Intelligence Known As Disciplines example essay topic

The essential role of intelligence is not difficult to understand. It is to provide timely, relevant information to U.S. policymakers, decision makers, and war fighters. Accomplishing this mission involves tasking, collecting, processing, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence, commonly referred to as the intelligence cycle. There are many ways of collecting intelligence known as disciplines. The four categories of disciplines are as follows: HUMINT, SIGINT, IMINT, and MASINT. The different disciplines are not very useful if intelligence only comes from one resource, but when information is combined from two or more of these resources, one accurate conclusion can be identified.

The first category of intelligence is human source intelligence or HUMINT. This is the "cloak and dagger" of the intelligence community. Agents are sent out to gather information from human resources such as disgruntled employees, money-troubled patrons, or any person with something to hide. The problem with HUMINT is the sometimes-unreliable source.

A potentially serious quality-control problem arises from the possibility that an agent has been "doubled", or that he is secretly working for his supposed target and that the information he is providing to his supposed employer is intended to deceive. (Shulsky). This kind of situation is commonly reached when an agent is captured and a decision is reached to cooperate with the captors in order to avoid punishment. The next type of intelligence gathering resource is signals intelligence or SIGINT, which can be subdivided into three categories: Communications intelligence, telemetry intelligence, and electronic intelligence (Johnson). The SIGINT discipline is essentially information obtained from intercepted communications, radars, or data transmissions. One of the ways that communication has been deceived in the past was found in World War II.

In order to disguise communications during radio transmissions Native Americans from the same tribe where enlisted as radio operators. The Indians would speak their native language when the needing to discuss information about opposing Japanese or German forces making it nearly impossible to translate (AFN Pacific). Other types of SIGINT can be found in radar detection devices that allow an operator to know if his unit is being scanned as well as crypto logical devices placed on telephones and computers used for classified information. Another type of information gathering resource is imagery intelligence or IMINT, which is the use of space-based, aerial, and ground-based systems to take electro-optical, radar, or infrared images. These images of raw photographed data may not mean much to the layman, but an imagery interpreter will be able to depict, measure, and analyze information from a single image. Although a picture is worth a thousand words, there may not be enough information available unless there is a trained eye analyzing the information presented.

The imagery interpreter now assumes one of the most dangerous jobs of battle damage assessment. Without having to actually be at ground zero, the analyst can give intelligence about a target's operational capability after it has been bombarded. Imagery interpreters can also perform beach, bridge, highway, terrain, and helicopter landing zone studies without having to travel to the site location. The final discipline is measurement and signature intelligence, or MASINT, which is the collection of technically derived data that describes distinctive characteristics of a specific event such as a nuclear explosion. MASINT can provide specific weapon identifications, chemical compositions, and material content as well as a potential adversaries ability to employ such weapons (Staff Study). This type of intelligence is very new and little is known about its capabilities, but it must be recognized and will soon more than likely fall under the SIGINT discipline.

Once intelligence has been collected and analyzed by the area experts, the information is then reported to an all-source fusion center. At this center all the information from as many different sources is gathered, and a final analysis is made.

Bibliography

AFN Pacific. Narr. Unknown. Military Strategies. Okinawa, Japan. nd. Johnson, Loch. Secret Agencies. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
Shulsky, Abram, et al. Silent Warfare. 2nd ed. New York: Macmilillan Publishing Company, 1993.