Intelligence collection

Intelligence collection is a crucial and complex process of obtaining or gathering intelligence information on state/ non-state actors that are deemed as a threat to our country’s national security. Credible intelligence collected through different means are then used by intelligence analysts to make assessments on current and future threats and create different courses of actions.

There are two categories of intelligence disciplines: Technical/ non-literal and Literal intelligence. “Non-literal usually requires expertise in special processing and exploitation in order for analysts to make use of it…In literal collection, they must rely on translators. For non-literal, they must rely on the processor or the exploiter’s judgment,” (Clark 2013, 48).

With human intelligence as a literal intelligence, the information can easily be interpreted in many different ways. There are guidelines with every discipline, of course, but intelligence in the form of words can be manipulated by both the source and the recipient. This will clearly depend on the credibility or association of the source and how long they’ve been providing the IC intelligence and what their motives are. Imagery intelligence, which is technical, has a more straightforward interpretation and analysts are formally trained and qualified to analyze and call out orders of battle, for example. Analysis will also depend on the technical assets used to collect the image, i.e. theater vs. national imagery or medium vs. high-altitude.

It is important to classify the different ways we collect intelligence as it gives us an idea of how likely one type of intelligence will be collected and how it will be prioritized and done in a timely manner. For example, a tactical image will probably take more time to be collected depending on how high it is on the priority list compared to collecting open source intelligence which can be done any time as long as an analyst has the proper tools and access to the internet.

Source: 

Clark, R. M. (2013). Perspectives on Intelligence Collection – Afio. Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Retrieved September 8, 2022, from https://www.afio.com/publications/CLARK%20Pages%20from%20AFIO_INTEL_FALLWINTER2013_Vol20_No2.pdf

POST 2_ (J. Collett) _____________________________________________________________________

The most significant difference you will see with all the different intelligence collections is they fall between two categories. One of the categories is considered nonliteral. The author of “perspectives on intelligence collection,” the term nonliteral means “usually requires expertise in special processing and exploitation for analysts to make use of it.” (Robert 2013, 47). In civilian terms, this means that the information collected will have to go to the second set of eyes or ears to be broken down into valuable intelligence to be used for exploitation against the enemy or target set. The other category of the collection is known as Literal. The classification literal for collections means the absolute opposite of nonliteral. Also, according to Robert M Clarks’s article, “literal information is the form that we use for everyday communication. Analysts understand how literal intelligence is collected and used. It requires no special exploitation” (Robert 2013, 47). He is stating that it means exactly how it sounds. Everyday communication to include speaking language or if it is HUMINT  it could be a source. This type of collection also has Open source, which means it’s out for everyone to see. These two categories help us sort out all the collection disciplines and help us better digest them.

Taxonomy or classification is another way that we can help customers with their intelligence gaps and questions. This way, we ensure we get them the correct information using the proper collection method or strategies so we do not lead them astray. Liza Krizan states, “In the private sector, some processing activities are analogous to the government. We interpret and annotate open-source information for a business intelligence service marking locations of interest on a map “(Krizan 1999, 25). For this problem set, we would use open source, which falls in the literal category, instead of IMINT, which falls in the nonliteral for this problem group. By using the taxonomy or classifications, I can help my customer. Using open source would also drive what strategies we would use to get the correct collection. Since they are asking for open source, we would have a variety of things to use, including the internet or maybe even Facebook, to see the most popular area that people are checking in. We could develop all this info depending on the taxonomy that was brought to us. It’s essential to have the collection taxonomy because it helps us figure out what we will use to get the customer what they need. You’re not going to bring a knife to a gunfight. Dependent on who you are using the intelligence for, be it cooperation or a target package, you must know which taxonomy to use.

In conclusion, we went over the differences between the intelligence collection categories and how we must know the difference between them and what disciplines fall underneath them so we may better satisfy our customer’s intelligence collection needs.

Works Cited:

Clark, Robert. “Perspectives on Intelligence Collection .” Journal of U.S. Intelligence 20, no. 2 (2013): 47-53.

Krizan, Liza. Rep. INTELLIGENCE ESSENTIALS FOR EVERYONE. Washington, DC: Joint Military Intelligence College, 1999.