GG only - Open Source (3)

FEATURE

Date Posted: 11-Apr-2007

JANE'S INTELLIGENCE DIGEST - APRIL 13, 2007

US embraces open source intelligence

Since September 2001, the US intelligence community has undertaken a sustained effort to expand the use of open source intelligence (OSINT) the collection, processing and analysis of publicly available and unclassified information. This initiative has made US OSINT capabilities more robust, but several problems continue to impede the optimal exploitation of OSINT. Cultural, rather than technological, barriers remain the most significant obstacles and many analysts continue to undervalue unclassified sources of information.

Recent initiatives show progress

During the Cold War, the US intelligence community primarily relied on human intelligence (HUMINT), signal intelligence (SIGINT) and imagery intelligence (IMINT). At the time, OSINT was not highly valued and its sources were undeveloped. The CIA had established the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (FBIS) to collect and translate foreign open source intelligence information, but the service received minimal funding compared to more expensive covert collection activities. FBIS analysts assessed foreign newspapers, television broadcasts, training manuals, atlases and even T-shirt slogans and graffiti. More recently, internet websites, forums, blogs (a web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal), and chat rooms have become an especially important OSINT source.

The September 2001 terrorist attacks resulted in a major effort within the US intelligence community to use open source information more effectively. Subsequent investigations concluded that US analysts had overlooked evidence of the impending Al-Qaeda attack that had appeared in publicly available sources such as interviews and newspaper articles.

In the 2002 Congressional inquiry into the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, participants lamented that the intelligence community seemed disinclined to use open source material, even when it could have generated valuable insights. In its final report, issued in 2004, the 9/11 Commission advocated the creation of a new open source intelligence agency. Following this recommendation, section 1052 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 called on the new Director of National Intelligence to "establish an intelligence centre for the purpose of co-ordinating the collection, analysis, production, and dissemination of open source intelligence to elements of the intelligence community". The subsequent WMD Intelligence Commission made a more detailed recommendation to establish an OSINT agency within the CIA.

In November 2005, the first Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, announced the creation of such an Open Source Center (OSC). Testifying at Congressional hearings earlier this year, CIA Director Michael Hayden told the Senate Select Intelligence Committee that, after the center's formation, the CIA had continued to raise the status and visibility of OSC because the managers of the US intelligence community "recognise its unique and growing contributions to integrated collection and analysis".

The OSC has since become the main OSINT agency within the US intelligence community. By mid-2006, the OSC routinely monitored 300 jihadist websites, around 500 television stations and an even larger number of newspapers and radio broadcasts. OSC missions include filtering data, translating foreign languages, producing written and other products and collaborating with other agencies. In 2006, at least 30 of the daily briefs presented to President George W Bush included data derived from OSINT.

Although under CIA management, the OSC is charged with supplying OSINT to all 16 US intelligence agencies as well as other bodies within the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Homeland Security. In addition, the OSC strives to create an environment where OSINT collection takes place throughout the US government according to CIA standards and requirements. The OSC centrally purchases and filters data, thereby saving other agencies time and money. The centre is also a hub for developing OSINT training and techniques.

Problems remain

Critics complain that the OSC is underfunded and understaffed. They also worry that the US intelligence community continues to undervalue OSINT relative to classified information. In a report to accompany the Intelligence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2007, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence urged the US intelligence community to embrace open, as well as unconventional, information sources. The report cautioned that recent experience suggested "it will take a dramatic change in cultural philosophy to trust and use open source materials that were not collected or discovered by 'secret means'".

In December 2006, Hayden told a large assembly of agency employees that CIA management intended to give OSINT specialists equal standing with agents relying on covert sources of data, thereby perhaps unintentionally acknowledging that many US intelligence analysts and collectors continue to view OSINT experts as less than equal partners.

Concerns also arise about the OSC's ability to exploit internet-based information, especially potentially rich data available on the growing number of jihadist websites, which play an important role in recruiting and organising terrorist activities. The intelligence community has only recently modified its procedures to make it easier to recruit native Arabic speakers as analysts and grant them security clearances.

Some observers have advocated separating the OSC from the CIA to make it more independent. To counter concerns about its bureaucratic impartiality, OSC management strives to ensure that at least 25 per cent of its personnel are recruited from outside the CIA.

Recent innovations

Besides monitoring the internet, US intelligence analysts have sought to use new tools, especially wikis (a website that allows for collective authorship) and blogs, to store and manage information in innovative ways on its secure internal communication networks. Managers hope that wikis and blogs will make it easier for analysts to collaborate on issues that other analysts, typically working on related issues at different offices, might also be examining.

For example, the new 'Intellipedia' provides employees with a wiki of people, places, and issues that all cleared employees can access and edit. Intellipedia has 4,000 users and more than 30,000 pages of information, figures that suggested the value of this innovative form of collaboration. Members of the US intelligence community are also relying more on blogs. Analysts can now create their own blogs on classified networks to express their opinions and ask for assistance on projects and issues they are examining.

© 2007 Jane's Information Group