Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: CIA Tracks Public Information For The Private Eye

  1. #1
    Council Member AdamG's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Hiding from the Dreaded Burrito Gang
    Posts
    3,096

    Default CIA Tracks Public Information For The Private Eye

    Secrets: the currency of spies around the world. The rise of social media, hash-tags, forums, blogs and online news sites has revealed a new kind of secret — those hiding in plain sight. The CIA calls all this information "open source" material, and it's changing the way America's top spy agency does business.

    NPR recently got a rare behind-the-scenes look at the CIA's Open Source Center. It operates on the down-low, even though they deal with public material. We aren't allowed to tell you where the Open Source Center is. All we can say is that it's housed in an unmarked and unremarkable office building just off a nondescript, busy street.
    http://www.npr.org/2012/01/22/145587...he-private-eye
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


    http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg

  2. #2

  3. #3
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Boston, MA
    Posts
    903

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
    My, how unsurprisingly interesting...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Days_of_the_Condor
    Funny story about that, the KGB ended up creating a 2000 person OSINT department because of that movie. Apparently a couple of KGB generals had a screening of the film in the 1970’s and became convinced that they had fallen behind CIA in Condor-type analysis.
    “[S]omething in his tone now reminded her of his explanations of asymmetric warfare, a topic in which he had a keen and abiding interest. She remembered him telling her how terrorism was almost exclusively about branding, but only slightly less so about the psychology of lotteries…” - Zero History, William Gibson

  4. #4
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Estonia
    Posts
    3,817

    Default Cheaper, faster, not always reliable

    Back in the day, DIA would gain far more hard evidence and get it for nothing.

    Open sources to some were a mixed blessing with little to no knowledge of the local culture and language. For some of us those sources were either a joke or the missing piece to the puzzle.

    25 years later someone comes up with a basement full of newspapers

    Most of the AID and State message traffic (5 copies of each) ended up as french fry paper right across the street from the embassy

    I'm really glad I shredded everything with our evac and draw down.
    If you want to blend in, take the bus

  5. #5
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    1,457

    Default

    Note to NPR: The CIA hasn't been "America's top spy agency" since 2004 and the Open Source Center isn't the only game in town....
    Supporting "time-limited, scope limited military actions" for 20 years.

  6. #6
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default

    The capacity of the state to watch over us all has appeared on SWC before in:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=11855

    A similar discussion took place recently on Schneier's blog, in a comment "Going Dark" vs. a "Golden Age of Surveillance":http://www.schneier.com/blog/archive...dark_vs_a.html

    I'm not an avid drawer of demarcation lines, except using 'open source' in this context is stretching the boundaries too far. In my reading on 'open source' intelligence a few years ago the key definition was published and in the public domain. Much of the data in watching the citizen is acquired 24/7 by primarily private companies, e.g. credit card companies and made available under various legal and not so legal methods - it is not published.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 01-22-2012 at 10:18 PM.
    davidbfpo

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 20
    Last Post: 05-08-2012, 01:15 AM
  2. Public Affairs and Information Operations
    By SWJED in forum Media, Information & Cyber Warriors
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 12-31-2008, 06:58 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •