1987)

Cold War Era: 1945-1991

Aldrich, Richard J. The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (2002).
Ambrose, Stephen E. Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Intelligence Establishment (1981).
Andrew, Christopher and Vasili Mitrokhin. The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (1999)
Andrew, Christopher, and Oleg Gordievsky. KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev (1990).
Bogle, Lori, ed. Cold War Espionage and Spying (2001), essays by scholars
Dorril, Stephen. MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (2000).
Dziak, John J. Chekisty: A History of the KGB (1988)
Koehler, John O. Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police (1999)
Persico, Joseph. Casey: The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey-From the OSS to the CIA (1991)
Prados, John. Presidents' Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations Since World War II (1996)
Rositzke, Harry. The CIA's Secret Operations: Espionage, Counterespionage, and Covert Action (1988)
Trahair, Richard C. S. Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies and Secret Operations (2004), by an Australian scholar; contains excellent historiographical introduction
Weinstein, Allen, and Alexander Vassiliev. The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era (1999).

External Links

ISRIA, HTML, The Relations between the CIA and the Executive Power since 2001, February 5, 2006.
ISRIA, PDF, The Role of Open Sources in Intelligence, December 31, 2005.
Read Congressonal Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Intelligence issues
The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments by J. Ransom Clark, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Muskingum College

Espionage | Information | State security

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Intelligence (information gathering)