Mrs. Mary Margaret Graham, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection
Mrs. Graham is introduced by Mr. Jardines.
Mrs. Graham states that everyone, all of the players (media, analysts,academics, etc) have a role in Open Source. She wants to know about the capabilities of Open Sources that may not have previously identified.
Open Source gives a viewpoint that is not secret. If we can do Open Source right, we will have a much better understanding of where to spend our classified resources. If we can get the answer from the data that is out there, why would we spend money on our classified resources? We don’t have that confidence as yet. How many requirements can we answer by open source? It is her gut feeling that we will be able to answer some of the questions using purely open sources.
She says in a perfect world the analyst will be able to log in to one network and look at open sources and classified intelligence at the same time.
She mentions that a large dollar amount has been spent on classified resources and that the funds will be lower in the future and this is why Open Source Intelligence will be so important. We will need to reserve the classified resources for things that can only be collected via secret means.
She tells an anecdote about WWII, where open sources were able to measure a shift in thinking by identifying language used in describing the death of soldiers in Germany. In 1941 the soldiers where described as having died for the Fuhrer, the people and the homeland, and in 1945 the obituaries described the soldiers as having died only for the homeland. What does this mean? That understanding is what Open Source Intelligence is about.
July 17, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Good job Kirby on this stuff, I was lacking today. But maybe later will write something up.
July 20, 2007 at 2:42 am
The thought of logging one one network to look at open and classified sources made me smile from ear to ear.