WhatFinger


Human intelligence, HUMINT, Criminals, Terrorists

Social media, the US intelligence community, and continued failures



After creating a Facebook “Fan Page,” I felt quasi-obligated to inform some present and former intelligence officer friends of mine about the new initiative. The page is strictly meant to serve as a national security platform without any political twist—true open source collection and analysis in one easy to find location. The blow-back received was incomprehensible.
For many years, when social media first came out, numerous organizations within the intelligence community quickly jumped on the bandwagon of “never go on social media” as if it were the boogie man or something. In some regards they are correct with their logic—hundreds, if not thousands, of real boogie men do prowl social media. That’s right. All walks of life enter the virtual world of social media and that includes criminals and terrorists. In fact, as many of us know, terrorist love to communicate through social media. So wouldn’t it make sense that intelligence officers started to get more involved in such virtual platforms? Many are and in fact, many organizations are pushing the issue to get more officers on such sites. Unfortunately, many still vehemently object. There are reports coming out about “bad guys” incorporating asymmetric tactics through the virtual world. I love a good fight and am a firm believer that in order to ensure peace exists in the United States, we must fight our battles abroad. Well, through the virtual world, similar options exist. However, we must first be in that world and whether we like it or not, we pretty much all are.

Support Canada Free Press


You see, the virtual world has blossomed over the years. Look at how many organizations allow persons to conduct business at home. How do those persons predominantly operate? You guessed it—through the virtual world. Shouldn’t that tell us something about where intelligence officers also need to operate? Things that can be achieved by a counter-intelligence officer (CI), through the virtual world (specifically through social media), becomes limitless. Simply “friending” a “special someone” and monitoring their posts has its advantages--and please, don’t take that as anyone necessarily spying either. If something is going on in Lebanon, yet I live far away from any Lebanese, how else could I get first-hand knowledge of the situation? This is called situational awareness (SA) and such awareness is the first necessity in being a decent intelligence officer. Look at the amount of reporting that has come out of places like Bahrain and Syria thanks to social media like Twitter. How many journalists actually get access to such atrocities these days? Through social media, the world just got a lot smaller and now we can allow persons with “boots on the ground” come to us with their stories. Talk about a virtual human intelligence (HUMINT) capability—ok, this is really construed as open source intelligence (OSINT) but you get the point. If US HUMINT is to remain virtually (no pun intended) abysmal due to an overwhelming risk adverse intelligence community, then wouldn’t entering the world of social media be the next best thing? So why do so many former and present intelligence officers oppose sites like Facebook? US intelligence has an absurd internal cultural crisis that must be overcome. Culture is one of the major persuaders in every human system and network—and the US intelligence community is a human network comprising of multiple systems. Culture is what conditions us with morals, values, and belief systems. There is a skewed belief system within the intelligence community that makes social media look demonic even though many intelligence professionals use social media outlets like LinkedIn—a bit hypocritical if you ask me considering Facebook and LinkedIn have similar capabilities and glitches. And still today, politicians on the left and right along with many intelligence officers believe issues exist when it comes to “sharing” intelligence. Really? Not if intelligence officers started embracing open source through the virtual world utilizing tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Never forget, if the bad guy wants to get you, they will. You can “harden” a target all you want but if you harden it too much, you’re living in a bubble with serious limitations to the world around you. The point is, if the world is to expand using technology and social media, we must except the risks involved. And, with every risk oftentimes comes a reward. So for those who appreciate national security insight and believe main stream media is failing us on the subject, please, feel free and join me on my new Facebook “Fan” page. You never know, maybe we can identify a terrorist trying to infiltrate us. Then again, maybe that terrorist is just an intelligence officer taking some advice hoping stay on top of things.


View Comments

Kerry Patton -- Bio and Archives

Kerry Patton, a combat disabled veteran, is the author of ‘Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies’ and the children’s book ‘American Patriotism’.


Sponsored