Data Collection: Human Intelligence (SIGINT)

Data collection is a method in which companies, businesses, and the government use to compile information on people, places, and things so as to get a better understanding of actions and habits. There are many data collection programs that that government uses to gather information on enemies, potential enemies, and even it’s own people. The US Government uses programs such as Human Intelligence (HUMINT) for collecting data on groups like ISIS. HUMINT is “any information that can be gathered from human sources” (CIA, 2010, para. 2). Another data collection technique use to collect on ISIS is Signals Intelligence (SIGINT). SIGINT is “derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radars,

This strategy “models the behavior of an individual or group by trying to replicate how an adversary would think about an issue” (p.31). Red cells enable analyst to create and look at a plane from the enemy’s point of view. This is extremely helpful to military commander when identifying gaps within their own defenses as well. This strategy works well for ISIS because it identifies gaps within the US own security, as well as identifying the most likely and most dangerous Courses of Action (COA’s) that the terror group may take. Without these COA’s that are derived from conducting red cell operations, analyst and military leaders alike would have a more difficult time identifying gaps and exploiting weaknesses.

The Gaps As any military leader would say, there are gap and weaknesses in every plane and in every country. It is crucial that the US fills these gaps in order to stop or mitigate an attack like 9/11 or the hypothetical attack briefed during the midterm from happening again. Below are three recommendations to close the gaps.

Recommendation #1: Biometrics &

After 9/11, with the creation of the IC, the information sharing did get better, however it is by no means perfect. There is hardly any intelligence collection taken from the local law and there is no system in place or area that stores all this data for easy access. There is a radical idea that would possible fix this in order to collect and share all information and intelligence. This idea involves a system that would be called the (Global Satellite Intelligence Community Program) GSICP. This satellite would house all of the intelligence collected from US assist all over the world and could be accessed by any member with proper clearance all over the world. The IC and local law would be mandated to send every bit of information gathered up to this satellite for processing. This satellite would have a program on it that would sort and process the information and file it in the correct area. If information from CA links to information from FL then the program would make a note on both files. An example of this is within the hypothetical attack. Say the CIA has SIGINT on the ISIS cell planning the attack and the FBI had HUMINT on the US citizen that is helping the terrorist. It is a safe assumption to say that neither know about each other intelligence. With the GSICP, all of this information