Homeland Security

Intelligence and Homeland Security

Steven A. Bruner

American Military University

Progress Assignment

Introduction

The bulk meta-data collection is commonly used by counter-terrorism interventions and liberal democracies as a tactic of collecting data about the terrorist groups. This paper discusses the use of bulk meta-data collection technique in the fight against the Al Qaeda terrorist group. It focuses on the National Security Agency as a member of IC commonly used to collect intelligence on the Al Qaeda terrorist group. Finally, it discusses the most effective intelligence analysis strategies used in the collection of data on the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

Data Collection Program Used on Al Qaeda Terrorist Group

The use of Bulk Meta-Data

According to Shultz (2014), Meta-data is the information about data. In other words, it is the comprehensive assessment of the provided data to obtain relevant information from it. Metadata is helpful in counterterrorism as it enables the anti-terrorist agencies to easily read the data on the Al Qaeda terrorist groups from a machine. These machines are designed to understand different languages used by the terrorist group. However, analyzing such data can be intensive. But with the help of telephony meta-data, the machines can read and analyze so much about the lives of the terrorists from simple data. The machines can identify the most common people that the suspected terrorist talks to, their medical conditions, how often they order food and other small information that can ultimately lead the organization to the terrorist group.

According to Zenko (2016), some of the significant purposes of meta-data for counter-terrorism include email meta-data, telephony meta-data, internet history, and financial transactions. The internet meta-data assesses the information about receiver email addresses, sender email address and the IP address of the email service provider. The telephony meta-data provides the information on the numbers of the callers and the receivers, time of the calls and the duration of the calls. The internet history provides the information on the length of visit, URL address and the IP of the visitor who in this case is the suspect. Finally, the financial truncations provide the leads to finding the terrorist. For this information to be effective, it must be collected by the government agencies.

Collection of the Bulk Meta-Data

The data intelligence agencies must initially find signals. This signal is presented in the form of internet cables, fiber optic cables or telephone wires. The signal is then copied, taken out and filtered. The information that is set in the filters is then stored in the government servers. Once this data is sent to the servers, it becomes available to the intelligence analysts who can then collect and analyze it. This also implies that the information stored in business servers including Google and Facebook can easily be accessed by the government agencies through a warrant.

The collection of data related to the Al Qaeda group is based on target collection. The group gives a very specific target and therefore bulk meta-data may not be initially used (Waxman, 2015). Instead, the intelligence analysts use a continuum that goes from extremely targeted individuals to an indiscriminate collection of bulk meta-data. Using the Al Qaeda group as the discriminant makes the collection process an extremely target collection of bulk meta-data. In between this process of the discriminant of the all the information with the Al Qaeda group leader or the traveling data indicating the regions they have been visiting.

The Significance of Bulk Meta-data Collection

The significance of collecting bulk meta-data was discussed at length by the former government, led by the former US President Barrack Obama (Shultz, 2014). The team wanted to determine the probability of having other technical replacements to bulk data collection. The team found out that there were no other methods available for the collection of data on the terrorist groups.

The most essential use of meta-data collection is that it gives access to the historical information of the Al Qaeda group. For instance, when the United States Intelligence team discovers new target terrorists through snitches, the bulk collection of meta-data enables them to assess the huge amounts of information about the history and the activities of the target group regarding the terrorism. Without this method, the US intelligence can only rely on the present information about the Al Qaeda group and the possibility of future electronic communications done by the members of this group. And if the suspects send several emails without revealing the terrorist cell, the intelligence group cannot trace this information in their database. But if the meta-data is collected in greater part, these emails can reveal many other targets thereby enabling the government to pin down the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

Members of IC that Best Collect the Intelligence on Al Qaeda Terrorist Group

National Security Agency (NSA)

The NSA is the principal collector of bulk meta-data on the Al Qaeda terrorist group in the United States. The primary aim of the NSA is to collect, examine and to deal out the foreign intelligence information to the government (Zenko, 2016). Other agencies that perform the same function within the United States include SIGINT, CIA, and the HUMINT. But these organizations work closely with the NSA to obtain this information and analyze it for further use. These organizations use a program called the UPSTREAM that associates with telecommunication companies to determine the fiber cables coming from the suspected terrorist members. This enables the NSA to gain access to internet traffic as the primary IC organization and collect the relevant information on the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

According to Waxman (2015), since the revelation of the process of bulk collection of meta-data, many terrorist companies have ensured that their data or information does not cross that in the United States as the terrorists work with some members of the government in their countries. Still, there are interesting developments in this sector as research indicates that the United States is still challenging for the terrorists to avoid. Still, the NSA has a PRISM program that enables it to access the relevant information from the foremost consumer technologies servers from these countries. The most common technology consumer companies include Google, Apple, Skype, and Facebook. The companies that show malicious associations with the Al Qaeda terrorist groups are not permitted to disclose the backdoor development for the NSA to access the terrorist information. A backdoor, in this case, implies that the NSA can gain access into the servers of the terrorist groups.

The Most Effective Strategies Used by Intelligence Analysts

The intelligence community has a wide range of strategies that it uses to collect information on the Al Qaeda terrorist group. But it does not apply the social and behavioral sciences approaches used by other intelligence professions to solve analogous issues. The most effective strategies used by intelligence agencies, therefore, include the decision analysis, probability theory, qualitative analysis, and operations research (Shultz, 2014). Several other methods generally termed as structured analytic techniques have been used to overcome the biases that may occur during the collection of information on the Al Qaeda terrorist group. These methods have been included in the intelligence analysis in the Intelligence Community.

Apart from avoiding some biases in the intuition and judgment, the structured techniques improve the teamwork of the intelligence analyst team and also document the rationale behind the intelligence judgment (Waxman, 2015). The best of all these methods is the analysis of the competing hypotheses that creates a matrix about the terrorist groups. This method directly discourses the problems of the intelligent analysts by directing the intelligence analysts' attention to the data sets and hypotheses that bring down the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the collection of bulk meta-data as a tactic of the counter-terrorism is significant for the United States government to pin down the Al Qaeda terrorist group. The significance of this data is that the intelligence analysts can easily use it to trace the new targets through the algorithmic discovery of suspicious activities and through their connections with other targets in the record. This collection process is mainly conducted by the big intelligence institution such as the National Security Agency. But other companies have a complex set of cooperation between them. Still, there is no evidence that the bulk meta-data collection has resulted in the prosecution of the terrorists, as such, more research is needed to determine the effectiveness of this approach.

References

Shultz, R. H., Jr., & Beitler, R. M. (2014). Tactical deception and strategic surprise in Al-Qaida operations. Middle East Review of International Affairs, 8(2), 56–79.

Waxman, M. C. (2015). Police and national security: American local law enforcement and counterterrorism after 9/11. Journal of National Security Law & Policy, 3, 377–407.

Zenko, M. (2016). Intelligence estimates of nuclear terrorism. Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, 607(1), 87–102.