Partnering with the Military

This session is moderated by Mr. Ed Waller, ODNI.

The panelists:

• Charles Alsup, Associate Deputy Director for Customer Requirements, ODNI
• Rose LeVitre, Transformation of Analysis Support Team, ODNI
• James Noone, Chief, Defense Intelligence Open Source Program Office, DIA
• Christine McKeown, Director of Analytic Concepts and Strategies, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.

Ms. LeVitre says that if you want to be involved with partnering with the military, you need to get involved early, before a crisis. She says that national emphasis is not always on where events are happening. Al Qaida had an open source manual that taught methodology including paying attention to the comments and jokes of the regional people. She describes the need for Open Sources across the military disciplines. She discusses the Marine Corps use of Open Source Intelligence to gather cultural knowledge for missions ranging from Iraq to peace-keeping missions in the Philippines. She also mentions that the US Army has designated OSINT and a discipline, something that has not yet been done.

Ms. McKeown recognizes some pockets of excellence within the Defense Intelligence Community, including the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA). She mentions that there are also many new challenges, including how the new Africa Command will put new demands on the Defense Intelligence Community. Open Source has been treated in the past as a non-traditional source, but the definition of Open Sources is expanding, including polls, etc. The Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence is putting special emphasis on Open Source.

Mr. Noone mentions his top goals for Open Source.

• Build an Open Source network between DoD and the rest of the IC
• Build a collections requirement system for Open Source Intelligence
• Improve anonymization for analysts looking for Open Source
• Improve Open Source Training, emphasizing getting training out beyond the beltway
• Getting Open Source on the desktop. Many analysts had no access to the internet or shared with up to 30 analysts.
• Improve the role of librarians and knowledge professionals
• Dissemination of Open Source Intelligence
• Create and improve ties to academia
• Understand resources available (what is being spent and what should be spent)

Mr. Noone observed that in Open Source Intelligence, people actually want to share information. He has created a Defense Open Source Council, mirroring the National Open Source Council run by the ADDNI for Open Source. He announces the collections requirement tool, OSCAR (Open Source Collections And Requirements). He gives pockets of expertise, mentioning Camp Zama in Japan and the Foreign Military Studies Office in Ft Leavenworth. The Defense Intelligence Community is disseminating their information through opensource.gov, owned by the Open Source Center (formerly FBIS).

Mr. Alsup talks about the need to not only get the information to the customer (in this case the military) but to also get feedback from them as to whether the information is useful. He then shows a slide from Google Earth (Digital Globe) where a private group has done satellite imagery analysis of a Chinese Submarine base, from the base construction to identifying individual submarines. This sets off a collaborative process across multiple communities that lead to sophisticated conclusions. Open Source is clearly a valid source, sometimes the best sources and sometimes the only source. They are global, pervasive and persistent but also overwhelming. The challenges are that there is too much information, not enough tools, not enough training and a cultural bias.

Honorable Robert Simmons speaks

Robert Simmons, former enlisted and officer of the US Army and Army Reserve and former Congressman for Connecticut. Rob Simmons has been the strongest advocate of Open Source in Congress. He currently serves as Connecticut’s Official Business Advocate.

“Today is a great day for Open Source Intelligence!”

He started out in HUMINT and IMINT (GEOINT) and was introduced to Open Source as a discipline 20 years ago, using the Yale Library for research. Then computing power and the internet changed things. He worked with, then Sergeant, Eliot Jardines.

The fight to use Open Source has been going on for more than 20 years, but a few years ago a few things took place. We were attacked on 9/11 and the intelligence was wrong in the analysis of the WMD threat in Iraq. This was a failure of imagination. The IC could not imagine the threat that Osama Bin Laden and his group could be to the United States. The FAA assessed that hijacking a plane would be the last resort in 1999. A book, also in 1999, was published on Bin Laden, based on open sources. the book assessed that Bin Laden was not to be ignored and was the biggest ideological threat.

The 9/11 Report concluded that the IC was dead wrong and was not able to collect good information on Iraq’s WMD program. In both cases, Mr. Simmons believes, that solid and robust Open Source Intelligence could have prevented both those events from taking place.

He says that public and private partnerships are critically important. Must make it possible for academic scholars, the media and the business community to participate.

Ted Koppel

Ted Koppel

The industry of the Media, is very similar to the industry of the Intelligence Community. He says they also protect their sources and methods, one thing he said is “You need to know the motivation of the person providing the information”. He also spoke of how many people including political leaders are increasing using blogs and the internet to deliver their message versus traditional Media outlooks. When Ted started in the industry there was only three ways to reach the population, ABC, NBC, and CBS; now the ways are near limitless.

Ted Koppel job as a journalist is to provide the information, and make sure it is as accurate as possible. It is not his job to keep the information.

Good journalism is like good intelligence, it takes smart people to analyze the data and deliver the information in a means that is consumable. Raw video feeds and other real time information source simply by themselves are not journalism, thats technology, Ted explains.

Day 2: Special Presentation: Interview of Ted Koppel by David Shedd

After a brief introduction by Mr. Jardines, Ted Koppel, Managing Editor, Discovery Channel and former anchor of ABC News, is interviewed by Mr. David Shedd, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Policy, Plans, and Requirements, ODNI.

Mr. Jardines mentions that in order to continue the momentum gained by this conference is to repeat events like this as well as to engage others. “We are all responsible for carrying this momentum forward.”

In the introduction of the upcoming interview, he mentions that he flipped the tables, he thought it would be more interesting to have the spy interview the journalist.

Mr. Kopple mentions that when he started out there were three networks and if you wanted to reach the American people, that was how you had to do it. The time between when something was written and filmed and when it was aired was 2-3 days. You had to assume that things may have changed before you were able to get on the air. When he was embedded with the military in Iraq the time between filming and airing was only 2.5 seconds. He finds that we are expected to provide the information immediately. He thinks news has changed from what is most important to what is most recent.

Mr. Shedd mentions that bloggers are currently providing that instant information.

The discussion moves to evaluation of resources. The who, what and why (motivations, etc).

Mr. Koppel mentions the three types of government reaction to information: dictatorship, theocracy, democracy (capitolism). Once you determine the type of govt you can determine the motives. He mentions that journalist used to think they had a mission: to bring the most important thing to the American audience. Then came 60 minutes, which was the first news program to make money. Now what is driving the information is economics. Demographics drive the news today. A sponsor will pay more that 5 times for a show which will reach the 20-30 year old demographic than for a show that will reach the 50 year old demographic.

Because of the variaty of media outlets, world leaders can chosse the outlet that is most sympathetic to their point of view.

Mr. Shedd has noticed the dismissal of Open Source information in the Intelligence community and he is hoping that it will change.

Opens for questions.

Q: Asks about different angles on a story and bias amongst different news media.

Koppel: He says that the information needs to be assessed and triangulated. We tend to be naturally suspicious of information that comes to us too easy. We have to assess that that information supplier has an agenda. Everyone has an agenda. The first thing to do is try to figure out what the agenda is.

Q: How can there be a reconciliation between the press and IC over openess and leaks?

Koppel: The only safe way for him to deal with information is not to give much thought unless it has been demonstrated that the story would put lives at risk. By and large his assumption is that once he has identified the accuracy that his job is to publish it. No one knows what reactions to certain media will be, it is not predictable.

Q: Now that we can see conflict and war as it happens, how has it changed the American “stomach” to handle such crisis?

Koppel: Just because there is the ability to broadcast live, it is not good journalism. Good journalism requires analysis, context, editing and consideration.

Q: How do you assess the media’s ability to recruit and hire persons with the correct skills (linguist and cultural knowledge)?

Koppel: The media is having the same problem that the Intelligence Community is having (budgets, etc). In the past journalists required more experience. Journalists now don’t cover as much foreign policy because the demographics don’t demand it.

Q: Are we looking at the death of journalism?

Koppel: I don’t think so. I didn’t read the NYT at 15 every day or watch the television news. When I married and had children and has worries, I looked to the best sources I could find to help me with those problems. I think we are living in one of the most dangerous times and I think we are dealing with it in the most inept way I had every seen. When things get bad enough, elements of the American public will start looking for reliable sources of information, there will be some reliable blogs reaching audiences of a few thousand but there will also be reliable newspapers, etc. There will always be people in this country who want good, solid information. there is a lot of stuff we have to wade through to get to the good stuff.

My last word as a blogger: this was a terrific interview and I could not capture half of it. I would reccomend looking for this on video either on the DNI website or on CSPAN.

C-SPAN Coverage

C-SPAN is covering most every session, I don’t know if they are broadcasting live during the conference . Here are links I found.

• DNI’s Open Sources Conference – Academia Panel (rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter071607_dni_1.rm)
• DNI’s Open Source Conference – Media Panel (rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter071607_dni2.rm)
• DNI’s Open Source Conference – Panel Discussion on Latin America (rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter071607_dni3.rm)

[edit] WP not letting me link to rtsp://

Day One Wrap Up : DNI Open Source Conference “Expanding the Horizons”

I think today went very well. I attended the Open Source on the Web, Technology: Improving the Use of Open Source, and Regional Focus: Open Source in Latin America break-out sessions. When I arrived I wasn’t sure if I could get in. I didn’t pre-register, and I was told it was totally booked and there was basically a 300 person waiting list. Luckily Sabra Horne was able to get me in, and Ross Feinstein gave the go ahead. In all reality I rode in on Kirby’s and Dan’s coat tails. The Amphitheater has a capacity of 625, and was pretty much to the brim. I tried to attend The Need for Speed break-out session, but it was standing room only, coming out the door. There is definitely allot of interest in exploiting Open Source Information, to produce Intelligence.

Besides that I cruised the vendor exhibitions and picked up some cool swag from folks like Google, RedHat, Jane’s, Springer, Accenture, and BBN.

Douglas Naquin

Douglas Naquin, Director of the Open Source Center (OSC) gave the last speech on Growing Open Source.

Private Sector Sources of Information

Moderator: Joel Brenner, Director, National Counterterrorism Center, ODNI

Mr. Brenner emphasizes that the IC needs to get past the bias against unclassified information and the information glut is a huge business now. Privacy is also a major concern. The boundary between the public and private sector is disappearing, the world is speeding up. Businesses realize that getting their product to market quickly is essential in order to compete or chance becoming obsolete or pirated. If the intelligence community cannot get to the information quickly it will be unable to do it’s job.

He introduces the panel.

Jeffery R Smith, National Security Task Force Member, Markle Foundation, tells story about his introduction to secret intelligence and stolen materials – about a top level analyst who trusted media (specifically the New York Times) rather than the secret sources. He got the opinion that the CIA competed against the Times for the President’s attention. As he got further into the business he started to learn about the confidence factor (and lack of) in classified info. Much of the important intelligence may not be in govt hands at all and may be instead held in the private sector. The question is how to share info in the new era and share with the private sector (including protecting that info). He advocates not procurement but instead a sharing system that will allow the movement of info between trusted entities in the govt and private sector.

Warren Wright,Managing Partner, Government Division, Gallup, discusses the roles between the psychology of public opinion and subsequent events, such as social unrest.

Andrew Marshall, Chief Risk Officer for Business Intelligence, Kroll, Inc., has dealt most with business intelligence and investigations, which is a growing market. Predominantly, the private sector is looking at particular projects or problems with a short term identified and is outcome focused. Nearly always the info will be an integration from public sources (databases, media, etc) and human sources (interviews, etc). He says the bar to enter the markets has been lowered. The viability of the current information is in question which causes a predicament in delivering info to clients with confidence. The threats to the business are mounting: balance of risk and opportunity (business sees risk in new markets), technology (need to invest and integrate technology, costs and culture), getting the right people (recruiting the right balance of skills).

Frank J. Cilluffo, Director, Homeland Security Policy Institute, George Washington University, points out that intelligence is a means to an end and is not the end in itself. The predominant attitude pre-9/11 was, “When in doubt leave it out.” After 9/11 it seems to be “put everything and the kitchen sink in.” Open Source plays the most significant role in providing context, the mosaic..

Mr. Brenner Opens the session to questions.

Back online!

Well, after a multi-session glitch I am back. I apologize for whatever the glitch was that would not allow me to log onto the wireless network since before lunch. I have notes form a few other sessions that I will have to add later tonight.

Regional Focus: OS in Latin America

Agenda

Paulo Sotero talks about he area of expertise, Brazil. Brazil would like to have a permanent set in the Security Council.

Maria Velez de Berliner says “the internet is a borderless medium”. There is corruption, she said some examples, but basically everywhere. People in Latin America may not blow up bombs in the name of God, but they might do it for Money. She gets her best intelligence from the “boots on the ground”, not troops, but regular people living the life day in and day out. Instead of talking to the powers that be she said she talks to the people on the streets. [my note:Open Source is not just 'blogs', word on the street can be very useful]

Armand Peschard-Sverdrup is working hard on Mexico issues. “I have a passion for information, I have a passion for connecting the dots” Armand does not have a security clearance, or access to classified information, however he believes he has better information [intelligence] then those who do. In Mexico it is important to look the the local regional media, in both electronic and hard print. Radio is very important outlet (source) of information (? http://medialog.blogspot.com/ http://www.medialog.com.mx/ ?). Armand says that “both YouTube and Blogs are going to be able to dilute the [government run] media”.