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View Full Version : 2 Questions: Do You Write An Intelligence Blog and What's Your Favorite?



JeffC
11-17-2007, 02:56 PM
If you write an IB blog, what is it? What's your favorite Intelligence-oriented blog or newsletter? I write IntelFusion (http://www.intelfusion.net), and enjoy reading The Spy Who Billed Me (http://www.thespywhobilledme.com), Haft of the Spear (http://haftofthespear.com/), ThreatsWatch (http://threatswatch.org/), and while its not a blog, NightWatch (John McCreary's newsletter).

SteveMetz
11-17-2007, 03:13 PM
If you write an IB blog, what is it? What's your favorite Intelligence-oriented blog or newsletter? I write IntelFusion (http://www.intelfusion.net), and enjoy reading The Spy Who Billed Me (http://www.thespywhobilledme.com), Haft of the Spear (http://haftofthespear.com/), ThreatsWatch (http://threatswatch.org/), and while its not a blog, NightWatch (John McCreary's newsletter).

I write a blog but no one ever associates the word "intelligence" with it.

JeffC
11-17-2007, 04:02 PM
I write a blog but no one ever associates the word "intelligence" with it.

Ah, so it's a "covert" blog then. Very good! :cool:

SteveMetz
11-17-2007, 04:06 PM
Ah, so it's a "covert" blog then. Very good! :cool:

No, it's just dumb.

Stan
11-17-2007, 04:21 PM
No, it's just dumb.

Steve, I've been by several times and most give me a double take. It's not covert or at all dumb.

I'm currently scanning your latest (http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=790) while on evening shifts :)

selil
11-17-2007, 04:45 PM
No, it's just dumb.

if yours is dumb mine is dumber....? But I do have a few cool things (http://www.selil.com/web/slideshows/195X_Spark_Plug_Derby/default.htm) on it.

Jedburgh
11-17-2007, 05:04 PM
If you write an IB blog, what is it? What's your favorite Intelligence-oriented blog or newsletter? I write IntelFusion (http://www.intelfusion.net), and enjoy reading The Spy Who Billed Me (http://www.thespywhobilledme.com), Haft of the Spear (http://haftofthespear.com/), ThreatsWatch (http://threatswatch.org/), and while its not a blog, NightWatch (John McCreary's newsletter).
I do not consider ThreatsWatch to be an "intelligence" blog - although I keep up with it, I consider it a poor second to Bill Roggio's The Long War Journal. Pat Lang's Sic Semper Tyrannis (http://turcopolier.typepad.com/) isn't bad, but still not truly "intelligence-oriented".

And although The Spy Who Billed Med and Haft of the Spear may be considered "intelligence-oriented", they aren't as much "intelligence" blogs as is Kent's Imperative (http://kentsimperative.blogspot.com/), which I prefer.

Stan
11-17-2007, 05:53 PM
if yours is dumb mine is dumber....? But I do have a few cool things (http://www.selil.com/web/slideshows/195X_Spark_Plug_Derby/default.htm) on it.

Sam, you've once again cheated by adding biker pics and chicks :p

BTW, I applied for an account at your place in order to respond to you posts, and have yet to hear back :mad: Was that in effect a subliminal message :confused:

Regards, Stan

Jedburgh
11-17-2007, 06:24 PM
....you've once again cheated by adding biker pics and chicks....
.....for a decent blog discussing issues similar/related to what we talk about here and on the SWJ blog - but that throws in a completely unrelated picture of a naked woman (or women) with each entry - look at Swedish Meatballs Confidential (http://swedemeat.blogspot.com/).

SteveMetz
11-17-2007, 06:29 PM
.....for a decent blog discussing issues similar/related to what we talk about here and on the SWJ blog - but that throws in a completely unrelated picture of a naked woman (or women) with each entry - look at Swedish Meatballs Confidential (http://swedemeat.blogspot.com/).

OMG! I just looked at the most recent entry there. Sheila Jager, who works for me, would NOT appreciate the picture accompanying the entry.

Stan
11-17-2007, 07:16 PM
.....for a decent blog discussing issues similar/related to what we talk about here and on the SWJ blog - but that throws in a completely unrelated picture of a naked woman (or women) with each entry - look at Swedish Meatballs Confidential (http://swedemeat.blogspot.com/).

I barely made it to Tuesday, November 06, 2007 :eek:


From a new article by Robert N. Charette in IEEE Spectrum, Open-Source Warfare:

To understand open-source warfare, it's instructive to revisit Eric S. Raymond's 1997 manifesto, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, in which he describes how a large community of open-source software hackers created the operating system Linux.


Such visual aides in an otherwise training environment are...well...hmmm

JeffC
11-17-2007, 07:47 PM
.....for a decent blog discussing issues similar/related to what we talk about here and on the SWJ blog - but that throws in a completely unrelated picture of a naked woman (or women) with each entry - look at Swedish Meatballs Confidential (http://swedemeat.blogspot.com/).

Ha ha! Interesting dichotomy. I just subscribed!

JeffC
11-17-2007, 07:51 PM
Steve, I've been by several times and most give me a double take. It's not covert or at all dumb.

I'm currently scanning your latest (http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=790) while on evening shifts :)

I see Steve's book but not his blog. What's the URL?

JeffC
11-17-2007, 08:00 PM
I do not consider ThreatsWatch to be an "intelligence" blog - although I keep up with it, I consider it a poor second to Bill Roggio's The Long War Journal. Pat Lang's Sic Semper Tyrannis (http://turcopolier.typepad.com/) isn't bad, but still not truly "intelligence-oriented".

And although The Spy Who Billed Med and Haft of the Spear may be considered "intelligence-oriented", they aren't as much "intelligence" blogs as is Kent's Imperative (http://kentsimperative.blogspot.com/), which I prefer.

Wow, Kent's Imperative is in a class of its own. There's no author info. What are his credentials, do you know?

historyguy99
11-17-2007, 08:00 PM
That's okay,:D A hat-tip to Stan for linking Steve's book. Very helpful to us newbies to this site.

P.S. To Steve, I just read it, great insight!:cool:

selil
11-17-2007, 09:08 PM
Sam, you've once again cheated by adding biker pics and chicks :p

BTW, I applied for an account at your place in order to respond to you posts, and have yet to hear back :mad: Was that in effect a subliminal message :confused:

Regards, Stan


Dang Stan you were ok to post with day 1.

Stan
11-17-2007, 09:42 PM
Dang Stan you were ok to post with day 1.

Well (in your defense), I applied under another 'call sign' in keeping with the traditions of Secret Squirrel :cool:

I'll give it another shot in the AM (on duty and beat).

JamesM
11-18-2007, 05:58 AM
Intel Dump is not just strictly intel but a good read >> http://www.intel-dump.com/

M1
11-18-2007, 08:23 AM
Interesting thread - and thanks for all mention (SMC), both favorable and less so. An interesting offshoot to this thread might be crappy self-proclaimed IBs.


OMG! I just looked at the most recent entry there. Sheila Jager, who works for me, would NOT appreciate the picture accompanying the entry.

We'd love to pull a dissonance dissipating pic-SWAP at SMC for that particular post if a decent surrogate pic can be suggestedby other. Just remember, vice is a slippery slope so be ye careful with thoust placating suggestions unto us.;)

Several of our/my fav IB's have already been mentioned here. Off the beaten path, and perhaps not quite a blog, is SAAG (http://www.saag.org/)

Stan
11-18-2007, 10:32 AM
Greetings, M1 !


Interesting thread - and thanks for all mention (SMC), both favorable and less so. An interesting offshoot to this thread might be crappy self-proclaimed IBs.

We'd love to pull a dissonance dissipating pic-SWAP at SMC for that particular post if a decent surrogate pic can be suggestedby other. Just remember, vice is a slippery slope so be ye careful with thoust placating suggestions unto us.;)

Several of our/my fav IB's have already been mentioned here. Off the beaten path, and perhaps not quite a blog, is SAAG (http://www.saag.org/)

Although I'm just across the 'pond' I had yet to notice your site (Ted typically finds folks like you much faster :cool:).

If you make to Estonia we'll have to get together and sample beers and discuss new pics for you site :p

Welcome aboard and regards, Stan

SteveMetz
11-18-2007, 01:16 PM
Interesting thread - and thanks for all mention (SMC), both favorable and less so. An interesting offshoot to this thread might be crappy self-proclaimed IBs.



We'd love to pull a dissonance dissipating pic-SWAP at SMC for that particular post if a decent surrogate pic can be suggestedby other. Just remember, vice is a slippery slope so be ye careful with thoust placating suggestions unto us.;)

Several of our/my fav IB's have already been mentioned here. Off the beaten path, and perhaps not quite a blog, is SAAG (http://www.saag.org/)

Sheila told me she is taking flak from some of her fellow anthropologists over the monograph. The same old "blah blah" about being a "sell out." I really find that group of that profession nauseating. They have elected to make themselves irrelevant by adopting an old, tired, discredited leftist ideology, then they throw tantrums like a three year old because the world recognizes their irrelevance and pays no attention to them.

Not that I'm angry or anything!

Jedburgh
11-18-2007, 02:02 PM
Intel Dump is not just strictly intel but a good read >> http://www.intel-dump.com/
Again, not an "intelligence" blog, oriented or focused. Another example of a blog using a title that is not reflective of its actual content is JIOX-Intelligence Tradecraft and Analysis (http://jiox.blogspot.com). Plenty of useful links, not much commentary, and absolutely nothing to do with the lable chosen - aside from all the external links.

It may seem petty, but the frequent and common misuse of the term intelligence is a pet peeve of mine. Just because someone throws together a bunch of articles, commentary and links related to various aspects of the COE does not make it "intelligence". Cutting and pasting news articles is not equivalent to producing OSINT. There are hundreds of those types of sites out there - the vast majority are truly amateurish crap - and a few do a really worthwhile job of finding a specific focus, producing well-crafted entries with useful links, as well as putting together a decent presentation of the blog itself. Many of the good ones have been mentioned here. None of'em are "intelligence". Commentary and opinion is not analysis.

Of course, there are plenty of members of the newly emergent community of so-called "intelligence analysts" at DHS and the Bureau (as well as at state/local level) who are guilty of exactly the same thing, but with pretenses of being professional members of the IC. They cut and paste open source articles into a bulletin, add a generic statement or paragraph about potential threat and maintaining vigilance yadda yadda, and then tack on FOUO/LES and distro the thing. In most cases, they are of a far lower quality than a blog entry in one of the better blogs that have been mentioned in this thread. Hell, there was a recent joint DHS-FBI bulletin whose sole source was a Debka article. Those "analysts" should have been fired on the spot.

selil
11-18-2007, 03:16 PM
It may seem petty, but the frequent and common misuse of the term intelligence is a pet peeve of mine. Just because someone throws together a bunch of articles, commentary and links related to various aspects of the COE does not make it "intelligence".

So, how do you feel about Treverton's book "Reshaping National Intelligence for an Age of Information?

JeffC
11-18-2007, 04:31 PM
It may seem petty, but the frequent and common misuse of the term intelligence is a pet peeve of mine. Just because someone throws together a bunch of articles, commentary and links related to various aspects of the COE does not make it "intelligence". Cutting and pasting news articles is not equivalent to producing OSINT. There are hundreds of those types of sites out there - the vast majority are truly amateurish crap - and a few do a really worthwhile job of finding a specific focus, producing well-crafted entries with useful links, as well as putting together a decent presentation of the blog itself. Many of the good ones have been mentioned here. None of'em are "intelligence". Commentary and opinion is not analysis.


I guess this is partly my fault. I asked about "Intelligence blogs" without defining what I mean't. I didn't mean blogs that generate analysis ONLY. I also mean't blogs that discuss news and issues related to the IC. IntelFusion isn't an analysis blog, for example, but I do cover data fusion issues faced by the IC. Besides, collection and collaboration can also be legitimate aspects of an "Intelligence" blog, while analysis can be completely excluded. I would include all of those under the general umbrella of "Intelligence" blogs. I think that blogs that focus on generating analysis would be a specific subset of that.

SteveMetz
11-18-2007, 04:47 PM
I guess this is partly my fault. I asked about "Intelligence blogs" without defining what I mean't. I didn't mean blogs that generate analysis ONLY. I also mean't blogs that discuss news and issues related to the IC. IntelFusion isn't an analysis blog, for example, but I do cover data fusion issues faced by the IC. Besides, collection and collaboration can also be legitimate aspects of an "Intelligence" blog, while analysis can be completely excluded. I would include all of those under the general umbrella of "Intelligence" blogs. I think that blogs that focus on generating analysis would be a specific subset of that.

While it's not a blog, what about oss.net (http://www.oss.net/extra/tools/parser/index.cgi?url=/html/parse/index.html)?

M1
11-18-2007, 07:35 PM
Greetings, M1 !



Although I'm just across the 'pond'

Thanks Stan. Ya beat me to the punch on the invite. Was going to suggest the same thing to you when I saw that your profile had you shacked up in Estonia. Last time I was in Sweden a month ago I headed over to Riga for a few days. Decided then to make Estonia my next excursion when back in Sweden...which i now am for a few more weeks.


Sheila told me she is taking flak from some of her fellow anthropologists over the monograph. The same old "blah blah" about being a "sell out." I really find that group of that profession nauseating. They have elected to make themselves irrelevant by adopting an old, tired, discredited leftist ideology, then they throw tantrums like a three year old because the world recognizes their irrelevance and pays no attention to them.

Not that I'm angry or anything!

Naw, you don't sound too angry, or reactionary at that, at all, Sir Steve.