 Relevant
Information:
A
New Approach To
Collection, Sharing And Analysis
Robert D.
Steele, bear@oss.net
 The entire
report is available for download in Adobe Portable Document
Format (.PDF). An Adobe Acrobat reader is
available for downloading to view the report.
Purpose
Doctrinal
Fit
Abstract
About
the Author
Acknowledgement
of Contributing Authorities
Overview
General
Problem Description
General
Challenges
Specific
Assumptions
Source
DeficienciesDeficiencies
Staff
Functionality Deficiencies
Emerging
SolutionsSolutions
Implementation
Issues
Conclusions
Recommendations
Endnotes
Purpose
The purpose of this White Paper is to
bring forward for discussion four major
gaps in our present approach to the
substance of Information Superiority and
to present several emerging solutions and
related implementation issues. The paper
concludes with recommendations for action
to include changes to joint doctrine.
Doctrinal
Fit
Existing doctrine identifies Information
Superiority as a key element of
success. Information Superiority is
comprised of Information Operations
(active measures to affect adversary
information while protecting one's own), Relevant
Information, and Information
Systems. The doctrinal definition of information
fusion acknowledges that no one
capability exists to meet the commander's
needs for fusion, while the doctrinal
definitions of information gathering
and information requirements
acknowledge the value of information
acquired from international and
non-governmental organizations while not
addressing the existence of commercial
fee-for-service sources. Intelligence
doctrine includes open source
intelligence1 as one of
seven types of intelligence, but does not
acknowledge the nature and value of
fee-for-service commercial open sources.
This paper proposes enhancements to
existing doctrine in order to provide for
information collection, sharing and
analysis capabilities that are needed but
do not exist.
Abstract
Today's decision-maker, from the
President and the Secretary of Defense
down to the most junior commander, lacks
both a focused collection capability for
obtaining all Relevant Information, and a
reliable "all-source" analysis
system able to fuse secret and non-secret
sources into distilled, reliable and
timely "intelligence."2
The current staff process for any
decision-maker relies almost completely
on a stream of "free" inputs
received from counter-part bureaucracies,
international organizations, and private
sector parties pursuing their own
agendas. At the same time, the narrowly
focused secret or restricted steam of
information is often afforded direct
access to the decision-maker without
being subject to in-depth staff scrutiny
and proper integration with unclassified
official and external information.
Functionally today's staff process lacks
the organization, knowledge and funding
necessary to methodically obtain
information from specific international
and other non-governmental organizations
or to manage the collection of original
information from external sources.
Over-arching both these limitations,
there is no top-level Relevant
Information analysis staff organization
that is able to provide the
decision-maker with filtered, fused and
analyzed "all-source"
decision-support. Three distinct
communities are developing partial
solutions for each of three major problem
areas: the International
Organization/Non-Governmental
Organization community; the private
sector; and the U.S. military. Although
now in isolation for one another, there
is an immediate and low-cost opportunity
for bringing the pieces together in order
to create an integrated concept, doctrine
and organization for managing the
collection, sharing and analysis of
Relevant Information.
About the Author
Mr. Robert D. Steele, is CEO of
OSS Inc., founded in 1992. Since then, he
has managed open source intelligence
training events for over 5,000 officers
from over 40 countries. In the course of
a twenty-year national and defense
intelligence career, Mr. Steele has
fulfilled infantry command & staff,
clandestine, covert action and technical
collection duties, been responsible for
programming funds for overhead
reconnaissance capabilities, managed an
offensive counterintelligence program,
initiated an advanced information
technology project and been the senior
civilian responsible for founding a new
national intelligence production
facility. Mr. Steele has been twice named
to the Microtimes 100 list of
"industry leaders and unsung heroes
who...helped create the future" and
is featured in the chapter on "The
Future of the Spy" in Alvin and
Heidi Toffler's WAR AND ANTI-WAR:
Survival at the Dawn of the 21st
Century, among other publications. bear@oss.net
Acknowledgement of Contributing
Authorities
Dr. Mich E. Kabay, CISSP is
Director of Education for ICSA, Inc., the
Security Assurance firm that certifies
security systems such as anti-virus
tools, firewalls, commercial cryptography
and biometric authentication. He has been
a programmer since 1965 and involved in
information security since 1980. mkabay@compuserve.com
Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, is
President of OSS USA and Director of
Production for all OSS Groups. Dr.
Lowenthal is the former Staff Director of
the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence (104th Congress),
a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State for Intelligence (Functional
Analysis), and former Senior Specialist
in U.S. Foreign Policy in the
Congressional Research Service. lion@oss.net
Col Earl L. Madison, III serves
as the Joint Analysis Support Program
Manager on the staff of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff (J-8). He has commanded the 10th
Signal Battalion; served as a Military
Satellite Communications staff officer in
J-6S on the Joint Staff; been Operations
Officer and then Executive Officer of the
4th Infantry Division's 124th
Signal Battalion; served as a military
advisor in El Salvador; instructed at the
Army Logistics Management College;
commanded C Company, 9th
Signal Battalion while assigned to the 9th
Infantry Division; and held various other
command and staff assignments. He is a
graduate of West Point, the Naval
Postgraduate School, and the Air War
College. earl.madison@js.pentagon.mil
LtCol Ian Wing is currently the
Chief of the Defence Force Scholarship
Fellow at the Australian Defence Studies
Centre in Canberra. His previous postings
have included the 3rd Battalion
(Parachute) Royal Australian Regiment,
the Joint Intelligence Organisation, the
US Army Intelligence Center, Headquarters
6th Brigade, the Special Air Service
Regiment, the Directorate of Officer
Career Management and the Defence
Intelligence Organisation. His most
recent appointment was Acting Director of
the Joint Intelligence Staff during which
time he represented Defence Intelligence
on the Olympic Games Intelligence Working
Group. He is completing his Ph.D. in
advanced concepts of war. i-wing@adfa.edu.au
The author is also indebted to Mr.
Steve Barneyback BarneybS@jwfc.js.mil
for his precision-targeted guidance on
getting it right in terms of existing
doctrinal art, and to the individual
participants in PacIntel '99 whose
accomplishments made this paper possible.
The electronic version of the Proceedings
for PacIntel '99 is available at http://www.oss.net/PacIntel99.
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