[IRCA] Open Source Center established

["Bob Foxworth" <rfoxwor1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Intelligence Center Created for Unclas.
Information"

The NY Times reports today (9 Nov.) in an
article by Scott Shane dated 8 Nov that
the government is creating the "Open Source
Center" to "gather and analyze information
from the Web, broadcasts, newspapers and
other unclassified sources around the world."

This is part of the intel restructuring being
done by the new DNI, John Negroponte, in
recognizing that "critical information...
requires neither spies nor satellites to
collect."

Not that one would remark, "what took them
so long?"

When I read this, I immediately thought of
our old buds at FBIS who have been around
now for literally decades. The article
then mentions that FBIS is being absorbed
into the new center.

Examples of "open source" given in the article
are such as sermons from radical mosques,
and reports in the Chinese provincial press
of avian flu outbreaks. The article stresses,
twice actually, that "such material has often
been undervalued by government policymakers,
in part because it lacks the cachet of
information gathered by more sensitive methods"

Open source then, by definition, is any intel
that could be gathered by an average person
using traditional methods (newspapers, radios).
All they need is the means to aggregate it,
store it and reduce it, and then start data-
mining and looking for associations.

Mark Lowenthal, former asst. director of CIA,
related a case in point when the India gov't
exploded a nuclear device in 1998 which caught
western analysts by surprise, based on their
use of "agents, eavesdropping and satellite
photos". All they would have to have done is
to read the published platform of the Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, which
stated that they would do so, if elected.

The role of FBIS has expanded beyond simple
broadcast monitoring and now covers study
of web sites, periodicals and cataloging of
slogans seen on T-shirts worn by young people
in target countries. Douglas Naquin, FBIS
director will assume command of the OSC,
which will be sited at Langley VA and
ultimately under control of Negroponte.
This will assure that output from OSC will
reach all 15 intel agencies and mil commands
and not just CIA as before.

-o-

Interesting that intel is given less value
when it is collected outside of channels,
or by "untrusted" means. I see a parallel
here with gathering of intel about radio
conditions, such as IBOC interference
reports, by "untrusted" observers (non-
credentialed DX listeners) which are then
given less credence, in the absence of any
reason not to.


- Bob





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